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Old Buddies!

Mr Rounthwaite, Mr McPhail and Mrs Rounthwaite

The PAPAKURA BRANCH were treated to a session by Mr and Mrs Rocky Rounthwaite on July 24th. Just back from the USTF camp, they were fired up and gave a great class.

Mr Rounthwaite is ITFNZ's former S&D Director, and most successful instructor of the Pakuranga and Clover Park Branches. He and his wife Trish are currently professional Instructors on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.

The session and the previous visit to New Zealand by Mr Charles Birch has proved to be the start of what we hope to be increased interaction between our countries

Black Belt Group Photo.

Photos from the Junior Tournament in Auckland April 1998

Auckland ITFNZ people celebrate the 43rd birthday of TKD (given its name on
the 11th of April 1955). A few new faces and some not seen for a few years
joined the group to share a pleasant evening over a Chinese dinner.

Thanks to Auckland RD Sue Breen for organising it.

Photos of the Auckland Combined Clubs Training
Saturday 18th December 2000 in the Auckland Domain

South Island Pain Weekend Camp
By Jake Pearson

Over the weekend of 16-18 November 2001 I had the privilege of being the guest instructor at the South Island Pain Weekend Camp held at Pinedale Camp in a picturesque valley just out of Blenheim - an ideal environment to be testing the limits of one's physical and mental endurance. The group was small but keen - I mean would you voluntarily turn up for a weekend promising “pain”..?

Mr Nathan McKendrick kicked things off on Saturday with a 6am “boot camp style” wake up followed by a group run and exercises (wheelbarrows up gravel roads, dive rolls on wet grass and gravel, etc). After breakfast, training in patterns and line drills continued all morning in the glorious sunshine. The morning session finished with a compulsory dip in the icy cold river.

I was in charge of the afternoon session and was happy that it pelted with rain throughout. This made the "exercises" that participants were doing all the more gruelling. They all showed great perseverence and tremendous spirit - awesome.

After dinner, we went for a walk along the river to check out a cave and have competitions at skimming stones and "duck farts". The later evening was spent sitting around the campfire discussing 'South Island stuff' and roasting marshmallows.

Sunday morning saw some very stiff and sore bodies, but it was still up at 6am for a run. Everyone really did need to run at one point as were chased by a large wild pig - only in the South... The final morning session was spent on pre-arranged sparring routines, team patterns (look out at Nationals!), and then War Games which was fiercely competed while displaying all of the tenets of Taekwon-Do. Finally, tired bodies and dirty doboks were soaked in the refreshing river waters.

Big thank you to Lorraine Eade, camp organiser. It was great to see that the South are still leading the way in getting back to the old hard ways of training in Taekwon-Do.

Southern Camp 1998

Over the weekend of the 19-20 September the southern part of the
South Island (Dunedin, Mosgiel and Christchurch clubs) got together
for a camp organised by Mr Jake Pearson. We had the pleasure of
hosting Mr James Rimmer, 5th Dan Head Instructor of Tauranga Club and member of the grading sub-committee. Mr Rimmer "came recommended" by the Wgtn region after their camp and he certainly lived up to expectations! Mr Rimmer had an amazing ability to encourage and motivate (helped by some amusing catch-phrases), and the standard of training reflected this.

Saturday training included basics, kicking, patterns, flying and
dodging kicks, and pre-arranged free sparring. Just after lunch there
was a game of 3-legged soccer, with Mosgiel Club coming second to
Dunedin and receiving the (un)coveted Golden Gumboot. A TKD-style
celebrity squares was held after dinner, and after that everyone
brushed their teeth and were in bed by 10pm (as if...).

Sunday morning saw (nearly) everyone up for a morning constitutional including a jog, relays and fun teamwork exercises introduced by Mr Rimmer. More training including flying multiple kicks followed breakfast. Just before lunch, we finished with Taekwon-Do Wargames, an old Khandallah activity that involves charging around in the outdoors doing battle for your dynasty. The camp concluded with a BBQ and touch rugby.

Handing over of the Golden Gumboot (and PS)