John McGlashan and Columba College combined kapa haka "Te Tira Haere o te Hāhi" competes for the first time ever in the regional kapa haka competition.
Pūkana, whētero, te ihi te wehi te wana! It was all go at the 2025 Te Hautonga event held at the Edgar Centre on Sunday 15th of June.
Our John McGlashan and Columba College combined kapa haka have been preparing for this competition for the last term and have put in nearly 100 hours of practice time. This is an auditioned kapa haka which involved learning a 30 minute bracket. This is about twice the length. of a Polyfest bracket.
The Hautonga competition is particularly special because it only comes around every two years. The next time students will be able to compete is in 2027 in Invercargill.
The group performed excellently and received much praise and excellent feedback from the panel of 20 judges. We are incredibly proud of what they have achieved, especially for a first time in this competition which is known for its level of difficulty.
There are so many people who have been a part of this special journey. Neihana Matiu, our lead tutor, who has spent all day every Sunday and many of his lunch times during the week for the last 7 weeks away from his whānau working with us. Ripeka Pōtiki and Megan Pōtiki who created our whakaeke and worked alongside the Columba girls every week. Bruce James our second guitarist. Mr Milne for writing the music for the waiata tira. James Adams' for his singing help. Matua Price our superb tutor and guitarist, Matua Beazley, Whaea Andrews...the list goes on. You have all made this daunting opportunity possible and helped our students learn and grow in this space. E rere atua ana te mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. We can't wait for 2027, the work has already begun - watch this space!
The kapa would also like to send a special thank you to the PFA who funded new male piupiu for the event. We had hoped to have all the boys in the new piupiu but unfortunately a bad harakeke crop meant that we only had a few for the event. The rest will be debuted at Polyfest later this year.
For those that didn't get to see the competition you can now watch it by following this link. The kapa haka will be back up onstage in Term 3 week 8 for Polyfest.
The kapa haka rehearses every Thursday morning at 8.00am-8.50 and some lunchtimes/after school rehearsals leading up to important events. We have about 40 boys in our all-comers group and starting in Term 3 will welcome any new-comers who would like to join.
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