Anjali Mulari is joining the Ice Fernz for the World Championship in South Africa. Photo / Supplied
Anjali Mulari is joining the Ice Fernz for the World Championship in South Africa. Photo / Supplied
Hamilton police fingerprint officer trainee Anjali Mulari (nee Thakker), 29, is taking on the world on ice skates, having been selected to represent New Zealand at the ice hockey world championships in South Africa this month.
Anjali has been playing ice hockey since she was 16 and already attended eight world championship tournaments.
Together with the Ice Ferns, she will play in the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) Women’s World Ice Hockey Championships Div IIB 2023 against Australia, Turkey, South Africa, Belgium and Croatia.
Anjali, a Hamilton local, started playing inline hockey for the Hamilton Devils in 2005. Moving to ice hockey meant travelling to Auckland each week for training and games.
She made her World Champs debut with the Ice Fernz in Iceland in 2011 and won the Best Player for New Zealand award in 2016 and Best forward of the IIHF World Championship Div IIB in 2017.
“I love the creativity and pace in ice and inline hockey. They are both fast sports that get the adrenaline pumping.”
In 2019, Anjali put her hockey career on ice for a few years to start a family with her husband Setti, whom she met - where else - at a hockey rink.
They have two kids, a three-year-old daughter, Maija, and a one-year-old son Mikko.
Anjali in her New Zealand ice hockey jersey and at work with colleague and mentor Prem Singh. Photos / Supplied
“I’ve just returned from a five-day training camp with the team in Dunedin. It’s tough coming back after two kids but I’m determined to get back to where I was.”
Anjali is a true wahine toa: Apart from acing it on the ice and being a mum-of-two, she has a busy career with the New Zealand Police, currently training to become a fingerprint officer.
She says: “I am in year two of five. I am based at Hamilton Central Police Station and I absolutely love my job.”
Anjali started with the Police in 2016 as an emergency communicatoranswering 111 calls at the Northern Emergency Comms Centre while completing a postgraduate diploma in Forensic Science.
“An opportunity came up at Midlands Forensic Fingerprint Services while I was on parental leave with my first baby.” She applied and got the job.
Assistant fingerprint officer Anjali Mulari (centre) will represent New Zealand at the ice hockey world championships in South Africa. Photo / Supplied
Anjali admits that it’s tough to balance work, study, family and hockey.
“But I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She says her husband’s support allowed her to keep up with the training schedule.
“Setti is taking on all of the responsibilities at home while I train and travel away.”
Anjali was selected to represent New Zealand in inline hockey in the US in 2017. Photo / Supplied
The Ice Fernz will depart for South Africa on February 13. You can find out more about the world championship games the Ice Fernz will play in online.
New Zealand’s world ranking in ice hockey has fluctuated between 24th and 31st place.
Ice hockey is a minor sport in New Zealand and is self-funded. However, the sport has been played in New Zealand for over 80 years with the first organised tournament being played at Opawa in South Canterbury in 1937.
