It's a sport she loves, so naturally Hiria Rolleston is thrilled to be competing in the world champs of the popular paddling sport waka ama.

The 38-year-old has been selected to represent New Zealand in a six-person team for the 2017 world distance champs taking place in Tahiti in June.

Hiria says the sport, which originally comes from Tahiti, keeps growing every year.

'It's one of those sports everyone can do. You can have grandchildren and grandparents paddling in the same canoe, which is really cool.”

Her team will be covering 24km in their race – but she's also been training hard for a single-person race due to take place a week beforehand.

It's a sport that's been in her life for a few years now.

'I started paddling waka back in 2011, just socially like most people, before going hard with it in 2014.”

She's dedicated, too, balancing family duties with paddling, and even overcoming injury at one point.

'Last year I tore my Achilles right before a big race here in Tauranga. It left me in a cast, but I still managed to paddle, and made the podium.”

This year the world championships will host teams from all over the world, including Japan, Germany, Italy and Brazil.

'Australia always sends through a pretty big contingent too,” says Hiria.

'Last year they had the world sprints competition in Australia, and New Zealand took that out. But for the Tahitians, this is their sport, like rugby is ours. Everyone wants to beat them at their own game on their home turf.”

Hiria says she loves the social side of the sport, which has huge emphasis on teamwork – you can't have one person powering harder than everyone else.

'You can't afford to have egos in the six-person crews. It just won't work.

'I love the social side, though. It's cool when you get to that elite level, and you're testing how far you can go and travel to different countries. But people are super-friendly – it has a great culture.”