Rangatahi Tāmaki

Meet Limiteti Galiki

To find out what it’s like to be a rangatahi in Tāmaki we got together with local, Limiteti Galiki. Limi is a vibrant young woman who is a leader and a mentor at her school, Tāmaki College - which she loves attending. She’s involved in the local community and loves spending time with her family.

How long have you been in Tāmaki?
I was born and bred here. I went to Glen Innes Primary, which actually extended into an Intermediate while I was there; and now I'm in Year 13 at Tāmaki College.

What are your best childhood memories?
I have heaps. I remember playing with my friends and making mud cakes close to our place and I used to love the walking school bus that came every day when I was at primary school. A lady used to come past all our houses and wait for us so we could all walk to school in a group and chat with our friends. After school we would often run to her street and all play basketball, or on our RipStiks or skateboards. It was so much fun.

Do you like living here?
I really do. It’s like a big village. You do your own thing and live your own life with your family, but when you go out to play sports, or to get something from the shops, you always run into people you know. That’s a nice feeling. It’s also really convenient where we live - just across the road from the school, and 15 minutes from the train station too. I love taking the train into the city as you can watch all the interesting people who get on and off. It’s only a ten-minute walk from home to the shops and everything is there so it’s all really easy and you can get lots of places without needing to take the car.

And what’s your school like?
It’s amazing and has given me so many opportunities I could never have had, like helping me find my love for sports, especially volleyball. As well as paying a large amount of money to send my team and I to the 2021 secondary school volleyball nationals competition - and also giving me the opportunity to go on the Spirit of Adventure. I am part of a group called Lālanga which helps me set goals and push myself to achieve. I know I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t go to Tāmaki College.

Do you know what you want to do when you finish school?
I guess I will look into it in more detail next year, but I really enjoy Health and PE so I think I might like to teach that. The way health is taught at our school is based on Hauora so it covers physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual well-being and I love what we learn as I think it’s so important for the rest of our lives. Learning about how your past experiences might affect the way you do things and the way you relate to other people now, is really interesting.

And what about your friends? What do they want to do after they finish school?
Some of them are already really determined and know they want to be engineers and lawyers and things like that. You can already see nothing is going to stop them from achieving those goals. Others want to do warehouse work or picking and packing like their parents do. I know some who are doing that already, part-time, as they need to help bring in money for their families.

What changes have you noticed in the area?
Well obviously, there’s all the new housing. We’ve actually moved houses because of it - but Mum was so glad we could stay in Tāmaki, just in a different location. She’s lived all over Auckland and her family are mainly out south towards Mangere and Otara but she says she loves this area the most because it’s so safe and has such a nice feel to it – and it’s the best place for us kids. I’ve only lived here so I don’t know what it’s like to live other places but the fact that Mum feels like this, makes me realise it must be pretty special. There have been lots of changes and repairs to houses recently – the roofs were fixed and many houses were painted, including ours.

What do teens in Tāmaki do in their free time?
We play a lot of sports - that’s also really convenient as it’s mainly at the school or the amazing Rec Centre, just across from my house. We sometimes go to Pt England beach as it’s so close. Or we go and get takeaways - Super Wok does the best chicken nibbles ever and Mandarin takeaways always makes good ribs. The train also makes it super convenient to get to Sylvia Park if we want to hang out at a big mall.

How do you feel about the future of Tāmaki?
I can see lots of people are going to move into the area in all the new houses and it’s good to hear that people are talking more about bringing tech businesses into the area, because I really think that’s where the future is. I like living here, so I will be happy to see what happens.