I was conscious of other eyes on us, many also misted with emotion.
It had been a painful, gruelling and inspiring experience, not only for those on the dojo floor.
While others in the South chose a costumed dip in the sea to celebrate the shortest day, the Seido karate club in Timaru traditionally has a midwinter beach training weekend and this year it included a black belt grading for two young Dunedin people.
After six years of karate training at the Seido club in Dunedin, Steve Howden and Zoe Jaquiery were told, at the end of 2007, to prepare for their shodan promotion.
Karate clubs do not hand out black belts lightly and participants must be both physically and mentally conditioned.
The grading begins with combinations (punches, blocks, kicks) and exercise routines to tire the candidates.
They are then examined in detail on their knowledge of the Seido syllabus: self-defences, kihon, yakusoku and kata.
The kumite, or fighting, is the final and most gruelling element.
The examination tests fitness, knowledge, endurance and determination over more than three hours, culminating in 40 contact fights of a minute and a-half each.
Some of the more experienced karate exponents could have swatted these exhausted karateka with one well-placed blow during the fighting.
However, they were there to challenge, test and batter Steve and Zoe to the brink of their mental and physical endurance.
Occasionally, an errant, stinging blow to the head or knee would send them reeling.
Repeated punches under the ribs left them winded; but despite tears of pain and exhaustion, over and over Zoe's aching and battered body would come back with a strong attack of her own, making others in the dojo cheer and encourage - and her father proud to bursting.
To outsiders, being a black belt sounds like the ultimate achievement, but it really means that a karate student has shown mastery of the basics.
It's like climbing a mountain - as soon as you crest the peak in front of you, you discover peak after peak stretching into the distance.
Traditional karate teaching stresses that karate is a life-long pursuit with as much moral and spiritual challenge as physical prowess.
For Zoe and Steve, as 1st dan black belts, this journey has only just begun.
