From the age of seven Norm Hewitt knew he was going to be an All Black.
His determination to make the revered rugby team eventually earned him a spot in the side and now the 37-year-old teaches children that they too can achieve anything.
The former All Black hooker talks to children
for a living about humility, kindness and humbleness - attributes he admitted he didn't all learn from his time on the team.
"I learned humbleness from the All Blacks. Kindness? No, not from the All Blacks."
On Thursday, he enthralled 13 students attending the Gifted Kids Programme (GKP) at Tikipunga Primary School with tales of having his shorts ripped off during an All Black game and the power of believing in yourself.
Mr Hewitt, who lives in Wellington, is a Gifted Kids Programme ambassador, which involves talking and mingling with the programme's students around the country. The programme was started in 2000 by an Auckland teacher as a way for talented and gifted decile one and two primary and intermediate school students to enrich their learning.
In Northland, 22 schools pay for talented students to attend the one-day-a-week programme based at Tikipunga Primary School.
Since retiring from professional rugby in 2001, Mr Hewitt - who has a nine-month-old daughter Elizabeth to wife Arlene Thomas, a former aerobics champion - has worked mostly with children, such as providing mentoring.
He said he loved working with children as it was important to make them realise they were special and that they could "achieve anything".
GKP student Morgan Gibbs, 11, was taken by Mr Hewitt's "really nice" personality and would never forget the advice he jokingly gave about the need to always wear clean underpants.
Rugby fan Ben Gregson was thrilled to have met an All Black in the flesh.
The nine-year-old said he got "wasted" by Mr Hewitt in a game of petanque and was inspired by his remark about "doing what you want to do".
