Skiing: Hawke's Bay's Wilkins brothers capture three North Island titles

Lindisfarne College's Aidan Wilkins in action during the North Island championships. Photo / Supplied

Here's a Hawke's Bay skiing family feat which will be hard to beat in the future.

Three brothers from Havelock North's Wilkins family have won North Island schools titles in their respective age groups at Mount Ruapehu's Whakapapa Skifield in recent weeks.

Competing in a field of 198 skiers, Oliver won the primary schools title. Fellow Hereworth School pupil Luke won the intermediate title in a field of 248 and their older brother Aidan, who was representing Lindisfarne College, won the secondary schools championship in a field of 150.

Four days later Aidan won the Waimarino Trophy in the under-16 age group after winning the Giant Slalom and Slalom titles at the North Island open championships at the same venue.

Luke won the Giant Slalom title in the under-14 age group and that same weekend saw Oliver win the South Island championship for under-10s.

"The last Hawke's Bay skier to win a school championship was Piera," the brothers proud dad Tim said referring to Havelock North's international alpine skier Piera Hudson.

Hereworth school fielded six teams and finished 29th out of 128 schools in the junior division and 12th out of 98 schools in the intermediate division.

"Hereworth is particularly proud of their school effort and has been putting a focus in more recent years on offering fringe sports at the school including mountain biking, road cycling and skiing and these results are reward for that focus," Wilkins said.

Lindisfarne College finished eighth in a 110 school field to equal the school's best effort.

Like Hereworth, Lindisfarne has encouraged skiing at the school and has supported Aidan in recent years.

"I even had to sit a national maths exam in a small hut up the mountain between races under careful supervision," Aidan recalled.

"It's all a busy, cold time in the Wilkins household where the boys live winter all year-round spending every weekend during New Zealand winter on the snow either in the North or South Islands followed through in the summer holidays at the world renowned Sugar Bowl Academy in Tahoe, US, where they receive further skiing and schooling tuition. There is no lying on beaches for our family at present," their mother Leah explained.

"It would be much easier if there was a chairlift and grass skifield up Te Mata Peak for skiing and mountain biking but there is no way that this is going to happen," their father joked.

This week Aidan and Luke are in action at the five-day South Island and final national championships which end at the Cardrona Alpine Resort tomorrow.