{"id":182466,"date":"2025-12-13T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182466\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T21:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T21:59:09","slug":"sarah-hirini-black-ferns-legend-speaks-about-her-passion-for-flying-and-getting-a-pilots-licence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182466\/","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Hirini: Black Ferns legend speaks about her passion for flying and getting a pilot\u2019s licence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Full-time pilot students usually take six months to complete their studies, but with the extreme demands of the Sevens circuit<\/a>, it stretched out to \u201cthree or four years\u201d, according to Hirini.<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Hirini coaching at the Hirini Rugby Academy.<\/p>\n

She said it\u2019s always been a dream of hers to gain the qualification, but to also demonstrate that no one, let alone a rugby player, has to conform to the norm of \u201cjust doing a university degree\u201d, especially in a field such as piloting, where the field is extremely male-dominated.<\/p>\n

The pool of women pilots is \u201cvery, very small\u201d, Hirini said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI follow a few of the woman pilots who work for Air New Zealand \u2013 huge inspiration. They\u2019ve had kids and things as well now, and it\u2019s just massive to be able to watch them do what they do. I think it would be an amazing industry to get into if you started that pretty young.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Cup-winning Black Fern<\/a> said she\u2019s \u201cdefinitely thought about\u201d obtaining her commercial pilot\u2019s licence and had all intentions pointed towards getting it, but said it may not be a possibility for a host of reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther than it being really expensive, there\u2019s just so much time that goes into it,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201c[Also], not sure whether I want to start a pilot\u2019s career when I\u2019m just about 33 and at the moment I won\u2019t be able to fly being pregnant, so yeah, I\u2019m not too sure about that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Captain Hirini soaring the skies for Air New Zealand may be off the table, the preparation and time management skills honed while hitting the books on tour are ones vital to success in any field.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us on the Sevens circuit, you\u2019re in a different country every month, so having to deal with time zones and when stuff\u2019s due, you had to make sure that you were either really, really prepared or sent a really good email to your lecturer to hopefully they get an extension.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SarahSarah Hirini: “I follow a few of the woman pilots who work for Air New Zealand \u2013 huge inspiration.”<\/p>\n

The gold-medal Olympian<\/a> acknowledged she was not the best student in the world, but said she set out to prove to herself she could do both at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially when I went into my pilot studies, there were six exams, and you had to get over 80% to pass papers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose papers were pretty difficult, with the physics and having to learn about the clouds and things like that, so putting extra time into making sure I was studying properly and trying to figure out ways, proper ways that were going to help me learn quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

As rugby enters its next stage of professional evolution, there has been more scope for players\u2019 development outside of the sport. It\u2019s exemplified by the New Zealand Rugby Players\u2019 Association (NZRPA) bargaining and installing dedicated hours in players\u2019 working schedules for personal development in different fields, a step Hirini credits for her successes.<\/p>\n

Hirini is currently a player representative on the NZRPA board.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career has been very, very long in rugby, I know that, but not many people get to be able to do this for so long, so it\u2019s important to have something else to put time into.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust stuff you need as a human to be able to live your life when you leave the environment, because I know our environments are very sheltered at times, so I think that\u2019s really important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hirini said that when she entered the rugby scene in the early 2010s, \u201cwe weren\u2019t getting paid very much, if at all\u201d. As a result, having qualifications or skillsets outside became essential for areas in life and off the field that many people can relate to, such as being able to pay a mortgage, a stark contrast to the players entering the environment today.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor ones now coming in straight out of school getting paid great money, it can be quite [an] incentive to just coast along and be happy with what they\u2019re doing, so I reckon having this platform to be able to study or just be able to have enough different options is hugely important.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for her ventures looking forward, the rugby legend is adjusting to a different lifestyle that she loves with her first child on the way<\/a>, as it allows her to think about a life post-rugby \u201call the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

One future includes the growth of the Hirini Rugby Academy, a programme she runs with husband Connor Hirini that aims to provide resources and help to young girls, on not only their rugby journey but also giving them tools to \u201cbecome a good person\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not really that set or formal at the moment \u2026 [but] we try and reach as many kids as we can,\u201d Hirini said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve probably hit about 300 last year, similar to this year. We just want to keep growing that next year, and we\u2019ve been fortunate enough to do that in a lot of different places. We\u2019re very, very lucky right now that Tudor, my watch sponsor, sponsors our academy, and they have provided us with so many more resources, so I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The academy not only works in New Zealand, helping those from smaller regions or bigger ones where rugby isn\u2019t an option, but also internationally, highlighted by Connor travelling to Guam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I love is we turn up to an event, there\u2019s lots of kids [and] they all get a free T-shirt. To be honest, they\u2019re probably happy with the free T-shirt more than anything else \u2026 I knew at that age, that\u2019s what I was into as well,\u201d she said with a smile. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Full-time pilot students usually take six months to complete their studies, but with the extreme demands of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,54805,95,7022,3121,42610,23966,10541,19345,1342,17628,2082,8455,1364,81598,685,3223,19339,111,43,139,69,5823,81,6967,51519,17213],"class_list":["post-182466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-accolades","tag-and","tag-black","tag-careers","tag-earned","tag-enough","tag-ferns","tag-field","tag-five","tag-flying","tag-for","tag-getting","tag-her","tag-hirini","tag-last","tag-legend","tag-licence","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-passion","tag-pilots","tag-sarah","tag-separate","tag-speaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}