Pickleball is taking off in Te Kūiti as a local group (pictured) continues to grow after starting a year ago. Photo: Dan Tasker
The global craze of pickleball is in Te Kūiti after Ata Te Kanawa started promoting drop-in sessions at the Gallagher Recreation Centre about a year ago.
The sport, which originating in the United States in 1965, took off during the Covid-19 period as a way of active socialising, while keeping to the pandemic’s social distancing advice.
A cross of tennis, badminton and table tennis, pickleball’s quickfire team-play on smaller courts has attracted large numbers of players across the world in recent years.
Te Kanawa, who moved back Te Kūiti after a number of years living in Wellington, decided to start a group after hearing about it from her daughter, who had seen pickleball played at the 50-court Venice Beach complex in Los Angeles.
“Then I asked (the Gallagher Recreation Centre) and they said they had some equipment, but nobody was actually doing anything with it,” Te Kanawa said.
“There was just a handful of us for most of 2025, it was just one court, one net – we got excited if we needed two nets up. Now we’re consistently four courts and we’re going hard for a couple hours,” she said.
With a regular weekly crew, Te Kanawa said pickleball has become an obsession for most of them as their passion and understanding of the game grows.
“I organise my weekends around pickleball. I’ve just come back from Auckland on Saturday night because I didn’t want to miss out on Sunday,” Te Kanawa said.
“There’s people from all different walks of life. I’m a Te Kūiti person, but I would not have known or met some of the people here without this,” she said.
There’s also been other benefits to pickleball coming to town, like the confidence Te Kūiti women Santana Sammons has gained since joining the group in May.
The stay-at-home mum was battling mental health before giving pickleball a go, the first sport she’s ever tried.
“I was trying to find myself as a stay-at-home mum. I saw a post at the supermarket and I looked it up on the internet and thought, ‘Why not?’,” Sammons said.
“It’s something to enjoy and focus on, pushing myself out of my comfort zone massively. I’m realising I can do hard things in general, which goes into normal everyday life,” she said.
Although not a sporty person, Sammons liked “how easy it is to learn”, and was enjoying getting to know the wide range of people playing each week.
“I wanted to do something social and completely different. I was always shy, I wanted to socialise and I’ve never done sports. It’s become an addiction,” Sammons said.
The Te Kūiti pickleballers are set for their for competitive challenge, when they host Taumarunui in a King Country derby in the coming weeks.
Pickleball is taking off in Te Kūiti as a local group (pictured) continues to grow after starting a year ago. Photo: Dan Tasker
