Six of the Bay's total contribution of nine athletes to New Zealand's 61-strong Youth Olympics team flew out of Tauranga Airport this week, all with the goals of extending their performance level, tasting the vibe of an Olympics athletes' village, and enjoying a little of the culture of the host city Buenos Aires.

It's a group that despite its tender years takes with it a remarkable amount of global sporting experience.

'This year I've done four international events,” says windsurfer Max van der Zalm. 'I've competed in Texas, Holland and France. This will be my fifth event, so I'm pretty stoked about that and just learning as I go on and hoping to do better.

'This will definitely be my biggest event so far. The same guys will be there that I've competed with in other regattas but the whole thing's just bigger.”

Sport climber Sarah Tetzlaff, who moved up to Tauranga from Wellington the day after her final school exam last year to train for these games, also accepts she's probably already a bit of a veteran.

'I've been overseas five or six times now this year. I've been to Australia, China, Russia, Thailand and New Caledonia. It's pretty awesome and really good experience so you can do well at these top levels.”

The games, beginning Saturday and running through to October 18, will top anything she's done so far, she says.

'It's going to be pretty insane how different it will be but it's going to be a good challenge.”

The pair were joined on the flight to Argentina, via Auckland, by canoe slalom/sprinters Finn Anderson, Kahlia Cullwick, and George Snook, as well as windsurfer Veerle ten Have, who says many of the competitors she's raced this year at the youth sailing worlds in Corpus Christie, the RSX youth championships in Penmarch, France, and the Hempel Sailing Worlds in Aarhus, Denmark are now good friends.

'After seeing them it's like ‘okay see you in France next week,' and then ‘okay see you in America' the following week. You're just travelling around and split and meet up again.

'It's different but it's cool, I like it.”

Canoeist George Snook, who moved to the Bay in his early years from Palmerston North and lives with his family at the white-water haven of Okere Falls, near Rotorua, is one of those going to the games with ambitions of making a mark at the top level – possibly even with an eye on a gold medal.

'I hope so,” he says. 'I'll go as hard as I can. I've been training pretty hard.”

Living next door to Zack and River Mutton, New Zealand's canoe slalom siblings who rose to prominence at this year's junior world championships in Italy, means he's never short of a training buddy.

'I was in Europe for four months this year, just travelling and racing. I spent a bit of time with Rivy and Zack too at the junior world champs.

'I didn't do too well, I mucked up my races but I trained a lot and I won a few of my smaller races.

'I learned heaps from it and I'm super-motivated to try and do well next year.”

As a year 10 at Rotorua Lakes High School he's at the bottom end of the age bracket, but has big ambitions for next year's junior worlds, and even for the 2020 senior Olympics in Tokyo.

'I'll give it a good shot for 2020, so we'll see.

'I would be very young but, you know, age is just a number.”

Team mate Finn Anderson explains the canoe/kayak competition is modified for the Youth Olympics to cater for the combination of sprinting and slalom disciplines.

'Normally it would be white-water but the event I'm going to is flat water because it's modified. In the sprint event where it would usually be a long straight line it's a figure-of-eight course. There's a few other differences as well.

'It's to level the playing field because there's slalom athletes and there's sprint athletes and most have to pick up the other sport, because most will be specialised in just one.”

Like George, Finn has his eyes on the big prize.

'I'm looking for a podium finish at least because in the qualifications I finished second, and the person who came first isn't coming because he didn't do well enough in sprint.”

He feels good about his chances, but also a bit of pressure, he says.

'You never know how everyone else has trained, if they've all improved.”

The third member of the canoe/kayak team, Kahlia Cullwick, has been paddling for just around two years, but says she's hooked on the sport.

'I've always loved water. I really like water splashing in my face which as weird as it sounds is just something I find really enjoyable. It's just challenging me, it's a really cool sport with cool people and I really enjoy the thrill of the water.”

Although she's come a long way in those two years in the boat, she says her goals are to learn and enjoy the experience.

'I really want to go there with my A game and just perform as well as I possibly can. I'm not too focused on results, for me it's about the experience, and learning to be there in a competition and perform well.

'At the moment I'm just enjoying where I'm at.”

Aside from catching up with friends, sightseeing, enjoying watching and supporting team mates in other events, and trying not to over-indulge in the plentiful free food on offer in the games village, the chance to gain insights on how to live the life of an elite globe-trotting athlete is a big attraction, says Sarah.

'There's also going to be a lot of information for younger athletes there. They're doing lots of workshops around drug-free sport, and careers in sport and building your social media status, and nutrition, so I think there's going to be a lot of good information out there that'll be good to learn.”