Honey Hireme-Smiler

Honey Hireme-Smiler

Honey Hireme-Smiler is a triple international representing New Zealand in rugby league, rugby sevens, and rugby union and has been an exceptional flag bearer for New Zealand women’s sport.

She talks about her upbringing in Putaruru where the self-confessed ‘punk kid’ eventually turned a corner and set her on a path that would lead to an international sporting career that spanned 18 years. In fact her commitment, passion and dedication to her sports saw her appointed as a Member of the NZ Order of Merit for her services to sport.

Honey now works as a senior disability sport advisor with the Halberg Foundation, a presenter with Sky Sport and continues to give back via coaching, mentoring and various ambassador roles, ranging from school and community to representative and international level.

Honey is a sports super-woman, but there are also some really powerful moments of reflection in her story, the struggles she’s been through and the character-building lessons along the way.  

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‘Punk Kid’ to Cross-Code Superstar

Episode 46

In this episode we talk about how Honey fared at the Putaruru athletics championships as a teenager, some of the toughest times from her childhood – and how she turned a corner, why she only discovered her legal name as a teenager, the sudden loss of her mum and the lessons in strength she received from her final weeks, why she peaked as an athlete in her mid 30s and the time she skipped from a Sevens World Cup to a Rugby League World Cup in a week.