Southland shearer wins dream All Blacks supporter trip

Back Black All Blacks supporters competition grand prize winner Ash Murray (left), of Ohai, and Six60 bass guitarist Chris Mac. Photo / Supplied

For small-town Southland shearer Ash Murray, entering New Zealand Rugby's Back Black supporters' competition was "just a bit of fun".

He never expected he would win the trip of a lifetime.

Mid-shear at an Otahuti shearing shed, the grand prize winner was ambushed by a surprise party earlier this week.

"To be honest it was just crazy. It was all a bit overwhelming and something I didn't expect. We always thought 'what if', but not to count our eggs before they hatched, you know?

"It was an awesome feeling," Murray said.

The All Blacks Tours All Finals Package included flights, accommodation, and two tickets to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, among other surprises.

After the campaign was launched in July, Murray entered with a rendition of Ngati Toa's Ka Mate haka.

"It was a song I was always confident playing. I'd been playing it since primary school."

Although he had always had a passion for music, it was something he mostly kept to himself, he said.

"A lot of my close mates, I'll play in front of them over a few beers, but it's not something I'd typically do, so it was quite nerve-racking."

As a young Maori living in Ohai, it was difficult to learn about his culture, he said.

"We all had the passion and that hunger to learn, but there wasn't easy access."

At Ohai school, everything changed when he met a mentor named Moko.

"He came and helped us compose music like that. We'd pick out easy hakas, something that we all knew as kids and just put music to it.

"Those were our Maori songs that we learned and we were very fortunate to have Moko there at the time."

Representatives from New Zealand Rugby, along with Six60 bass guitarist Chris Mac, who took a shine to the song, visited Murray's workplace to share the news.

"Chris is a gentleman, he's awesome. We had a chat to him and he stuck around for a few beers."

While he had plenty of friends in line for the second ticket, "you can't not take the wife", he said.

"It's a massive package I would probably never be able to afford, or even dream of affording, so it's a wicked opportunity.

"We're just so grateful and appreciative. I'm just going to embrace it."