Vahaakolo’s introduction to first-class rugby is hardly a classical one.
The 23-year-old Aucklander has made a great start to his first-class career, scoring a try in his starting debut last week.
This week it is a matter of a Ranfurly Shield challenge against Taranaki in Inglewood.
Vahaakolo arrived in the South in June and it has been a whirlwind past few weeks although the past few years have been very busy.
"At the start of the year, I had finished university and wanted to concentrate on rugby.
"With about four weeks to go, I got a call from the Highlanders and got an opportunity to come down here and be in the environment," he said.
"It was really good. Just more about what you can do without the ball in hand. Wingers, if you stay on the edge, you only get a couple of opportunities but if you come off and start doing different things with your body movement, your behaviour, your chat.
"It is not just a confidence thing — being a student, only eating noodles for three meals a day — and training during the day."
Vahaakolo took a while to get his career under way, first playing the game when he was 17.
"School wasn’t really for me. I was a high school drop-out. But in 2017 I made a plan — ‘look, I want to go to uni but I can’t get in’.
"So in 2017 I did a foundation course. In 2018, Auntie Jacinda helped me out with free fees so I decided to go to Uni to give it a try. I did business and commerce ... I discovered accounting and commercial law, and found about wanting to do my CA. So in 2018 I went full tilt at that.
"I did a couple of extra papers so I could finish my degree earlier. I did my degree in two and a-half years.
" I’m proud of what I did there but I’m not the traditional student. I’m first generation there."
He was set to start at an accountancy firm but rugby won out and now the shield is up for grabs.
"To be fair, being such as late bloomer I do not have a lot of experience of growing up with it [Ranfurly Shield] and watching it.
"But you talk to people who have played in it then, as a young player to be given the opportunity to play for it, for someone who is in his first year, it is a bit of a privilege."
He is loving Otago — the weather is colder but the people are warmer — and, like any winger, loves scoring tries.
"I think if you are a winger and you are focusing on tries then your mind is probably not in the right place. That is your job isn’t it? If I am top try-scorer then I must be doing my job.
"My name is Freedom and I like to express myself out there. It is my real name.
"People ask me that but I don’t know if anyone would nickname themself that name. They would have a bit of a problem if they did that."
