It might be summer holiday but it's full-on hard work for Tauranga mum Ruth Tuiraviravi and the family who are among an estimated 5000 people in Hastings for the North Island Colgate Games children's track and field events which start today.
Mrs Tuiraviravi is president of children's club Bellevue Athletic, which is represented at the games by 37 of its 243 members. Forty three parents from the club, with other family members, will also attend. The Games, in their 40th year, are an annual holiday event for children aged 7-14.
Among them will be Mrs Tuiraviravi's youngest child Kayli who at 14 will be making her last bid for Colgate Games gold in the 100m, 200m and long jump. Husband Kolini will be minder for the club's 12-14 year olds as they prepare for dozens of events over the next three days, while elder children Daniel, 18, and Shiloh, 16, who as former "Colgates" competitors, will be giving something back by joining the army of officials and helpers.
The Games start at 9am today with a forecast for fine weather and temperatures up to 26C and will finish about 5.30pm on Sunday. Yesterday, members of 93 mainly North Island clubs - about 1350 athletes in total - started arriving to get in last-minute training and acclimatising to the sun-baked William Nelson Athletics Precinct at the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park.
But for people like Mrs Tuiraviravi, who won several national rowing titles under her maiden name of Ruth van der Veen, it was shoulder to the wheel sorting out the club's competitor packs.