The 6 teams of the New Zealand League: North Division. We've got teams from Northland (based in Whangārei), Waikato (based in Hamilton), Bay of Plenty (based in Tauranga), and three from Auckland.
Up north, the sky feels bigger. The beaches stretch longer. The games run slower, unless the Dolphins are running them. Based out of Whangārei but carrying the whole north with them, the team plays with a kind of calm urgency -- like they know something you don’t.
Out west of Auckland, the forest gets thick, the roads get narrow, and the spiders get
huge. The Waitakere Ranges are home to some of the country's densest bush -- and if you’ve walked a trail out there, chances are you’ve had a faceful of web. The Spiders lean into that reputation: twitchy, sudden, and surprisingly elegant.
Half skyline, half volcanic cone. Auckland is big, loud, and fast-growing. The names makes its nod to the harbour where literal sharks can be spotted and metaphorical ones run the property market. The rest of the country hates Auckland, rest assured you'll spot plenty of shirts with the phrase "I Support two teams [MY TEAM] and whoever's playing Auckland. "
South Auckland doesn’t ask for respect—it earns it, week after week, hit after hit. The Stallions are built in that image: strong-backed, no-nonsense, and always moving forward. The name’s a nod to horsepower, sure—but also to mana. This team carries it like a flag.
The morepork, or
ruru, is New Zealand’s native owl: quiet, precise, and a little eerie. So naturally, Waikato named a baseball team after it. Because while everyone else was going big and loud, the Morepork went nocturnal. Based in the misty belly of the country, this team doesn’t roar -- they haunt.
This is the team that turns bloopers into triples, dropped third strikes into rally starters, and routine fly balls into supernatural events. The name isn’t ironic. It’s just accurate. Nobody can quite explain how they win games they shouldn’t, or why visiting pitchers forget how to throw strikes once the sea breeze rolls in. The Magic don’t overpower. They
bewitch.