Te Puke Surf Lifesaving athlete Natalie Peat on her time at school

Te Puke's national surf lifesaving athlete Natalie Peat who is living on the Gold Coast.

We head overseas for the latest catch-up with a former Te Puke High School student. National surf lifesaving representative Natalie Peat has lived on Australia's Gold Coast since 2014 - just a short walk from the beach where she trains.

Natalie Peat left Te Puke High School in 2012.

She was the female sports captain in her final year. By then she had already made surf lifesaving her sporting priority.

''I did other sports when I was a little bit younger, but it was getting quite hard to juggle things,'' she says.

She says she enjoyed school.

''I quite enjoyed the academic side of it too, but it was getting hard to balance all the training I was doing as well, so I probably didn't do as much study as I should have.''

It was teacher Kevin Addinall who helped Natalie decide on her career path.

''I took accounting and economics with him and had no idea what I wanted to do when I left school. I think maybe half way through the year [13] he convinced me to take up a business course because he had a [Young Enterprise] team that needed someone to join them to help them with the accounting side.

''I ended up doing that which I really enjoyed and then went on to do a business degree and now accounting and finance is what I do for a job.''

Natalie studied for a year and a half through Waikato University then, when she moved to Australia in 2014, completed her degree online through Massey University.

Natalie's parents, Ash and Sue Peat, own Te Puke Hotel and Te Puke Super Liquor.

''I think I was always leaning towards doing business, because that's what I saw my parents doing and being successful in bringing jobs to the community and having real prominent roles in the community, so I guess that was kind of a thing that I always admired.''

She says living in Australia permanently is unlikely, and eventually she will move back to either Te Puke or Pāpāmoa.

''There's no place like home.''

At the time of her move to Australia she was representing Pāpāmoa Surf Club and it was the relocation of coach Kurt Wilson to the Gold Coast that was the catalyst.

''We had a really good coaching programme in Pāpāmoa. When [Kurt] moved to Australia quite a few of us moved over at the same time and set up over here - for training and racing, which is pretty impressive over here.''

Natalie has represented New Zealand at international pool and beach events and was a member of the 2014 and 2016 world championship winning Black Fins team.

''[Moving to Australia] was the right thing to do,'' says Natalie. ''Originally I planned to come over just for the summer, to see how it went, but I've been here for six years now.

''Training here is a lot more competitive, there are a lot more people at that high level of training while in New Zealand there is still the quality, but we've not got the depth you find here.

''There's a lot more motivation here for people to race and people to push you.''

Natalie's strongest events are the 100m manikin tow and 100m manikin carry in the pool and the surf swim races on the beach.

Competition, though, through 2020 has been at best sporadic and there are uncertainties around international competition in 2021.

''We were meant to have the world champs in Italy in September 2020, but they've been pushed out until 2022, and the world games were meant to be in Birmingham in 2021, but with the change to the Olympics, they have been pushed out to 2022 too."

The International Surf Rescue Challenge scheduled for Daytona next year won't now go ahead until 2023.

''I'm not sure what's going to be happening, but we hope to have some transtasman international competitions running in 2021.''

Natalie competes for the Currumbin Surf Lifesaving Club but even the prospect of domestic competitions in Australia is up in the air

''All of our domestic competitions up until now have been cancelled or reduced, but I will be looking at some beach carnivals next year. Domestic borders are still closed but are starting to reopen so hopefully early next year we will start to see some domestic racing.''

Because of the lack of competition, Natalie has taken a few months off training.

''It's been very hard for me. I've been racing internationally for about 10 years and getting motivation to train for domestic comps has been a tough one for me - that's probably been the hardest thing of this year. It's hard to juggle training and work as it is, but training fulltime with no big carrot to get you through is pretty tough.''

Despite having to be in managed isolation for 14 days, possibly at both ends of her trip, Natalie is on her way back to New Zealand for Christmas and to be a bridesmaid at her sister Allannah's wedding.

''I've not missed a Christmas since I've been over here, so I didn't want to start now.''