Rakahuri Rage

Well Brooklyn and I did it and I would like to say we did it in style,but I highly doubt that.

It was starting out to be a very,very hot day and we were going to do a six hour bike ride. Brooklyn and I were in a team of two for the race and I have a slight suspect that lots of people thought that we couldn't do it. After a quite long and boring race briefing everyone that was starting first went to the starting line and I am sad to say that was me. I wouldn't of minded starting,but the people that started first had to do an extra 2.5 kilometres to even it out. I was beside Rhianna and Mr Read for the start and I have to say that Rhianna nearly started dominos with the riders because somehow she managed to topple over at a stand still. Luckily I managed to stop myself before I smashed into Mr Read. After a very long anxious wait,we started.

Starting was one of the hardest bits because everyone was so close to each other and everyone was so slow. We went up not the stop bank and I was trying to keep a steady pace. After what seemed like a click of a finger we were on to the single track, my favourite!!! I was really enjoying the single track and then the rest of the track seemed to be a breeze. Soon I was finishing my lap in a pretty good time,tagging Brooklyn and resting. After I had eaten and drunk heaps it wasn't very long before Brooklyn was back,narrowly missing my bike because she was going so fast and tagging me.

The second lap was better than the first,but I really had to push at the last part because I was so tired. One of the best parts would have to be the R&R at the end of the lap. I grabbed a chocolate biscuit and a roll. I started to eat my roll first,but I had to scratch that idea because the biscuit was melting like the chocolate palace in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. I had so much chocolate on my hands that it looked like I had finaly got a tan,but sadly it wasn't to last. I was given a baby wipe and it was wiped of my hands in a hurry because someone had spotted Brooklyn.

And soon I was of on another lap. Now I better explain the track so you can get a good picture in
your head. First you had to go along a grass track. The grass was around about one inch long and I know it may not sound hard,but there you are wrong. It was like the grass didn't want you to move
and it stuck to tyres making it impossible to move fast. Then you went on to the stop-bank and down onto the single track. The single track was by far the best because:
1.It weaved around in tight corners making it more interesting
2.It had lots of humps and bumps. My favourite would have to be the three judder bars.
3.IT WAS IN THE SHADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The single track lasted till around the half way mark. The rest was not very exciting,except for the biggest hill were you had to go down and thankfully not up. The last part was coming of the stop-bank and onto the grass that clung to your wheels. So that was the whole track and it probably sounded short,but it was around 8 killometres long.

The rest of the laps went well,but I was definatly tiring. I managed to do good times for all of my laps considering the searing heat. On my last lap I must of got an extra boost of energy because I did one of my fastest times. I ended up doing six laps in total which I am very proud of.

About a day after the Rage someone came to me with the question of, "Will you do it again in a two and why did you do it in a two when you could of had faster times?". I have been pondering on this question for a while now and I finally have an answer. "Of corse I would do it again in a two because I enjoyed it, I not only enjoyed the biking, I also enjoyed the sense of achievement at the end". This was the best thing I have done in a while,so expect me next time.

Waiata

In the morning we do a song. This is a song we have been getting good at:

NZ Readaloud

Our task for this week was to come up with a rhetorical question based on the book. We looked at advertising on the web to come up with ideas. Here is mine:

Mass

For maths we are doing measurement. Haylley and I made a pic collage estimating the mass of objects. Then we worked out the mass of the objects that we could work out.

Treaty of Waitangi

This year of corse we had to cover the very important topic of "The Treaty Of Waitangi". I wasn't very excited about this because we do it every year and it gets a bit boring,but this year was probably the best yet. Our project was to find a topic that you were interested in and after some research create some hexagons on your topic. The best thing about the hexagons is that they were small so you didn't have to have lots of writing, but you could have as many hexagons as you wanted so you could write heaps of information if you wanted. I wasn't sure on what topic I would cover so Mrs Hanna helped me out by giving me a book that is written for kids on the Treaty of Waitangi. After reading a few chapters I decided to cover Abel Tasmen and his adventures to New Zealand. I am proud of both my hexagons,but the one I am most proud of is the second one because I put some illustrations in(drawing is not one of my strong points).

Quote of the week

This was on my momentum page:
"If people aren't laughing at your dreams,your dreams aren't big enough"

Fun Run

It was a cold frosty morning and some people were still cosyed up in there beds. Right now I was eveing these people. I was about to start the Kiapoi to Rangiora fun run for my William Pike challenge. Everyone was going through a warm up and then the guy who was talking handed the starting horn over to another man. He blew the horn and we were off!!! I ran the first 4 kilometres and then did a run and walk to half way(6 kilometres). I was felling pretty good considering,but my legs were starting to hurt. It was starting to get quite hot so I was trying to find ways to entertain myself. First I tried looking at the veiw,but there was nothing good to look at(except people who like to look at grass and trees). Then I tried singing,but there were two problems to that. One, I was to out of breath to sing and two, I am a terrible singer so it was painful to listen to(and a bit embarrassing when someone passed you).
After all this I came to the last drink station turned a corner and found myself on a very busy road. I had about 2-3 kilometres to go and I new were to go so it wasn't that hard,well except for the part were someone tooted at my and I got such a fright that I nearly fell over!!! I finally got to the part were I could see the end and I sprinted.
At the start I was thinking that the name"Fun Run" isn't very good because running is not FUN,but after I had done it I realised that one of the reasons they give this name is because afterwards I actually realised that I did have fun finishing. The best part for me would have to be the seance of achievement at the end.

St. Johns

In St. John's I am completing my hobbie badge. To do this I need to start a hobbie (I am going to do baking) and I need to record what I did. My goal is to try to do something perfectly. I need to make a poster about my hobbie. I am looking forward to completing my first badge. 

Hobby

I started my new hobby on Wednesday! I am proud to be an official St john member. I found it really fun and the teacher was very funny. I can't wait till next time!!!!

William Pike Challenge

On this page I will be writing about:

• My new hobby
• Climbing either Mt Thomas or Mt Grey
• 20 hours of community service
• 10km run

My piece of advice I have been given is:

GET IT DONE. DON'T LEAVE IT TO THE LAST TERM.

Wish me luck!!!!

Hawdon Hut

As I got out of the mini bus I didn't actually think I would make it to the hut. The mini bus ride had been short considering the length of the trip. Soon we had divided out the supplies and we were on our way. We had about a five minute walk till we were at our first river crossing. William Pike explained how to safely cross a river. Soon Brooklyn,Derrin,Rhianna and I were struggling across the river our hands stuck in awkward positions under our packs, but thankfully we made it over and we were tramping over the river bed with soaking wet shoes in the searing heat. We wlked down a bush track for about 2 hours, but I can tell you it didn't fell like that it felt more like 1000000 hours. So we walked along in the heat complying about how long it was talking when we heard cries of "Lunch,Lunch" up ahead. It turned out to be a fulse alarm and we ended up bum-sliding down the hill for nothing!!!We got out of the trees and started walking on a scorching hot river bed and finally to

my relief we stopped for lunch. The second half of the walk was better than the first mainly because
everyone had got use to our packs and Brooklyn and I were deep in conversation. The only bad thing about the second half was that we had all run out of water a the people who hadn't weren't so keen to share it. So we are walking along in the scorching heat with heavy pack and we have no water,a very ideal situation(not). Our little group of Brooklyn,William Pike and I got to a fork and one ay had yellow triangles and one looked more worn than the other so basically we had lost our way!!! Thankfully we heard the other group and went down the right path and didn't get lost. After a swim in a river and a couple of crossings we were all ready to sit down at the hut. We had just started a conversation when I heard whoops of joy, so assuming that people had got to the hut we sprinted and found the welcoming sight of Hawdon hut!!! We rested,unpacked and swam before we gobbled up some yummy freeze dried meals. After that we went boulder hopping which was probably the worst part for me because I fell over and got wet and sore. We listened to William Pikes story and then went
into a very deep sleep. I can't really remember much about the walk out,but I can remember how cold I was(obviously the porridge didn't work on warming me up). When we got back to the mini bus I gobbled up a bun and then we went to cave stream. We had to put on our thermals in the heat and I can tell you that we didn't care about the safety briefing, we just wanted to get into the cave so we could cool down. The cave was the best, from the swimming to the rock formations.We were all pretty tired to get home so we were all quite tired but after our ice cream stop we were all refuelled to do some singing. We sang just about all the way to school. Overall I thought the trip was really fun. I can't wait for the next trip.

Swimming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Packing

Ohhh, do not talk to me about packing and repacking and repacking!!! I hated it. It was pure agony(well maybe it was not that bad,but still). I may be smiling in this photo, but believe me I was not felling like that inside.

CHALLENGES

On this page I will blog about all my crazy adventures in the William Pike challenge. The first challenge is the Hawdon hut and Cave stream. I am really looking forward to this because we are doing so much cool stuff in just two days. We all have food groups and this means that in your group you have to supply breakfast and snacks for your group. Lucky me, I am on supplying breakfast(which is porridge). I will have to make it for breakfast some time in the weekend to see if I have got the quantities right!!!I also have to pack (Boo) this isn't my favourite activity!!!

Swimming

This week was the first week for swimming lessons. We have a great teacher and because of that I have been learning lots of new tips. The lesson that I enjoyed the most would have to be the 200 metre swim without stopping. I enjoyed this because it was a challenge for me. So far the water in the pool has been warm and the worst part is always getting out! My goal for next time is to focus on making my freestyle arms long. I am looking forward to the next swimming lesson.

Juggling With Mandarins

In our class we have started a program called NZ read aloud. In NZ read aloud classes sign up to read a book. We read a number of pages each week and then we have to complete an activity set by a teacher based on the book. We are reading Juggling With Mandarins by VM Jones. So far the book as been both exciting and interesting. The book uses lots of metaphors which makes you create a picture in your head. The activities we have done so far are word clouds on caracters. In this activity we wrote down lots of words describing a caracter(I chose the dad) and turned it into a shape related to the book. Here is a link to mine-My Character Montage. The next activity was a Alphabet Summery. This meant we had to come up with a word that had a connection to the story for every letter of the alphabet. This is mine-Alphabet Summary. I can't wait till we read some more.

Quote of the week

I like this quote because when I first saw this I thought of how there are different types of courage and we all have it but show it in different ways.

Grand opening day

This is my piece of writing that we wrote about the book that we are reading(Juggling with mandarins). In the book there's a opening day of the new mega centre. Our topic we were given is Grand opening day. This is my writing:

Ever since that fight that one fight with that mean old man everything has changed.it's just like someone has come and tipped the world upside down making it change,probably forever and it is all that darn big dome shaped buildings fault. I know I probably sound stupid,mad even for a kid,but it all started when that silly old man invested thousands and thousands of dollars for a pretty big mega centre. At first I was excited like a horse getting sugar,but that sugar was snatched away and the paddock that the horse lived in was taken away. I was the horse. I was the one that lived in those old,ugly,derelict houses that got wiped out and turned into a big gym. I was the one that lived in those houses that no one cared about and when they knocked down our house no one spared a thought for those people and what gets me the most is why didn't anyone think,

"Where are these people going to live?".

I remember the day like Christmas, not in a good way though. It was the argueing,the shouting that woke me from my slumber. I remember the bulky man with the big shoulders shouting at my father and my father,my small,skinny, father shouting back"you can't take our house". Over all of this the one thing I remembered the most was the man ignoring my father's pleas,handing him a slip of paper and saying "Your house will be knocked down at two o'clock today, so you have four hours to get your most wanted possessions and get out".

I was so angry at that man,the man that started the fight,the man that gave the all clear to knock down OUR house. I was angry at the people that cheered when they knocked down the first house,the people who watched transfixed for the whole day and the people that left my poor,struggling family living under the bridge,but I didn't have to be angry anymore because I had a plan....

Anna

Quote of the week

My goal:

Yum

A toffee apple and plum with a white chocolate and pistachio twirl and a pistachio crumb:)

Our creation

Looks just like Masterchef quality!!!!

For my St johns badge Brooklyn and I have made our Masterchef dish. I'd say about a 10/10 would be about right!!!It tasted amazing!!!!

The toffee apples were amazingly nice!!!!