Training is complete, now it’s showtime

slog,’’ Gloyne said.

Entire weekends, between 15 and 20 of them, are given up to living out of a suitcase in a communal setting of 50 or more people - all of them eating, sleeping and training together.

Summer holidays can be cut short. Long weekends don’t exist and nonperforming family members become ‘‘haka widows’’ or ‘‘haka orphans’’ throughout the campaign. So expectations are high, Gloyne said.

‘‘You don’t spend all of those bloody weekends slogging away, make all those sacrifices and commitment just to go and participate. We’re going to compete.’’

Waikato groups also travelling to Hastings are Te Iti Kahurangi and Te Kaaheru Matarau o Ngati Hauaa from Ngati Hauaa, Nga Pou o Roto from Huntly and Te Pou o Mangatawhiri from Ngaruawahia.

And with days to go before the competition starts, performers are focussed. Gloyne calls it ‘‘haka brain’’.

‘‘Kapa haka is a love/hate relationship,’’ he said. ‘‘You love it one day and then the next you say, why do I do this?’’

Forty-seven kapa haka teams from around New Zealand and Australia will compete in three pools from Thursday to Saturday. The top nine, three from each pool, go through to a final shootout on Sunday.

‘‘In kapa haka, you get one shot, maybe two and that’s it, and all of those months go into that 25 minutes,’’ Gloyne said.