Alumni
Stacey Waaka
Stacey Waaka
NZ Black Ferns (Allblacks.com)
WAIKATO UNIVERSITY BACHELOR OF SPORT AND LEISURE STUDIES (BSpLS), SIR EDMUND HILLARY SCHOLAR, WHAKATANE HIGH SCHOOL
Rugby
Karen Hanlen
Karen Hanlen
Olympic Mountain Biker
2012 London Olympics, 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, 2012 NZ Mountain Bike Champion and Oceania Mountain Bike Champion
Mountain Biking
Former student, Karen Hanlen, shot to the top of mountain bike racing in 2010, after switching from mountain running to mountain biking, buying her first performance bike on TradeMe.
Glasgow 2014 was the second Commonwealth Games for Karen after she competed at the 2010 Games in Delhi. Karen also competed at the London Olympic Games in 2012.
In the same year, Karen placed 1st in the New Zealand Mountain Bike Championships, 1st in the New Zealand Mountain Bike Cup, 1st at the Oceania Mountain Bike Championships.
Lisa Carrington
Lisa Carrington
Canoe Sprint World Champion, Olympic Gold Medallist
2015 WORLD CANOE SPRINT CHAMPION, 2012 OLYMPIC CHAMPION, 2009-2011 WORLD CHAMPION.
Kayaking
Lisa competed in the Czech Republic in 2017 at the Canoe Sprint World Championships and gained the K2 500 gold, the K1 200 gold, the K1 500 silver and the K4 500 bronze medals.
2015 World Canoe Sprint Champion and 2012 Olympic Champion, Lisa Carrington, took up kayaking to improve her surf lifesaving skills, as a teenager at Ohope Beach - while attending Whakatane High School.
Between 2009-2011 Lisa won World Cup medals in senior team disciplines.
In 2011, Lisa also had a breakout year as an individual, winning K-1 200 Gold at the World Championships.
Jozef Klaassen
Jozef Klaassen
NZ Rowing
REPRESENTED THE NETHERLANDS AT THE 2008 AND 2012 OLYMPICS. AIMS TO COMPETE FOR NEW ZEALAND ROWING AT THE RIO DE JANIERO OLYMPICS.
Rowing
After attending Whakatane High School, Jozef Klaassen undertook a rowing scholarship in Boston among the highly competitive University rowing scene.
He has rowed in the Netherland Mens 8 in two Olympic Games in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London placing 4th and 5th respectively.
Klassen has spent time back in Whakatane training at the local club and sharing his knowledge with the club's upcoming talent.
Klaassen hopes to represent New Zealand at the Rio Olympics.
Benji Marshall
Benji Marshall
Rugby League Player (Wikipedia)
Professional Rugby League Footballer for NRL Club St George Illawarra Dragons.
Rugby League
Former Whakatane High School student, Benji Marshall, is a professional rugby league footballer, currently playing for NRL club the St George Illawarra Dragons.
He was briefly a professional rugby union player with the Blues of the Super 15.
He was the captain of the New Zealand national team, with whom he won the 2008 World Cup and 2010 Four Nations tournaments.
Marshall played for ten seasons in the National Rugby League for Sydney club Wests Tigers, with whom he won the 2005 NRL Premiership.
He has been noted for his flamboyant attack, including sidesteps, no-look passes and flick-passes. In 2010 Marshall won the Golden Boot Award for the world's best player.
Nathan Twaddle
Nathan Twaddle
World Champion Rower and Olympic Bronze Medallist (Wikipedia)
Bronze Medalist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, 2005 World Coxless Pair Champions
Rowing
Robert Nathan Twaddle, MNZM (born 21 August 1976), is a rower from New Zealand and Olympic medallist.
He competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, in the coxless pair rowing with his partner George Bridgewater and came away with a bronze medal.
Twaddle and Bridgewater were world champions in 2005 and silver medalists in 2006 & 2007.
Ingrid Hipkiss
Ingrid Hipkiss
TV3 Weather Presenter
Political Reporter turned Weather Presenter
Weather Presenter
Ingrid Hipkiss attended Whakatane High School and went on to start her 3 News career as a political reporter in Wellington around a decade ago.
Ingrid is now based in Auckland, along with her family, and is the weekday weather presenter.
Ashlee Tulloch
Ashlee Tulloch
TV Presenter
News Presenter
News
Ashlee is a news and sport reporter for 3 News.
After graduating from Whakatane High School, she studied at AUT in 2010 - graduating with a Bachelor of Communications and started at 3 News in early 2011.
You'll often see her courtside at a netball game or, if she's lucky, on the beach covering surfing. Ashlee's proud to be part Māori and from "the real bay" - the Bay of Plenty.
Margaret Mahy
Margaret Mahy
Author (Wikipedia)
Among former Whakatane High School student, Margaret Mahy’s awards are;The biennial Hans Christian Andersen Award conferred by the International Board on Books for Young People is the highest recognition available to a writer or illustrator of children's books. Mahy received the writing award in 2006.
Author
Jury president Jeffrey Garrett wrote in the press release:
In awarding the 2006 Hans Christian Andersen Medal for Writing to Margaret Mahy, the jury has recognized one of the world's most original re-inventors of language. Mahy's language is rich in poetic imagery, magic, and supernatural elements. Her oeuvre provides a vast, numinous, but intensely personal metaphorical arena for the expression and experience of childhood and adolescence. Equally important, however, are her rhymes and poems for children. Mahy's works are known to children and young adults all over the world.
Mahy won the Carnegie Medal in 1982 for The Haunting. In 1984 she won the medal again for The Changeover.
The Margaret Mahy Award, named for Mahy, is presented annually to "a person who has made a significant contribution to the broad field of children's literature and literacy". Mahy was the first recipient of the award in 1991. Lectures by the winners are published, the standard of which was set by Mahy's inaugural lecture, Surprising Moments.
In 2013, the top prize for young adult fiction at the New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards was renamed the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year award.
The Whakatane High School Library is named after Margaret Mahy.
John Vernon
John Vernon
Head QSM, Anti-landmines Activist (Wikipedia)
Founder of CALM, Queens Service Medal for Public Services
Humanitarian
John Vernon Head (1927–2007) after a 40-year teaching career, founded CALM, the New Zealand Campaign Against Landmines in 1993.
He boosted New Zealand's awareness of the scale of worldwide landmine problems and his efforts were the catalyst for the Anti-Personnel Mines Prohibition Act 1988, which became New Zealand law early in 1999.
He was awarded the Queen's Service Medal for Public Services (QSM) the following year.
Brett Sinkinson
Brett Sinkinson
Rugby Union Player (Wikipedia)
Played Rugby Union for the Welsh National Team
Rugby Union
Brett David Sinkinson (born 30 December 1971) is a New Zealand born rugby union player who played for the Wales national rugby union team.
A flanker, he was known for his mobility and hard tackling. He never played for New Zealand.
After representing Wales it was discovered that he was ineligible to play for Wales when he revealed his grandfather Sydney Sinkinson was born in Oldham in England instead of Carmarthen in Wales as had previously been indicated by him.
The scandal that followed was termed "grannygate".
Sinkinson was barred from playing for Wales but later returned to the Wales team after legally qualifying through the residency rules.
Sir Alan Stewart
Sir Alan Stewart
Founding Vice-Chancellor, Massey University (Wikipedia)
Sir Alan Stewart KBE (8 December 1917 – 1 September 2004) was a New Zealand Educator and University Administrator.
Educator and University Administrator
Born 1917. Attended Whakatane District High School 1930–1933.
He was principal of Massey Agricultural College from 1959 to 1963 and founding vice-chancellor of Massey University from 1964 to 1983.
During this time he guided the institution's transition from agricultural college to full university.
He is noted for building the university's internationally recognised agricultural programme, as well as for greatly expanding the university's extramural programme to make tertiary education available to rural New Zealanders.
He was knighted in 1981 for services to education.
Whakatane High School Archives; http://www.otago.ac.nz/library/exhibitions/rhodes_scholars
Ian Shearer
Ian Shearer
Former National Party MP (born 1941), Former National MP (Wikipedia)
Politics
Shearer was born at Whakatane in 1941.
He received his education from Whakatane Primary, Whakatane High School,Massey University, and the University of Nottingham.
He represented the Hamilton East electorate in Parliament from 1975 to 1984, when he was defeated by Bill Dillon.
Under Robert Muldoon, he was Minister for the Environment, Minister of Science and Technology, and Minister of Broadcasting.
In 1985, Shearer publicly questioned the National Party on membership and finances, which resulted in the suspension of his membership in October of that year.
Although the suspension was lifted, Shearer resigned all his party roles in December 1985.
Charles Bentley Cato
Gary McAdams
Jon-Paul Tobin
James Douglas Watson
James Douglas (Jim) Watson
1943-2017, CNZM , Scientist and Innovator
Attended Whakatane High School 1956-1960.
Dr Jim Watson credits WHS with nurturing his passion for science which led to a PhD in microbiology from Auckland University at the young age of 23. He moved to the USA for post-doctoral research work at Syntex and Salk Institutes and was a professor at the College of Medicine at the University of California. He returned to New Zealand in 1994 and founded the Department of Molecular Medicine at Auckland University and then went on to found the country’s first biotech company Genesis, followed by Lanzatech, Bio Joule and Caldera. His research and discoveries ranged from gene technology and renewable fuels to hormonal cancers.
Wybo Veldman
Noel Mills
Toni Jeffs
Dr Sophie Hart
Richard Conway
Philip Clode
Philip Clode
Born 1965. Attended Whakatane High School 1979-1983.
Running
A Middle Distance Athlete. He represented New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games in 1990 for the 5000m event and in 1994 for the 10,000m event.
Wikipedia; Whakatane High School Archives
Lacey Wilson
Lacey Wilson
Born 1987. Attended Whakatane high School 2002 - 2004.
Journalist
A Journalist, former TVNZ Reporter for One News and TVNZ’s Breakfast show.
tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news; Whakatane High School Archives
Paul Steel
Paul Steel
Born 1970 in Whakatane. Attended Whakatane High School 1984-1988.
Squash
He is a squash coach and a former professional player. As a player, Paul was a ten-time New Zealand national champion 1992 - 2001 and reached a career-high world ranking of World No.15. In 1991,92,95,97,99 and 2001 he was New Zealand representative in the World team Squash Championships. In 1998 he was a member of New Zealand Commonwealth Games Team in Kuala Lumpur. In November 2011 he was added to the New Zealand Squash Hall of Fame. www.nzsquashhalloffame.co.nz
Wikipedia; Whakatane High School Archives
Tama Waipara
Tama Waipara
First attended Whakatane High School in 1992.
Musician, Vocalist, Actor
Accepted to study a Masters Degree at New York’s Manhattan School of Music, a renowned New Zealand Musician, Vocalist, Clarinetist and Actor Performer. Won the Best Roots Album at the 2014 New Zealand Music Awards. www.nzmusician.co.nz.
Whakatane High School Archives
Dave Molesworth
Dave Molesworth
N.Z Rowing Representative; at the European Championships at Amsterdam in 1964 and in Australia in 1965 for double sculls with Tom Reid.
M. Shaw- N.Z Rowing Representative
Gary Reid- N.Z Rowing Representative (son)
Tom Reid- N.Z Representative Coach (father) at the European Championships at Amsterdam in 1964 and in Australia in 1965 for double sculls with D.Molesworth.
As they say “back in the day” redcoats were awarded to the winners of Senior Class(now called Premier) winners in the single sculls, double sculls, pair oar(coxless), four our(coxed) and eight oar races. I was the first rower to get a redcoat in every event, not bad for a rower who started out as a lightweight.
— Dave Molesworth (Whakatane Rowing Club website)
Jaimee Lovett
Jaimee Lovett
Olympic Canoe Women's K4
With roots in the Ohope Surf Lifesaving Club, local girl Jaimee Lovett attended WHS from 2002 - 2006. A Youth Olympian in 2007, Jaimee Lovett has waited patiently for nine years to finally graduate to the full Olympic Games.
A year older than her friend and clubmate, Lisa Carrington, Lovett has qualified for Rio de Janeiro with a women's K4 boat that also features Caitlin Ryan, Aimee Fisher and Kayla Imrie.
The quartet had a breakthrough year in 2015 under Danish-born coach Rene Olsen, winning the K4 500m at the World Cup round in Portugal and making the final at the world championships in Milan. www.olympic.org.nz/athletes/jaimee-lovett; Whakatane High School Archives
Army Servicemen
Special Mentions
Ben Rowan
Ben Rowan
Industrial Design
Former WHS student, Ben Rowan, is now a director at industrial design consultancy firm PriestmanGoode in London.
Previously the Creative Head of Aviation, Ben became an Associate Director in 2013 and a Director in 2016. Ben has a Bachelor of Design from the Wellington School of Design, New Zealand.
He joined PriestmanGoode in 2003 and has worked on projects with Itec, Three, Hitachi, Rotary, Airbus A3XX , Malaysia Airlines, Swiss International Airlines, British Telecoms, Air France, United Airlines and Qatar Airways. In April 2016, the company made the transition to an employee-owned company. PriestmanGoode is now majority owned by its talented staff. Paul Priestman, Nigel Goode and Luke Hawes remain at the helm of the studio, along with newly appointed directors Kirsty Dias, Chris Parker and Ben Rowan.
Ben’s father, Mike Rowan, is in his 40th year of teaching at Whakatane High School, previously as a graphics design teacher and currently as a reliever. He says that he thinks Ben graduated in 1995 as a prefect.
Sam Clark
Sam Clark: Multi-Sporter, Coast to Coast Winner
Attended Whakatane High School 2004-2008.
SPORTS
Sam’s entry in the school’s 2008 yearbook column stated, “In 10 years time you’ll find me winning the Coast to Coast”. He achieved his goal ahead of schedule in 2016 and defended the title in 2017.
Dolan Cox
Dolan Cox
Musician
WAIKATO UNIVERSITY MASTER OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT 2015, BACHELOR OF MUSIC WITH HONOURS, SIR EDMUND HILLARY SCHOLAR.
Cox was dux of Whakatane High School, finished his Master of Business Management in 2015, and now has a Bachelor of Music with Honours. During his time at Waikato he’s increased his piano-performance opportunities, winning awards and coming second in the prestigious Sydney Eisteddfod Musica Viva Chamber Competition in Australia as a member of the University’s Contrasts Trio. He was also an intern at the George Town Festival in Malaysia – an event that celebrates arts, culture, heritage and community.
If that wasn’t enough, Dolan was a winner of the Sir Edmund Hillary Step Higher Award which meant he went to Nepal with three other top achievers to see what Sir Ed achieved and to work with communities there.
In reaction to the award, Dolan commented “I was both surprised and grateful to hear I'd been awarded the medal. Past winners of the medal include many of my friends and role models; people who excel not only in athletic and artistic performance, but in the way they inspire others. To be recognised alongside those scholars is incredibly humbling."
Keith Farquhar
Keith Farquhar - Professor of Law
LL.B, LL.M (Hons) (Wellington), LL.M (Michigan). Barrister & Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand (non-practising).
Rosemary Stirling
