Bourke (25) and Bond (25) attended the Otago University club's prize giving and each spent about half an hour speaking about their success in the sport.
The two were also rewarded for their form this year, picking up awards for the club's best male and female rower respectively.
Bourke won gold in the women's double scull with Tauranga's Zoe Stevenson and Bond claimed silver in the men's lightweight double scull with Tauranga's Adam Ling at the world championships in Amsterdam in August.
Both were recently selected in the New Zealand summer squad and had to take leave to attend the prize giving yesterday.
For Bond, the younger brother of world champion Hamish Bond, it was his first time back at the club since he rowed there from 2008 to 2011.
''Once you get a foot in the door up at Karapiro [Rowing New Zealand's headquarters] they don't give you many opportunities to get out,'' he said.
He has fond memories of his time at the club and had no doubt it helped him represent New Zealand.
''For me, I came here from school ... I wasn't much of an athlete and I hadn't really considered rowing for New Zealand at all.
''It was a really good system ... the club provided everything you could need. After a couple of years, rowing for the country became a viable option.
''It's possible to say that if I didn't come here and row at this university, I wouldn't have ever rowed for New Zealand.''
Bourke, who also won silver in the women's double scull at the 2013 world championships in South Korea, rowed at the Otago University club from 2007 to 2009.
She said many rowers came out of high school and were in ''no man's land'' or had no ''spectacular'' performances under their belt. They would then join the Otago University club and thrive under its high-performance system.
''I came here as a non-athletic person, full stop. I had nothing. But there are definitely pathways in place here that are easy to tap into and offer you everything you could ask for from the club, and possibly more than you would get anywhere else in the country,'' she said.
While the 2016 Rio Olympics are less than two years away, Bond and Bourke were not getting ahead of themselves.
''There is a distant eye on it, I guess. But we kind of just take it year by year,'' Bond said.
Bourke said she was just concentrating on stringing together performances that the selectors could not ignore when it was time for the squad to be selected.
Yesterday, Bourke was just enjoying being back at her club.
''It's good to come back down and see people. People love the club because the club is good. It's like a little family, really.
''It's cool to see that nothing has changed and people are still looking after each other. It's definitely the best rowing club facility-wise in the country, hands down.''
- by Robert Van Royen
