The 1993 film Cool Runnings depicts a Jamaican bobsleigh team’s effort to get to the 1988 Winter Olympics and, appropriately enough, a team of college girls from Taupō heading to Hong Kong to play sevens will be using the film as a fundraiser.
While the girls aren’t taking on a whole new sport, there a few parallels with the film such as some never having been in a plane before let alone out of Aotearoa, says team manager Rose Prisk.
The movie night on June 29 at the Great Lake Centre during the Taupō Winter Festival featuring Paw Patrol, Jumanji, Transformers and Cool Runnings is just one of the activities to raise money for the trip at the end of September.
The Taupō Girls Rugby Team, including 11 students from Taupō-nui-a-Tia College and one from Lakeland Learning, will play several individual teams in Hong Kong, home of the famous HSBC sevens tournament, on their Total Sports Tours-arranged trip.
The sevens connection was one strong drawcard for choosing Hong Kong, said Prisk.
“And we wanted a cultural difference, so the girls actually experience a completely different culture that they have no idea about. It's not going to be like going to Aussie or something like that… Japan would have been amazing, but it was just too much to head there.”
The impetus to travel in search of competition began last year, she said, when three different teams visited to play the girls – two 15 a-side teams from Canada (who they “absolutely smashed”) and a sevens team from Australia (who “smoked” the girls).
“The girls were like ‘we could go and travel overseas and do this.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, we could. We could do this.’”
A sevens team, which means a squad of 12, was more manageable in terms of commitment, said Prisk, than 15s. They will be accompanied by her, her husband Josh the coach, and three parents.
The trip should be a real eye-opener for the girls, Prisk said, the trip of a lifetime, including being in Hong Kong for Hong Kong Day.
“Apparently, it's a real cool festival with lots of fireworks… It's really great to have experiences like these for the kids. We're a small town and you see lots of other larger schools with rugby academies going on trips overseas and doing these kind of tours… and there's no reason why we can't. We just have to put in the effort.”
Which she said they had been, including running Tiny Blacks – a six-week programme on Saturday mornings for three- to six-year-olds – as a fundraiser.
As well as the film idea.
“The girls thought that as we don't have a movie theatre in town it would be a good chance for people to head to the movies during the school holidays.”
Tickets can be purchased online through Trybooking, children $11 adults $16.
https://www.trybooking.com/nz/XNF Paw Patrol
https://www.trybooking.com/nz/XNC Jumanji
https://www.trybooking.com/nz/XND Transformers
https://www.trybooking.com/nz/XNE Cool Runnings
