A new sports initiative aimed at spreading the active word about Pacific Island-style sports in Hawke's Bay is set to kick off this Saturday with the first of a series of volleyball events.
In the long term that will extend to the unique game of Killi Kitti (Pacific Island cricket) and an equally unique form of hockey called renegade hockey.
For the past year Sport Hawke's Bay and the Hawke's Bay DHB have been in discussions with several Pacific Island churches and community groups to come up with the best plan of putting a formalised sporting calendar together.
"They were very keen to see something come together," Sport Hawke's Bay special projects manager Jeanette Cooper said.
She said members of the island community, and especially the numbers of Pacific Islanders who arrived in the Bay during the fruit picking season, had played their local sports but there had never been anything organised.
As well as provide something to do for those workers at the end of the day, and to boost more sporting activity among the permanent residents, the new project, tagged 'Sportsifika', had been created.
It will be launched this Saturday at 10am at Flaxmere Park with a special volleyball competition involving eight teams.
A weekly competition will then get under way over the following five weeks, with the tournament planned to expand further in the New Year.
Ms Cooper said as well as create a healthy sports scene in the Bay Sportsifika was also a way of giving visiting Pacific Islanders experience and knowledge in setting up competitions.
"We will work on training officials and volunteers so when they return to their home islands they can share their new knowledge."
She said the long-term goal was to create the New Zealand Sportsifika Games which would be held in the Bay next November.