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