Year 8 Challenges 2016

Mikonui flat hut

We just got back from the Mikoniu flat hut tramp, at first, it had to be postponed because of rain, but luckily there was a gap in the weather. When we arrived at the hut we got our tents up then we went swimming a swimming hole in the Tuke river. Some people did not go swimming including me. A few hours later we got into our food groups and cooked dinner, the group I was in had sizzlers, we did some riddles around the campfire,



 I only solved 2 of them. later that night we had to do a solo in the dark which was the part of the trip I was dreading, as I have a fear of the dark. When it was my turn to get a spot my brain was trying to get me to say, I don,t want to do this, but I just went along with it, around 10 minutes in, Mr-SW came to me and took me to the middle of the plain and we sat down, even though I was not doing it properly I still wrote something on the piece of paper I had.


The next morning Mr-SW woke us up by blowing a whistle and banging  a spoon on a pan, it took awhile for everyone to get up, but when they did we started making breakfast, my group had pancakes. after when we had to cross the Tuke river I was kind of anxious about it as the location we crossed as it was deep, but who does not like a challenge. on the way back we did a fire lighting challenge, the objective was to be the first team to boil a cup of water in a billy. the team I was in won. in to get to the historic homestead (our lunch spot) we had to cross the Tuke once more and cross the Mikonui. When we got back to the carpark I was relieved to get my pack of my bag.


Overall the trip was fun tiring, and cold



Bring it on!!!

My Debate Journey

Recently we did our 6th class debate, the first debate I was nervous, I did not even want to stand up and speak. But during the past debates, I have grown out of getting nervous at the start of it. The 6th debate was 'trophy hunting is okay', I was in the 2nd proposition team. Doing opening and closing statement, compared to to the other debates I did way better with my speaking and my statements.



Here is the video of this debate.

Skiing at Temple Basin

If you did not know, Temple Basin is ski field in the southern alps. It is located around halfway between Otira and Arthur's pass, to get to Tempe Basin you have to walk up a steep mountain walk which is a challenge in itself, that is where we start. Honestly, I thought the walk was not going to be as steep. But I was wrong, the second we started to ascend  I realized this was not going to be easy. When we got our gear on we had to get our skis on, while I was on the mountain I reckon I learnt a lot,


 when I went in I knew nothing about skiing, when I came out I knew how to slow down, stop, and go fast. to slow down you have to make a wedge/pizza shape with your skis. You then bend your knees in slightly, to stop you do the same but you bend your knees on further. To accelerate you just point your skis down and you slowly get faster. Temple basin may be on top of a mountain, but the lodge is a really cool place, there is a ping pong table, there is a cafeteria to hang around play games,


and eat, there are bunkrooms, ski hire, and a drying room to dry all of your wet gear. Instead of a travelator or chairlift, Temple basin has a rope tow to get you to the top, the cool thing about the rope tow is you can unclip from it where ever you want on the mountain, after 3 days of extreme fun we had to leave, on the walk down I found it way easier to walk since gravity was pulling us down, if you want to get fit and you want a good time skiing I recommend going to Temple basin.







BRING IT ON!!!

Mini Olympics

This week the sports committee, and the events committee and I held a mini Olympics at our school. I was kinda anxious about talking in front of the school and some parents but I realised that it was going to be good for my public speaking. Once I started speaking I thought that it was not that bad and I can do it again one day. The mini Olympics were successful, we had four activities that looked fun. we also organised for the PTA to run a sausage sizzle. The line grew and grew. After the event, I had to pack up the amp, mic, stand, and the cords, the funny thing about it was that I spent half an hour setting everything up but I took about 10 minutes to pack it up. The day was quite warm, and fun

The debate

On Thursday we did a debate on superman will always beat batman, I was on the proposition team. When we started I was nervous about doing my first rebuttal as I had to find things that the enemy had said and rebut. personally, I think I did quite well for my first rebuttal, I also did closing statement. every time I do closing or opening statement  I reckon I should try and write more to make it longer and get more points. The debate was close the opposition won by one point, the debate before our one the proposition won, so that makes me believe that superman and batman are awesome!!!

Speech writing

On Wednesday I went to a writer's workshop that my teacher had organized. I only went cause I was really struggling to find an idea to write about. around half an hour into the workshop, I got an idea. It is about how my mum loves electronic devices, the second my teacher gave me that idea I instantly started writing...

Here is a sneak peak of my writing

My mum has made a twitter account for...my cat…I know, ridiculous right.