Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '98

Jacinda Ardern has realised her schoolmates’ prediction of becoming Prime Minister. Alice Peacock tracks down other members of that Morrinsville College class to find where life took them.

We were basking in New Zealand's warmest year on record and Bic Runga's debut album was on everyone's stereo.

Our first female Prime Minister, Jenny Shipley, was a year into her reign and sacked Winston Peters from Cabinet as a coalition deal turned sour.

This was 1998 and beyond those headlines a rather special class of kids was about to graduate.

Jacinda Ardern was completing her schooling at Morrinsville College and mates put together a yearbook in which they voted her Most Likely to become Prime Minister.

But that wasn't the only pick that was on the money.

Others from that class who were marked out for particular reasons have also gone on to fulfil the predictions made for them.

Morrinsville College Principal John Inger watched that cohort graduate and told the Herald on Sunday they stood out at the time as particularly able.

"I guess it was definitely a case of competition to do well, although there was a really good spirit in that group, too," Inger says.

Was there something in the water in Morrinsville almost 20 years ago?

It was the year Beatrice Faumuina and Sarah Ulmer scooped two of our eight gold medals at the Commonwealth games.

But that couldn't lessen the blow of Australia beating the All Blacks 3-0 in the Bledisloe Cup.

Serendipitously, it was the year Baz Luhrmann's Wear Sunscreen stayed at No 1 in the charts for weeks on end - a song that took its lyrics from advice to a graduating student class.

Meanwhile, Ardern was winning speech competitions and shooting hoops. None of her classmates who talked to the Herald on Sunday were surprised she met their schoolyard expectations.

"It has been great to see that group go on to achieve," says Inger. "They would be up there as one of the best."

BEST COUPLE
Michael and Shelley Knight (formerly Shelley Pratt)

Michael and Shelley Knight with their children.

Michael Knight and Shelley Shelley Pratt as they were in 1998 scooped the heartwarming nomination of Best Couple - as well as individual votes for Shelley as Sportiest year 13 Student and for Michael as Funniest Year 13 Student.

Today they are both called Knight - to elevate the "aww" factor, the pair are happily married with two young children - Madix, 11, and Xavier, 9.

Michael says Shelley is still a "sporty machine" and plays netball. "She has the lowest resting heart rate of anyone I know."

He remembers Ardern as "amazing with words". She was a force to be reckoned with on the school debate team and blew everyone out of the water at speech competitions, he says.

The couple are looking forward to a 20-year high school reunion planned for next year.
The Knight family are still in the Waikato and from time to time catch up with other school friends there.

That includes Most Flirtatious Clinton Potter who is "still good for a hug and chat any time", and Best Looking Year 13 Boy Luke Jensen, who "still looks like Kelly Slater".

BEST LOOKING YEAR 13 BOY
Luke Jensen

Luke Jensen was voted Best Looking Guy at Morrinsville College.

Luke Jensen had the beach-bum flowing locks and good looks that saw him compared to surfing star Kelly Slater.

Today, Jensen is bald - and so is Slater, so the comparison still stands, according to classmates.

The Morrinsville teenage heartthrob now works as a signwriter in Hamilton. He has a 7-year-old son, Talan, and a 5-year-old daughter, Lakoda. He is separated from his wife, but is in a "relatively new" relationship.

Jensen says he and Ardern were good friends with a lot in common. "Neither of us drank alcohol so we both were the clear-headed, responsible ones who also acted as sober drivers."

Although he and Ardern had not spoken in a number of years he remembered her as a tour de force. She had a senior role on the Student Council, was involved in the Human Rights Action Group, helped with the school newspaper and jetted off to South Korea in her final year to attend the Apec Science Festival.

"Jac was awarded special awards for service to and on behalf of the students of the school or all-round excellence in the senior school."

Jensen says his time at the college were some of the best years of his life and he is still friends with several former classmates.

"The fact that we're all still relatively close is really cool - I feel pretty blessed."

INTELLECT OF THE YEAR
Aaron Bennett

Aaron Bennett , voted Intellect of the Year, is now living in Hamilton with his wife, Fiona.

Aaron Bennett fondly remembers a bit of friendly competition with our PM during his school days.

Bennett said he got on really well with Ardern, who shared the runners-up prize when he claimed Dux in their final year.

"We were both put in to a 7th form economics class when we were in 6th form - there were a few of us that were quite on to it," he says.

"It was pretty cool to be in with the year 13s."

Today, Bennett lives in Hamilton with his wife, Fiona, and their three girls aged 9, 10 and 11.

He works as a management accountant for mining company Bathurst Resources and his wife runs an accountancy firm from home.

His wife was a Morrinsville College student in the same year group and the couple married in their early 20s, which was "quite a bit before" other classmates began to settle down.

When not at work he coaches his daughters' football teams, which are "really successful".
He enjoys a lifestyle with a bit less pressure than he expects Ardern is facing.

"There's a bit of work, but plenty of family time, too."

Bennett last saw Ardern a few months before the 2014 election when she spoke at a gathering he organised.

"She spoke about her upbringing in the Mormon church, her reasons for leaving it and how her values were shaped," he said.

"It was great to see her again and it was like the friendship from school had never been interrupted by the intervening years."

HAPPIEST YEAR 13 STUDENT
Rachel Wallis (formerly Roach)

Rachel Wallis.

Rachel Wallis says she is still "generally pretty cheery" despite occasional work pressure.
"It depends what side of me you're seeing," she says.

Wallis is now an English teacher and the Dean of Year 10 at Cambridge High School.
She and husband Glenn have two daughters, Olivia, 8, and Mikayla, 3. She is also stepmum to Beau, 12.

She says the class of '98 was an awesome group she felt special to have been a part of.
Many are still in touch, often through Facebook, and that included Ardern, who had come to speak to some of her students at Cambridge High School last year.

In terms of the students in the rest of the poll, Wallis says many have lived up to expectations, including Health Nut of the Year Rebecca Hamilton, who
still runs a lot, Wallis says.

Wallis is helping organise next year's reunion and was part of a group that met last weekend to plan it, including the Knights, who live just down the road.
"We knew each other really well and really got amongst it.
"No one was an outcast - we all connected on some level and were just good friends."

MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
Virginia Dawson

Virginia Dawson

As with Ardern, Virginia Dawson's classmates nailed this prediction.

Today Dawson is Head of Development Co-operation at the New Zealand Embassy in Myanmar.

She has worked in Sudan for a French NGO and has held roles at Oxfam, Unicef and advised the UN.

Dawson declined to be interviewed but Inger says she was always very talented.
He says Dawson and Ardern were close friends - and formed a formidable pair who together won science awards.