"We opened with a karakia and then the marae would do their march, they'd walk around the 400m oval and be judged on the best presented marae and best dressed banner.
"The first day is pretty amazing, everyone has that hype."
Miss Mellon said people had travelled throughout New Zealand and overseas to take part.
"We had a co-ordinator this year who took part in Iwi Fit (similar to CrossFit) who had come from Rarotonga. The person who helped her come over was from Australia and they had met on the day. We have players come from as far as England for five or six years and a lot of Australians come back every year."
The event has each marae compete with each other in numerous sports and games.
Twenty-three marae were registered this year and the competition introduced the whakawhanaungatanga point system - given to the best fair play marae.
"The highlight for me was probably just seeing everyone there having fun and playing sports.
"Our co-ordinators have also stepped up their game," Miss Mellon said.
"We had the participation point system in place where all the team sports must play a tamariki and kaumatua for extra points.
"We had a 73-year-old kuia play netball, she only played for 10 seconds but for her, the highlight was being on the court with her great-great-granddaughter," she said.
Planning for the event started in August.
Marae were awarded extra points if they ran a particular sport as well.
"It can get really competitive especially in the traditional sports like touch, rugby and netball things can get quite touchy but even in petanque and our card games like euchre," Miss Mellon said.
"I think what brings people back each year is being together and competitiveness with each hapu. I've seen smaller marae being on the bottom for so long and they're now reaching to top levels with the bigger marae everyone is wanting that shield for."
Top 10 marae results
1. Korohe 3531
2. Ngati Te Maunga 2135
3. Tutetawha 2011
4. Pakira (Waitahanui) 1963
5. Papakai 1867
6. Waipahihi 1790
7. Hahuru 1754
8. Otukou 1434
9 Ngati Manunui 1394
10. Waihi 1305
Overall sports winners
Iwi Fit: Te Rangiita (male); Iwi Quiz: Moawhango; Marae Idol: Korohe; Ki-o-Rahi: Waihi; Table Tennis: Hirangi; Junior Rugby: Waipahihi; Rippa Rugby: Waipahihi; Women's Rugby: Hikairo ki Te Rena; Men's Rugby: Te Rangiita; Basketball: Papakai; Netball: Otukou; Petanque: Papakai; Squash: Moawhango; Touch: Waipahihi; Volleyball: Hahuru
