Waka Ama: Podium finish for Miti paddlers

Northland's Mitamitaga Canoe Club master women crew checked out Sydney from the water at the Hawaiian Airline's Sydney Harbour Challenge on their way to finishing third. Photo/Harvie Allison

A bunch of Northland "Aunties" have made themselves part of history at the inaugural Hawaiian Airline's Sydney Harbour Challenge by being the only Kiwi crew to take part, and finishing on the podium.

The Mitamitaga Canoe Club master women crew finished third at the event, which saw the six-strong team check out the sights of Sydney from a different perspective.

Kicking off from Clontarf inside Sydney Harbour, the crew - made up of Henrietta Sakey, Frances Banks, Ani Wetere, Lynora Hati, Shelly Hill and Kristin Edge - paddled past well-known sights like the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge and Luna Park before finishing back at the start.

The weekend's event, which had 93 crews entered and is being touted as growing significantly, saw the Northlanders get a bit of TV time as the race start was broadcast live on Channel 9 - although it may have been hard to spot them among the yellow jerseys and wakas sitting side-by-side.

Team captain Wetere said the crew were stoked with the result, adding they were only hoping for a top-10 finish.

"With waka ama it is about the competition, but the camaraderie is another big thing," she commented. "[The Australian] ladies there really take their outrigger canoeing seriously.

"The difficult thing was mixed and men's crews all started together and we all had our yellow shirts on and you couldn't tell who was [racing] open master women's.

"I had no idea where we were in the field, but we were with the top 20 the whole way."

With regard to being on television, Wetere said it was quite a different experience to the start on a waka ama race in New Zealand.

"It was mean. It had to be broadcast live on TV and had to be at 8.06am, honestly nothing ever starts on time in New Zealand, but this, Channel 9 said if we can't get on time we're out.

"That was amazing because then they had 60-odd canoes trying to get a spot at the start - it was amazing."

For the Mitamitaga crew, the highlights didn't stop there. For most tourists, seeing the Sydney Harbour Bridge is quite something, however, for the Northlanders, they got to check it out twice from the water.

"Under the harbour bridge was so cool and around the opera house. We've done races under the Auckland Harbour Bridge but that [Sydney's bridge] was mean. [Although, when under the bridge], the steerer was getting us to focus on what we were up to," Wetere said.

She added that their crew's build up to the event was ideal, winning the 35km ironman race in the Takapuna Beach Cup.