After two long years of waiting, New Zealand Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools’ (NZAIMS) games finally took place.

NZAIMS games is the biggest sporting competition for 11, 12, and 13 year olds with over 11,000 competitors. This is an annual competition held in Tauranga but unfortunately for the past 2 years it has been cancelled due to COVID #19.

This year, Newlands Intermediate sent two cross country teams and our top year 8 netball team, Kauri.

NZAIMS was more than a competition! It was an experience! NZAIMS games were so much fun, and we all learnt new things every day. We didn’t just play netball, we made new friends, learnt new skills, and made so many new memories with our team. Getting back to the motel was great too, being able to take a nice warm shower after our long day and getting to eat a yummy dinner.

To start off strong, Kauri (the netball team) won their first game. We had 3 games per day and our latest game was at 6 pm. It was a great experience to have been able to play under the lights on our late game plus we won against the other team. Out of the 12 games, Kauri won 5 of their games and came 52nd out of 110 teams. This was a real challenge for Kauri because of all the good teams they were put against. Henderson Intermediate from Auckland won the competition after their win against Maidstone. Our Northern Suburbs teams supported each other as often as we could. Raoroa Intermediate supported us and we supported them.

By the end of the week, we became stronger together, and our team definitely improved.

Thank you Whaea Lena and Megan for coaching and preparing us for NZAIMS, and thank you to Miss Mills for helping us. We are so grateful to everyone who supported along the way.

Thank you all so much.