The traditional Maori performance has a long and storied tradition in the land of the long white cloud, ranging from a welcoming dance to one performed at celebrations and funerals.

In the last century it's been more commonly known by those outside of New Zealand as the dance performed by the country's sporting teams, and in the Australian experience it's the sound you hear before being walloped by the All Blacks.

Although - thankfully for the Orange under-15 cricketers facing it - the Haka on Sunday wasn't performed by the All Blacks, but by Wakatipu High School students on what is now a tour about so, so much more than cricket.

While the sport itself - in particular the Sharpe-Mawhinney Shield, which was reclaimed by Orange in a thrilling win on Sunday - plays a major part of the tour, the genuine friendship between the two sides' players and coaches has far surpassed what the tour is about - it's so, so much more than cricket.

WHS cricket tour captain Will Cooper said in the two tours he'd done - one to NSW in 2018 and hosting the Orange side in Queenstown in 2019 - he'd made "lifelong friends".

He boarded with the family of Harry Kermode in 2018 before hosting him in return last year - not once but twice, as Kermode made his way to Queenstown to visit Cooper.

"It's absolutely great, we love it," Cooper said.

"It's good to get to know people."

Cooper also lead the side's Haka and said it was "exhilirating" for the side "to show our culture in another country", especially in front of not just rivals but friends.

Those friendships were on display at Wade Park ahead of their exhibition game, too, with players and coaches mingling and calling out to each other across the ground before play.

WHS tour manager Tim Young said the cooperation and genuine friendship between the sides was "the best part of sport" on display.

"Some of these boys were billeted her two years ago and then some of them stayed with us last year so they've been staying online and chatting and meeting their cricketing mates in another country," he said.

He said when the tour it placed more importance on building those friendships than it did on what happened on the field, and that emphasis was shining through five years into the program.

"Some of them built some good relationships, you see them chatting online and staying in touch and look at this," Young said, gesturing as one of the Kiwi coaches called out to an Orange player before a hi-five.

The tour is also becoming a must-do for WHS cricketers, too.

"This is our third tour here now and it's developing a reputation now around the hype and the excitement and challenge of the tournament and being in Orange," Young said.

"These boys are incredibly excited... they've been fizzing. The night before they left Queenstown no-one could get them to sleep.

The news the exhibition game was to be played on Wade Park was treated with a level of reverance similar to playing on the MCG or SCG, with Young telling his charges they were in for "an absolute treat" playing on the ground.

"It's such a stunning ground, with the white picket fence and looks like a genuine cricket ground," he said.

"We've had a couple of players in the [carnival-wide] Twenty20 exhibition match and the stories they have of the grandstand and the boys performing the haka before the game to the crowd, they know what an amazing field and facility it is."

Which is quite the feat considering WHS' home ground in Queenstown is ringed with snow-capped mountains and is nothing short of breathtaking.

"Last year some of the parents couldn't believe it," Young said of the vistas in Queenstown, but said the awe went both ways.

"We do the same at Wade Park, the lights, the scoreboard, they don't have grounds like this in New Zealand."

Young said the side was eternally grateful to Jo Hunter and her army of organisers, families putting touring kids up for a week and those who put in the hard yards back in Queenstown to make it possible.

"We don't get the opportunity to play as a High School team in a tournament like this," he said.

He cited the intensity, the 50-over games for four days in a row, turf pitches for all matches and above all the heat - with Queenstown rarely hitting 30 degrees in summer, playing in near 40 degrees is a shock to the system for some of the boys, but Young said they relish it all.

"Cricket in Australia is just a step up from what we're used to in terms of the numbers and the reputation of the Australian team, especially after what they did to the Black Caps."

While the Australians put the Kiwi national side to the sword across three test matches, the WHS stood up to the Orange side, pushing them all the way in the exhibition T20 before winning their first two carnival games, the latter in a crushing victory.

The side's improved every time they've come out here, but based on the smiles on faces as the two sides catch up, it feels like they'd be just as happy sitting having a chinwag - just don't mention the test side.

"We haven't had any sledging yet," Young laughed. "But when we do it'll be well deserved."