How do two girls from a town without snow or ice make it to an international ice hockey tournament?
That's a question Horowhenua Inline Hockey president Arden Phillips has asked himself after protégées Sam Heyward and Amber Metcalfe made the New Zealand under-18 women's Ice Hockey team to compete in Mexico early next year.
Phillips said he could only put it down to raw talent and a willingness to train hard. Both girls oozed talent playing inline hockey, and were able to transfer that ability to ice.
He said while the two sports were very similar, there were nuances in adapting to ice hockey that required hard work, especially when there was no ice rink near their home town of Levin for miles.
The nearest rink was in Petone, Wellington. The girls were travelling multiple times each week on the busy highway to train and play, clocking up plenty of kilometres in a hectic schedule.