No problem too big

Matamata College’s Future Problem Solving team will represent New Zealand at the 2013 world finals in the United States.

Tim Gray, Liam Nelson, Alicia Stewart and Stephanie Williams won the senior national title in Auckland last weekend.

Both judges scored the team ahead of Hamilton Boys’ High School, Nelson Boys’ College and Auckland’s Kristin College.

‘‘ Apparently we blew them away,’’ said Stephanie. ‘‘We weren’t really expecting to win so we were all kind of shocked.’’

The future problem they had to solve was set two decades after a great depression that caused free trade to collapse.

Each team was given 2 hours 15 minutes to complete a booklet and action plan to re-introduce free trade deals between Australasia and South East Asia.

They also had to come up with a dramatic presentation to show how their plan would work.

‘‘I think it’s fair to say that our presentation was very original,’’ said Stephanie.

‘‘We had bits of Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Pirates of the Carribean and Flight of the Conchords all featuring in it.’’

The four were now looking forward to competing at the world finals in Indiana next June.

‘‘It will be pretty cool to be able to compete at that level where there’s going to be teams from all over the world,’’ Stephanie said.

They would like to thank coach Susan Hancock who helped them prepare for the competition.