League stars take up shovels
Kiwis rugby league back Pita Hiku says pitching in to help the Christchurch Adventure Park recover from a devastating fire was a breeze compared to boyhood tasks on a Gisborne farm.
David Kidwell’s Kiwis were on the end of shovels, rakes and grubbers yesterday at the adventure park, which is set to reopen on December 5 after been shut since last February’s Port Hills fires.
Kiwis forward Kenny Bromwich said the team – in Christchurch ahead of Saturday’s World Cup clash against Scotland – didn’t mind lending a hand despite the 24-degree temperatures.
‘‘They said we would be coming out here to help out after what happened here [during the fires, and we were pretty happy to come out and do that.
‘‘The boys are just filling in some trenches and helping out where they can.’’
Hiku, the 24-year-old who has returned from England to sign a three-year deal with the Warriors, said he wasn’t much of a gardener but he wasn’t a stranger to hard work. He said, living ‘‘in the country in Gisborne’’, he had done some work on the farm, ‘‘but we didn’t have the equipment we’ve got here now’’.
The adventure park soil was ‘‘good in patches’’, but parts were ‘‘real dry and dusty’’, he quipped.
The Kiwis – all fulltime rugby league professionals – worked for about an hour on a pump track – an off-road circuit of banked turns and features, designed to be ridden completely by mountain bikers ‘‘pumping’’ or creating momentum by up and down body movements.
Designed for children, the pump track is a popular feature of the Christchurch Adventure Park.
The Adventure Park excursion is part of the Kidwell’s community engagement programme which saw the Kiwis prepare their own meals during a three-day stay at Ngaruawahia’s Turangawaewae marae.
●➤ Kiwis building towards Scotland clash, Sport B10