Nicole Wong's passion for sport has taken her from the North Island of New Zealand, to the US, England and now Tamworth.
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The Auckland native is busily packing and preparing to take up the role as the sports programs manager for the Northern Inland Academy of Sport.
A self-professed adventurous spirit - she likes "exploring new things" and is always "up for a new challenge" - the 27-year-old officially starts in April and told ACM she's "excited to get over there and start getting into things".
Replacing Richard Willis, NIAS CEO Shona Eichorn said they are thrilled to welcome Wong to the NIAS team.
"Her diverse experiences, unwavering dedication, and passion for sports development make her the ideal candidate to lead our programs into a new era of growth and achievement," she said.
Someone who has always loved sport and growing up played "everything and anything" she could, she was set on her current path when she was "fortunate" to be offered a hockey scholarship to Belmont Abbey College in the US.
"College athletics in America, there's nowhere else in the world like it," she said.
"They do everything bigger and better; facilities, resources, and it just made me fall in love, and want to work in the sports industry."
At that stage she wasn't sure exactly what field or capacity.
After graduating, she then headed over to England to do a Masters of International Sports Management through Northumbria University.
"Doing that I started to learn a bit more about the industry and figure out where my passion was, and that was that sport development side," Wong said.
Working with athletes from primary school age up to 18, it was during that time that she "really fell in love" with coaching "that secondary school age group".
"It's such an impactful time especially in their sporting and athletic careers," Wong said.
"They can really start to build strong habits, explore their potential and really set those standards for their next steps if they are to become those elite athletes that they aspire to be."
Being able to continue to work with that age group was for Wong, who was most recently the Regional Events Sport Coordinator for the Taranaki Secondary School Sports Association, one of the big appeals of the NIAS job.
Looking for "a new opportunity" and to take "the next step" in her career when she came across the ad, another thing that really resonated with her was their "holistic approach".
"It really aligned with my own coaching philosophy and that is I don't think that an athlete is able to perform at their potential on the field if they aren't doing everything off the field right," she said.
"Especially at that young age, they may be trying as hard as they can on the field, if they're not fuelling themselves right, if their head's not in that right space they're never going to be able to reach their capabilities".
She will be pretty well straight into it with the annual Academy Games, which NIAS will have several squads involved in, on just a couple of weeks after she arrives.
