What was planned to be a small get-together for a couple of ex-pupils had grown to crowd of 30, as women travelled from all over New Zealand to attend this weekend’s event.
A range of ex-pupils who had started at the school in 1975, 1976, and 1977 gathered to share stories of mischief.
The reunion’s organiser, ex-pupil Anne-Marie Hanning said there were many devious ways they sneaked cookies from the kitchen or apples from the orchard.
"We were well fed, but always hungry."
The women at the reunion were part of the school’s final year before its consolidated with St Thomas’s in 1978.
Until their new quarters were built in Oamaru, they boarded at St Patrick’s, taking a bus into town each day and singing raunchy songs all the way.
Although the decision to consolidate was not taken lightly, it was because of the forward-thinking of the nuns.
Sister Elizabeth Mackie OP said they recognised the girls were missing out on the more ordinary aspects of life because of the boarding school’s isolation.
Sister Mackie said what was once a valid way of teaching was no longer suitable in the modern world.
Ms Hanning said they all had "great memories" and she felt she had her childhood for longer.
Sister Mackie described a balance in which the nuns acted as teachers and disciplinarians, but also as mothers in the evenings, tending to the pupils’ emotional needs.
She recalled a moment when she saw Ms Hanning stick her head out of a window and yell "the nuns will get you" to a group of boys below.
Before the consolidation, playing sports got the girls into town and closer to boys, better yet if they played netball next to St Kevin’s College, a boys school.
Many of the ex-pupils had not seen each other since the school finished.
Ms Hanning said when the boarding school closed it lost three-quarters of its pupils and for many it was like losing a part of their family.
But all they had to do was click their fingers and people would turn up, she said.
"Hopefully we can do it again and it will get bigger."
