[6] In 1996 the family moved back to New Zealand and settled in Whangaparāoa on the Hibiscus Coast, where she attended Westlake Girls High School, graduating in 2006.

[3] In 2010 she also became a training partner with the Northern Mystics and was promoted to their first team in 2011, had little time on court, though she did get to play in that year’s grand final.

I remember at the time we were saying, ‘What were we thinking, have we made the right decision?’”[10] This group was further reduced to 30, who then attended a second training camp at Waiouru, among whom were McAlister and Woodman.

[12] The team won the tournament, which gained New Zealand entry to the 2013 World Cup held in June 2012 in Moscow, Russia.

[6] In 2014 after she was given the financial security of a contract she resigned from the Ministry of Justice due to the increasing demands of rugby training every day plus travelling to tournaments.

She missed the start of the 2015–16 season at Dubai due to a foot injury, but was still named in January 2016 as a member of squad of 22 contracted for the 2016 year.

McAlister was a member of the New Zealand woman sevens team that competed in the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

[18] She scored seven tries during the women's tournament, two against Kenya, two against Spain and one against France during the three victories in the first round, then two in the final, which the team lost to Australia, 24-17, earning McAlister a silver medal.

After her husband Pita Ahki signed a contract to play rugby in Ireland for Connacht, McAlister decided that trying to balance her sevens commitments and while trying to maintain a long distance relationship and bring up their child was too much and she stepped away from the New Zealand and moved to Ireland with her 10 month-old daughter and husband.

[24][25] After the end of the 2017-2018 rugby season the family moved in 2018 to France after her husband signed a contract to play for the French club Toulouse.

[26][27] The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic bought an end to McAlister’s rugby plans with the world shutting down and her learning that the Olympics would most likely be cancelled or at least delayed.

She made the decision to rejoin her husband in France and was able to make her way there via a free ride on the reparation flight organised by the French government.

She subsequentially made the decision not to attempt to make the New Zealand for the rescheduled Olympics, though she did provide commentary for Sky Sports on the Sevens competition.