The organisers of the New Zealand leg of the Mini Games baton relay gave a cheque for $7000 dollars on Sunday to the chief executive of the 2009 Pacific Mini Games. They also reaffirmed their readiness to hand over two canoe paddle-shaped batons for Monday’s opening ceremony.
Taime Pareanga Samuel said the baton events in New Zealand were supported by Cook Islanders in the centres of Hastings, Tokoroa, Hamilton and Auckland. “They were inspired by love of our country, our culture, our history, and our people and that drove everything really.”
Samuel who is from Hastings and is the president of the New Zealand Cook Islands Sports Association said the events were originally a Cook Islands Sports and National Olympic Committee fundraising idea but they could not pay for it. That is when four of the branches of the New Zealand Cook Islands Sports Association got together to stage a programme using their own resources and volunteers.
The organiser of the baton relays in New Zealand, Vincent Peters from Auckland, is looking forward to handing over the batons after living with them for the past month, saying that he can now relax and watch the Mini Games unfold with the family in Rarotonga. The proud father of a competitor, he was especially looking forward to watching his daughter represent the Cook Islands in weightlifting in the last two days of the Games.
The batons travelled a circuitous route through the north island of New Zealand and featured in sports events in Hamilton, Hastings, Tokoroa which drew the largest crowd of over 2000 people and finally Auckland.
The Auckland event, which was attended last Saturday by minister of sports Ngamau Munokoa and New Zealand member of parliament for Mangere Sua Wilson Sio, highlighted a roll call and parade of former Cook Islands representatives in past South Pacific Games. Three Cook Islanders who competed in the first South Pacifc Games in Fiji in 1963 joined in the parade.