Thursday 20 June 2013

Camp milk crate challenge



Dangling in the air is fun.

Alex, our instructor, led towards some of the biggest trees I've seen in a long time. Straight away she tells us to put on helmets, or it’s an instant 10 press-ups! ( That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think so? ) Because there were safety barriers.

Anyway, Alex shows us how to put on a harness. It’s fairly simple, but I won’t go into too much detail as you will probably get bored. Alex teaches us a short song in case we forgot what to do. It goes like this, ‘Three C’s, Squeeze squeeze, Helmets Please, Yo Alex!’.

There were two trees: a tall but thin pine tree and a many branched gum tree. There were three paths on the gum tree, one easy path, a slightly harder one and an expert path on the gum tree, but only one long path on the pine tree. Straight up, straight down.

Levi, Caleb and I were in a group and we all decided that we weren’t going to do the wimpy beginners course. So we planned that we would do the medium path then the expert path, and then the single pine course. That was a pretty good plan.

We got ourselves strapped in next to the medium path. Levi went up first so, Caleb was the anchor if Levi fell and I was the fireman pulling all the leftover cord into the bucket. All together we sang the Climbing song. Alex came over and gave us the thumbs up. Caleb and I asked if Levi was ready. He was. He asked if we were ready. We were.

Levi CAREFULLY crept up the ladder like a sloth, then got into action. He lifted his foot into a foothold, then hoisted himself into a wedge between a branch and the trunk. At that height he was about two and a half metres to three metres from the ground. It doesn’t look far from the ground but it is far from his POV ( that’s point of view ) . He said the magic word - marshmallows - and he started abseiling down. Not too bad. Caleb’s turn.

Caleb’s goal was to beat Levi’s height of three metres. He told Alex that but she said try and beat yourself. He took that in, but he still wanted to beat Levi. So we swapped jobs, I became the anchor and Levi was the fireman. We sang the song again and this time Alex hung around. We asked Caleb if he was ready. He asked us if we were ready, then off he went.

Caleb went as slow as Levi up the ladder, which was pretty cruisy. He wedged himself where Levi bailed. I heard the other groups. Man! They were loud!! Caleb’s mum, Shannon, told me to focus because I started looking around. Caleb started to freak out and we had to calm him down. He said marshmallow and he started abseiling down. I was so light that when Caleb came down, he lifted me of the ground like a gorilla lifting a banana. He bet Levi by about thirty centimetres. At least he’s happy. My heartbeat quickens. My turn.

The only climbing I’ve done is on the climbing wall at school,and I got stuck on that, I was fairly nervous ( understatement of the year ). I attached myself to the pulley. Felt a bit heavy. We sang the song and Alex gave us the all clear. Levi and Caleb asked if I was ready. ‘I am,’ I lied. ‘Are you?’ I asked them. They are.

I shook off myself. I start climbing the ladder surprisingly fast, faster than anyone I’ve seen. I slow down a little bit because Levi and Caleb had trouble keeping up. I get to the place where Levi and Caleb stopped in one minute, were it took them about three minutes. Pretty good for a rookie. I put my back on a branch as I plan my way up. There was about seventeen steps until the end of the current track. There is one way up anyway, so I just started climbing. My groupees cheer me on all the way. I just make it to a dead step when I decide to stop. The adrenaline was starting to leave. ‘Marshmallow.’ It took awhile for me to accustom to the abseiling position. It’s ok.

My teammates congratulated me when I got down. ‘It wasn’t too hard,  once I got used to it.’ Now to the next one. The hard one. The path basically starts where Caleb and Levi gave up. After that is a single, long, treacherous path. Caleb’s turn. Then Levi’s. Finally, me.

I started up the long, unstable ladder slightly slower than last time. I was scared that I was going to fall, but why should I be? If I fall Caleb and Levi will catch me. I get to the place where Caleb stopped, not too far from where I was. I start to climb again. ‘Use your leg muscles.’ someone says. ‘What muscles?’ I mutter. Focus. I grab onto another hold, and I heaved. I made it to the spot where I gave up. I looked down. Bad mistake. My heart rate quickens. A sudden surge of strength comes. I start climbing even quicker. One hold at a time. That actually works. I make it to the pulley for the previous climb. This is high enough.

This pine tree looks very tall, but no one seems to care. I saw Daniel and Cody climb all the way up, but they've done this before. Caleb’s turn. We all strap ourselves in, and Caleb ascends the ladder. It is a wooden ladder thankfully, like the first one. Caleb manages to get up the ladder before he gave up. Same with Levi. Okay. I’m ready.

I start to climb the ladder. It seems unsteady. I’m not tall enough so I have to stand on the tip of the ladder. I lose my balance and I launch myself onto the nearest branch and I hang for a while. I don’t know why I jumped Levi and Caleb would have caught me. I guess I wanted to be kinda cool. I don’t manage to finish. I’m cool with that.

Now onto something really cool, the Twin Towers activity. The task was easy. Stack milk crates in two towers next to each other as high as you can. Pretty simple, eh? Well it isn’t. Once it gets past level four your helpers have to hand the crates up to you. Then they have to throw them up to you. One level of the crates is about forty centimetres, so multiply that by ten is four metres. That’s high. And it is really unstable.

Levi was throwing them up to me. We’re on level thirteen. Levi thre one up. I missed. Second time. I caught it when it’s falling down. So pro. The record is seventeen. That was with adult help. We haven’t had any help at all. I placed down the crate and moved. Being balanced isn’t one of my specialties, if I had any.

Level seventeen. Finally! Man, it is high! Levi threw a crate up and I caught it. Cool. I got the crowd rooting for me. Eighteen. We won!! We won anyway because we had no adult help. I wanted to go higher. Nineteen. I told everyone I’m going to bail. So... I did. Matthew was being stupid and he stayed right under where I tipped the towers. Egg.

When my anchor people brought me down, I was still excited. Mr Wood caught all of the action on the iPad. So I didn’t fabricate this whole story. Tree climbing is epic! I would definitely do that again.

Sunday 16 June 2013

My Dad

Here's Will.i.am's (not the really famous one, our much cooler version) piece of writing about his Dad. Not sure whether its prose or poetry. What do you think?


Hanmer Video

2 weeks ago we had our winter camp at Hanmer Springs. He is a wee taste of what happened...more to follow. A big thanks to Miss Panther for the cool vid


Hanmer Camp 2013 from Jacinda Panther on Vimeo.

Thursday 13 June 2013

Celebrating our Role Models for Matariki

Matariki is a time to come together as a whanau and a time for celebration. In room 14 we are celebrating the shining stars in our lives-the role models that we look up to. Read and enjoy.

My Uncle Adam
My uncle Adam is a role model to me because he fought cancer and he is still alive today. That takes guts, because he must have been scared and if he died the world would be a horrible place without him.

I love him. He is an awesome uncle. He is a hard working man. He respects lots of people. He works for W.C. Public Health, his job is to help people who have cancer. He organises wood and coal if they need it, he sits and listens to their old stories. Sometimes he even takes them out for a meal. When an old person is about to die he would take them to a nice quiet restaurant and get them something to suck on.

He is a caring, loving person everyday that’s why I am inspired by him.
The best thing is that he has just found out recently that he is going to be a Dad! So I’m going to have another cuzzie!

He’s just awesome My Uncle Adam!


By Jack Olsen


MY UNCLE ANDREW by Riley G

My Uncle Andrew is my role model. This is because at school he couldn’t read or write, but boy, if he saw something that was broken he could fix it as quick as lightning. The awesome thing is that he made cars that won top car awards and sold them for great amounts of money. And even though he couldn’t read or write, he persevered.

It’s great that he can read and write now.  I like how he built me a ramp for my scooter and how he built a coal and garden shed for his house. He’s amazing. This is why my Uncle Andrew is my inspiration.



Thursday 6 June 2013

Book Character Day


One of the highlights of the school calendar is the annual book character day. On this day we celebrate some of our favourite books (and movies, and sometimes magazines) by dressing up. Here are our efforts this year...they range from amazing complex costumes to the pathetic I-put-it-together-at-the-last-minute-using-a-metre-ruler-and-a-sheet effort. There are also a couple of strange, rather disturbing ones...
Liam-AKA the Cat in the Hat


Tuhi as Harry Potter


Cinderfella?


Cody...you have issues. You are truly a disturbed young man



Tyla as Mr B our DP. Renown for telling the odd short tale!



Snow White and Black Beauty. More of a beautiful caramel I would have thought William!



Flanny as The Witch King of Anmar from LOTR...and a very pathetic Gandalf


WOW! A metre ruler and a white sheet...BEST GANDALF EVER! 


Nice Effort Flanny


Caleb really does look like this when he gets miffed!

The 3 Potters: 90s cool Potter, Almost Ginger Potter and  Maori Potter


Lakin as Doc Brown (Back to the Future)



Jai, ready to bring the hurt!


Luke as Robin Hood


Brock Jack C, Jack O & Levi from League Weekly















Monday 3 June 2013

I made it!

Any chance I can get my sports badge now fellas?

The marathon was a hard slog...long boring straights and the Nor' Westerly kicked up and  made it a real struggle at times.

I did what I told you guys not to do, I went out to fast and after 14km or so knew I was in trouble. Still...I didn't give in. Such fun...