"You know, everything clicked. We were playing against some of the best players in the world and this was our opportunity," says the former Napier Technical Old Boys and Taradale premier club player.
The calibre of the Magpie forwards was what stood out for him in the shape of No 8 Simon Tremain and flankers Gordon Falcon and Dustin Watts.
He recalls there were two English locks, Bill Davison and John Fowler, as well as the other front rowers of Orcades Crawford and Terence Taylor.
Halfback was Neil Weber, father of current Magpie/Chiefs little general Brad, while Simon Kerr was at first five-eighth. Outside him were Murdoch Paewai, George Konia, Peter Davis and the late Jarrod Cunningham.
"The build up for the Hawke's Bay game was one of the best I've ever been in," he says, reflecting on a changing room where everyone had a burning desire to be the best they could be in his captain's speech.
"It was a beautiful day and McLean Park was absolutely packed. We were down a few points earlier on and then in the second half we just had this revival," says Hewitt who scored a try, after Weber and before Tremain. Kerr booted a conversion, penalty and dropped goal each and Cunningham had slotted two penalty kicks.
"I had played a pretty good game that day and after that I was flying up to Auckland to watch the [last test]," he says, revealing he was in the New Zealand squad as one of the hookers to tour the United Kingdom later that year.
For Hewitt, that was the window of opportunity to carve out a career in the black jersey.
"I was flown up to see how the game was going to unfold, just in case. [Captain/hooker] Sean Fitzpatrick had literally played a very poor game the week before and I had played midweek so I was sitting and watching the game from the top of the stand that weekend.
"If the All Blacks had lost it would have been a whole different ball game but the All Blacks won that last test, which was great."
Hewitt said it ended as a memorable season for the Magpies.
The atmosphere here that day was no different to what had transpired on Tuesday night when the Highlanders pipped the incumbent Lions 23-22 at the covered Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin.
It had also come down to the wire in Napier and the average caps, as it was in the Dunedin game, favoured the tourists so for the hosts a carefree mind set prevailed.
"You've got nothing to lose as a provincial player. Back in the day we weren't Super 12 or Super 15 players like they are today so as provincials you are another tier down so you leave everything out on the park.
"You grow an extra foot taller and a wee bit stronger and a wee bit faster because these are the players who are the best in the world and you'll let them know as a provincial player you're there to measure with them or even beat them."
It never crossed their minds that national selectors could tap them on the shoulder after the final whistle.
"It was never an option for me. You never worried about who was watching because it detracted from doing your part in the team.
"I was lucky enough to be the captain at the time and it meant a lot, so then to be called into the All Black family was something stunning."
To slip on a Maori XV jersey was the pinnacle of Hewitt's career.
"There's something really unique about the Maori All Blacks - the commonality, the camaraderie, the collective understanding as a culture."
Hewitt says there were times when that cultural vehicle had lost its way for a few years but from the time coach Matt Te Pou arrived at the helm in 1994 the mores and values that fostered a sense of belonging had again become quite entrenched.
"We had great leadership in our kaumatua and our elders guided us," he says.
Te Pou coached for 11 years, with the Maori XV winning 35 of 40 games under his tutelage, culminating with the 19-13 victory over the Lions in Hamilton in 2005.
"In 1993 we were leading against the Lions in the Maori game but they won," says Hewitt in the 24-20 loss in Wellington on May 29.
In his games for the then New Zealand Maori, Hewitt found "abstract uniqueness" in each team and "something that made rugby special".
"You never take away from what each team gave but they were totally different.
"The All Blacks environment is totally different from the Maori one and you had to adapt to the Maori environment because the All Blacks one had everything and you didn't have to want for anything."
In the Maori set up, it was quite often a challenge for players and coaches.
"You didn't know if the bus was going to turn up, you didn't know if the gear was going to turn up or even which players were going to turn up so you'd have to adapt.
"The Maori team was so much more resilient to all things not happening whereas the All Blacks were a very well-oiled machine so if someone didn't turn up there was a lot of anxiety.
"With the Maori team we'd just say, 'Okay, we'll just have to train an hour later', so it didn't matter and there was something very special about that."
Needless to say, he relished what both environments offered and how they helped shaped his template as an individual.
In the Maori team, players were fiercely proud of their whakapapa (genealogy) but players didn't gravitate towards it to form cliques.
"We also knew that we didn't have the same authority like the All Blacks."
It always was a battle to claim a daily allowance, never mind parity for gear.
"We were sponsored by adidas and we wore training gear sponsored by Canterbury because none of the jerseys turned up but we didn't complain because we just said, 'Let's get on with it because we have a game to play'.
"It was more like a whanau with the Maori team and not the same sense of whanau for the All Blacks team so it's kind of really hard to describe because I don't want to belittle either one of those.
"When it got right down to the frontline work you didn't have to question anybody's commitment and agenda.
"I'm not saying you didn't have to do that with the All Blacks but it just didn't have that same feeling."
That sense of authoritarianism with the ABs meant some elements used the hierarchy differently.
Conversely the mana (respect) in the Maori unit was never open to abuse.
Towards the twilight zone of his career, Hewitt felt like he was making a statement of equality to the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) whose hierarchical system, he felt, had the ABs at the apex, the NZ Colts (under-21s) below it, the NZ under-19s, the NZ secondary schools' team and then NZ Maori.
"That's the way it was portrayed. One day I'd be playing for the All Blacks in a professional era, earning a substantial amount of money, and the next I'd be with the Maori where we're pooling our daily allowances of $25 or $40 to help pay for some of the players' bills."
That gulf in remuneration had him wondering if they were professionals or amateurs.
"I was a professional player who was playing amateur sport one week and professional the next week but the game was still the same."
However, Hewitt hastens to add any grievances they harboured were never taken on to the park.
It actually hardened the resolve of Maori players on whether they could match it with the ABs.
"That's why we went through almost a decade when the Maori didn't lose a game," he says, recalling the close loss, 41-29, to the Wallabies in Sydney on July 9, 2001.
He doesn't know whether the Maori environment has evolved since but is pleased that the team still exist and have parity in exposure as the ABs and Super Rugby sides.
Today is an opportunity for all to see how the Maori XV can add value to "the great game of rugby".
Son Alexander is a prop for the Wellington under-12 representative side and a No 8 for the Paremata-Plimmerton club team.
"He's a bit of a front row to the back row forward so he's going to be tall and he loves the game."
So will he be an All Black like his father?
"We'll just have to watch that space," he says with a chuckle.
