Corporal Ariana Blackwood has been named the New Zealand Army Soldier of the Year 2025.
CPL Blackwood first visited the Waiouru Military Training Area as a scientist to test the river water. She loved the environment so much she enlisted in the New Zealand Army and six years later has been named NZ Army Soldier of the Year 2025.
Having grown up in Whakatāne before moving with her family to Palmerston North where she attended Freyberg High School, a career in the Army wasn’t CPL Blackwood’s first mission after finishing her studies.
“I actually went to Massey University to study Environmental Science and Ecology and ended up getting what was then my dream job as a research assistant focusing on freshwater and biodiversity. I knew I wanted to be working outdoors and have a hands-on career,” she says.
That position ended up introducing her to military life, with her research regularly taking her into the Waiouru Military Training Area to analyse the waters of the Moawhango river.
“I just fell in love with the training area. Even just driving past the rifle ranges and seeing soldiers on their pack marches and drills – I just remember thinking at the time how cool that must be.”
In 2019, aged 24, CPL Blackwood enlisted into the NZ Army. After completing the All Arms Recruit Course, she posted to Trade Training School, where she commenced her apprenticeship as an Electronics Technician – a vital trade responsible for the maintenance and repair of over 200 specialised electronic and optical systems across the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF).
“I just wanted to try something completely new, and with everything around us becoming more and more digitised, and technology rapidly taking over large parts of warfare, it was just an area that I felt was right for me.”
Her citation for the honour stated that she has set a “shining example of what right looks like to all ranks, displaying unwavering adherence to Ngāti Tūmatauenga, the New Zealand Army’s ethos and values”.
It added that her “relentless pursuit of excellence in all that she undertakes, along with her determination to overcome challenges, demonstrates her drive and commitment to achieving her high professional standards.”
Her career in uniform to date has included numerous honours, including being nominated as top soldier and top sportsperson for 2nd Combat Services Support Battalion, named top soldier and sports person for 2 Workshop Company and was selected for the Chief of Army’s forum for International Women’s Day earlier this year.
Corporal Blackwood has also consistently achieved high fitness and soldiering standards, including gaining entry to the Army’s famed “100-club” for fitness testing. For females, this requires running 2.4 kilometres in under 10:05 and completing 36 uninterrupted press-ups.
She’s currently posted to Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles as an Electronics Technician, and earlier this year deployed with the New Zealand Combat Team to Exercise Diamond Run and Talisman Sabre in Australia, which she said was “the next best thing to a real-world deployment”.
Giving back to the Army, and to the next generation of soldiers is something that is on her radar.
“In the shorter-term I’d love to do some coursing that would enable me to be a crew commander of a recovery variant of our NZ Light Armoured Vehicles. But beyond that, I’d love to think I might get a posting to The Army Depot, or a role where I can help instruct our junior soldiers, which is something I love doing,” she said.
