Whangarei Primary School was set abuzz with excitment when an Olympic hero known as "the Flying Dutchman" rolled in on a double-decker bus.
Dick Quax, silver medallist in the 5000m athletics event at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, was in town yesterday as part of the ANZ bank's nation-wide Olympic promotional tour.
Dishing out drink bottles and hats as prizes, Mr Quax started off his presentation with a flurry of questions for the eager students. His first question of "I ran 5000m on a 400m track. How many laps did I run?" drew all manner of answers before one clever boy got the right answer and scored himself a hat.
Mr Quax moved on to give the students a lesson in life.
"I believe that every one of you children in this school has a special talent. I was very lucky that I found out what that talent was and it was running.
"Not all of you will be runners but everyone has a special talent. It's very important to develop the talent you've been given," he said.