Tumatueka are the 2025 Tahuna Current Events Champions!

The Current Events quiz is basically the one and only Lit quiz, but instead of having a wide range of different categories and topics about books the Current events quiz is centred around the news and things happening currently around the world.

This year I was lucky enough to get one of the three spots in the team for the amazing (and the house that should be winning) Tane Mahuta.

It started with the trial at lunch time in Rm6. Just like the Lit quiz there was a 20 question quiz to answer about current events. Just walking into the room I could feel the tense and nerves, but also excited energy. Almost all the tables were full of people hoping to get into the current events quiz. 

After each question there was silence, while everyone racked their brains for the right answer then, the sound, quick but sharp, a frantic scribble of pens on paper. When Mr Min told me I made the team a few weeks later I couldn’t believe it, I actually got in. I was overjoyed and spent my free time after school jotting down notes about the news and checking the news and news websites like kiwi kids news every day so I was ready. Everything went by in a blur day by day.

Then the big day finally rolled around. It seemed like the trials were only yesterday. I had a pang of nerves but at the same time I was excited to be doing this fun event. The moment I walked in most of those nerves disappeared, the energy in the room was excitement and determination and my mood instantly changed from a bundle of nerves to feeling excited and determined. Everyone was very nice and easy to talk to and we all got along, which is what you need before a big competition. The Tahuna Current events quiz took place in the library, and each of the 4 house teams had an assigned spot for the duration of the quiz.

There were 6 different categories in the quiz. 5 of which had 10 questions while the who am I category had 2, giving clues about each person until someone gets it earning points for your team. The categories were Aotearoa news, World news, Flags, Who am I, General knowledge and last but not least sports. All teams had to pick one category to be their joker round which is where you pick one category to be your joker round and the number of points you acquire on that category you double adding to a higher total just like the Lit quiz.

All 4 teams chose the same category, Flags, which should have been relatively easy but there were some random difficult flags. My team got 7 points in the Flags category adding to the grand total 14, but the other teams got more points, sadly. I personally think the hardest 2 categories would have to be Aotearoa News and Sports because I don’t follow sports but luckily Benji knew some of the answers to the questions in the Sports category and Aotearoa news was very specific. I believe on the second Who am I question we got 1 point, the answer was literally Mr Beast.

After finishing each round Mr Min went around the teams, we yelled out how many points we got from the previous round, so Mr Min could keep track and total up our points to determine who was in the lead and ultimately the winner.

In the end Tane Mahuta came 4th (the best place), with Tumataueka coming 1st (my friend Nollaigs team), Mahuika 2nd and Takaroa 3rd. My team only had 2 out of 3 there on the day as one teammate, Aldous was sick on the day of the big event, so it was just me and Benji. We may have come 4th also known as last but we did our best and worked really well together trying our best to answer the questions and have a good time, and in the end it's not about winning or losing it's about having fun and ultimately enjoying the amazing experience. 

I really enjoyed competing in the Tahuna current events quiz this year and the amazing experience I'm taking away from it, and proudly presenting my house Tana Mahuta even if we came 4th. I'm super grateful for being lucky enough to take part in this fun event and hope to compete in other quizzes like the Tahuna Spelling Bee and Tahuna Classics Quiz later on this year, having already been a part of the Lit Quiz team earlier in the year and last year.

And last but certainly not least thank you to Mr Min for making these amazing experiences possible and happen by hosting, training with teams and putting on fun competitions like the Tahuna Current Events Quiz, Tahuna Spelling Bee and more, and your good sense of humor and your amazing fun and whimsical personality makes it all worth while, so thank you Mr Min for making this amazing event and experience possible.  

-By Emily Jensen-McCloy