Kayaking: It took years to find what floated Fisher's boat

Aimee Fisher with Casey Walker, of the Kaimahi Hakinakina Kohungahunga, at the special Sport Hawke's Bay presentation yesterday. Photo / Paul Taylor

Aimee Fisher was someone who yearned to be the best in the sporting arena in any code she embraced as a child so it doesn't come as a surprise that the seeds of Olympic glory were sown as early as 13.

"I had started at netball and I was convinced I was going to be the next Irene van Dyk but for two years in a row at intermediate school I was in the bottom teams so I thought maybe netball's not for me," Fisher said. "Then it was swimming for me so I wanted to be the next Michael Phelps but it didn't quite pan out the way I had hoped it would."

Ditto canoe polo before kayaking arrived and in 2013 she collected her maiden national title.

"I then realised I had found my calling."

The days to Rio for her maiden Olympics is rolling by akin to a petrol station bowser meter.

"It's pretty scary but I think it's exciting at the same time because it's kind of everything you've ever dreamt of as a kid."

It'll be a far cry from the countless nights of paddling in the dark along Clive River but Fisher was already in for another training session well into dusk yesterday.

"I always have fond memories here of paddling with the young kids so there was always a group of us ticking along through winter and grinding it out."

She is enjoying her down time with mother Darryl and father Chris and has bracketed visits to her former schools - Karamu High School, Heretaunga Intermediate, Mahora School - in Hastings.

"We never had anyone come to our schools or anything like that but I kind of used to see the Evers-Swindells twins around here [Clive River] quite a bit in their beef-and-lamb cars so I was quite star struck by them," Fisher said of Bay-born double Olympic gold medallists Georgina and Caroline.

However, the Sport HB academy lured big cheese such as Cory Hutchings and Danyon Loader who also inspired.