The songs we had performed were Tōku Reo Tōku Ohooho by Te Tira Waiata o Te Pukawai, Adiemus by Karl Jenkins, and Another Love by Tom Odell. We had lots of fun learning these songs, and preforming them was even better. The students developed a lot over the weeks we spent learning these songs, and they ALL truly sounded amazing by the end.

After arriving at our accomodation on Sunday, waking up at 6:30 am on Monday was excruciating for all of us, especially for the teachers who woke much before then to prepare us breakfast! Thank you for feeding all of our choir. 

We were the 8th school to perform out of 16, and we all gave our best when it was our turn. We had a lot of fun, and there were many of us that wanted to go even harder next year! 

Later in the evening, we performed Tōku Reo Tōku Ohooho at the Town Hall concert, and sang the national anthem with the audience. It was a beautiful way to end the night after an eventful day of performing and shopping.

On our trip back, we aimed to pass through the Ranfurly and Poolburn primary schools. We had done similar in previous years, and were all excited to show the kids there what we had done. Unfortunately, our bus broke down on the way and we were held just outside of Ranfurly for quite a long time. We weren’t able to present for the primary kids, but we didn’t let that lower our spirits at all. 

We got out one of our student’s guitars —thank you Eli Knights —and had an awesome karaoke session on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere! 

It was certainly an amusing sight for passers, and our teachers had a giggle watching us entertain ourselves.

Overall, our time this year was like no other! All of the first-time students had an adventure that they won’t forget. They all performed beautifully at the Dunedin 2025 Big Sing, and we’ll be pleased to see them all again next year.

Charlize Elliot

Arts Leader