Port Macquarie Pirates Rugby - U16s NZ Spring Tour 2025

Now that we’re all back safe and sound, it’s time to recognise the people who put this amazing experience together. Since August 2024, our Organising Committee have volunteered 100s of hours to attend meetings, organise fundraisers, seek the backing of sponsors, liaise with the club, organise our budget and finances, remain in constant contact with the Tour Operator, attend Zoom meetings, coordinate players and families, purchase goods for events, and SO much more. 14 months of blood, sweat and tears culminated in a wonderfully successful tour where five of the Organising Committee members were also able to enjoy the experience with their own children.

An absolutely HUUUGE thank you to Blair Hancock, Emily Crompton, Adrian Lombardo, Rob Oakeshott and our Tour Sponsor, Jeremy McKessar, for the incredible job you did to provide 40 people with the experience of a lifetime. The rugby experiences were great, but everything else that came with it is what was most important. Exploring lands, pushing yourself to the limit, and learning about other cultures will hopefully help our young Pirates continue their development into kind and generous humans. You have provided this opportunity for them. Congratulations on a job well done! 👏👏👏
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Our final Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day is Don Warner. He has been an exceptional guide and host for the past 10 days, creating a magical and memorable experience for the entire touring party. Each activity, match or meal has been carefully organised to suit our needs and he has delivered in spades on every occasion. Our young Pirates absolutely adore Don and our older Pirates have enjoyed the banter he’s provided throughout our stay. If you’re keen to head over the ditch for a sports tour, touch base with Don at NZ Sports Tours. He’s the best and won’t let you down. You’d better be quick though as Don’s keen to add more golf to his weekly routine. Thanks for everything, Honest Don. You definitely are the people’s choice!
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Our final day began with Amelia presenting Don with the Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day award. Pirate Taz will now stay with Don and live happily ever after in Mount Maunganui. We loaded up one last time and headed to the home of New Zealand rugby - Eden Park. A tour of the stadium included seeing the World Cup as well as visiting the corporate boxes, the members area, the All Blacks coach’s box and the All Blacks dressing rooms. Our young Pirates could sit where All Black legends have sat before and a certain coach was able to share the feelings of all Australians towards one player in particular. From there it was off to Auckland airport to say a fond farewell to Don and board our plane to head home. Our Pirates are exhausted and ready for their own beds, but grateful to have been part of this adventure.

Thanks for everything, New Zealand. You have been amazing hosts, shown us a lot of love, shared your culture and country with us, and we have fallen in love with you. You have provided us with memories that will last a lifetime. Kia ora.
Lots of love and respect from the 2025 Under 16s Port Macquarie Pirates # # #
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We kicked off a new day with Jarryd presenting Amelia with Pirate Taz as our Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day before moving into our Kangaroo Court for tour indiscretions. Make-up was applied, a disgusting concoction was drunk, burpees were performed and dress ups were completed. A fun way to end our time in Rotorua. It was then time to bid farewell to the beautiful aroma of Rotorua and head to Auckland. A visit to the Sky Tower provided us with the chance look all over New Zealand’s largest city before heading to Denny’s for dinner. Don was presented with a small sheep and some kind words of appreciation from the girls on behalf of our squad. Last sleep before we head home. We’ve had a great time.
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The Mitai Maori Village provided a fantastic cultural experience for everyone to learn from and enjoy. We heard stories, learned to speak some of the language, saw traditional customs enacted, and took in the spectacular dance, song, and weapon demonstrations they put on for us. Coach Rob also gained a new title for the night - Chief. Dinner was a delicious hangi which we all got stuck into. The night wrapped up with a walk through the village and to look at the glowworms lighting up the forest. Another quality experience.
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Our day kicked off with Jess presenting Jarryd with Taz for being our Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day, before heading off the rolling hills of Rotorua to enjoy some time at Velocity Valley. There were 5 options available, but most went for the Agrojet, the Swoop or the Shweeb Racer. There were HEAPS of smiles as everyone enjoyed the adrenaline fix and a maybe expetienced a little bit of fear along the way. Adrian and Rabbit even took on the Vertigo - a 43m drop backwards into a net below. Good luck with that…😳 Rob cooked up a fantastic feed for everyone, which included a high-quality Australian pavlova to celebrate our weekend birthday boys. A wuick stopover to see the hot springs was interesting and smelly. A cracking way to start the day!
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Our Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day is Amelia Wooster (nominated by Manager Emily). Amelia has been an incredible tourist throughout our time in New Zealand. She’s super organised, continually helps others and has been a joy to take on tour. During our games, Amelia was as tough as nails, despite carrying an injury into the tour. Shes provided a great example of courage and team culture both on and off the field and is a great winner in the eyes of all members of our crew. Well done! Congratulations Amelia and thank you Oxley Travel for your enormous support of our rugby adventure!
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With all tour games now complete, our group headed for a bit of fun at the Skyline Luge which included riding up to the top of the mountain in a gondola and then flying back down as fast as you could along a tricky track full of corners and turns to navigate. After all of the fun had finished, we headed inside for an incredible buffet dinner which kept the hungry teenage wolves at bay for at least the next couple of hours. A nice way to wrap up our day. As the photographer was having the evening off, this post is a collection of pics snapped on mobile phones by our lovely Pirates. Thanks team!
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Our Oxley Travel Tourist of the Day is Jarryd Morgan (nominated by Coach Adrian). Jarryd is always a coaches dream and that behaviour and conduct has continued in New Zealand. Jarryd busts his backside every game to get in there first and help his teammates, doing the grunt work to support his mates and make things flow better for others. Off the field, Jarryd has been pitching with clean ups, volunteering for a variety of jobs, and ensuring that his touring mates continue to uphold the standards we all expect from our young Pirates. He is a deadset legend and a very worthy winner. Congratulations Jarryd and thank you Oxley Travel for your enormous support of our rugby adventure!
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MATCH 3 - Under 16s Boys v Rotorua Boys High School

We were made to feel so very welcome upon our arrival at Rotorua Boys High School with a Māori welcome and blessing and then the Rotorua lads sang to us. Amazingly moving experience. Our touring party then faced the haka together as one before we got down to business in pretty wet and miserable conditions. The local lads jumped us early and put on a couple of tries before things settled into a pretty good match. Rotorua were classy in the wet and dominated territory and possession, looking to score at every opportunity. When the rains cleared, our young Pirates seemed to kick into another gear and eventually scored 4 tries (Stirling, Tom E and Paddy Mac) to end their on-field New Zealand campaign on a positive note. We finished up with a few speeches, an exchange of jerseys, and shared stories over a pizza lunch. Thanks to everyone at Rotorua Boys High School for looking after our lads and making all of us feel at home in your wonderful school.
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