Miltown To Kumara

 Miltown To Kumara

On Tuesday room 8 biked Milltown to Kumara (Kapitea reservoir)  The track we biked on was on the Wilderness trail for a William Pike challenge. I got up at 7am and got ready for the day. Dad and I walked up to Karoro School and he dropped my mountain bike and bike helmet off. 

Once everybody was there we got into our car groups. I was in Scot’s (Billie's dad) mini van. There were 9 more other people in the van. The drive to Miltown was about an hour.  We drove through Hokitika and Lake Kanere to get to Milltown. On the way up I shared my lollies with the other people in the car.

When we arrived at Milltown we all got our mountain bikes off the back of the bike trailer. As soon as we were about to start the weather conditions changed and it started raining. We all put on our rain jackets and started biking. At the very start we all practiced changing gears and pedaling round on the straight. Once the straight had finished the climb began. We had to zig zag uphill for about 30-45 minutes. It felt like it would never end and it was a challenge for me.

We got to the top of the hill and we had reached Cowboy’s Paradise. Cowboy’s Paradise looks like an old style road but it's only one thick strip of road. When I got to the top Korban rushed over and told me not to do a skid. I asked why and he told me that the man that lived in Cowboy’s Paradise saw one of our classmates do and skid and yelled bad things to him.

We left Cowboy’s Paradise and most of the next part was uphill and only a little bit of a downhill. We stopped a few times to re-group but when we got to our main stop (Kawhaka intake) we all had lunch and decided if we wanted to keep going or to stop. I chose to keep going. That was a bad idea. Not long after we left the Kawhaka intake my legs were in so much pain and my back hurt really bad. I tried pulling out but I wasn't allowed to. 

The last part was the worst and it was boring as well. Once we had been biking on the last part for an hour straight I finally saw the finish. Once I had reached the finish I put my bike up and just sat in the car. I was too tired to function and most people were the same. It had taken a lot of effort  and on the car ride home we were all tired.

What Now

 What Now Show

On Sunday the 13th of September the year 6,7 and 8’s were invited to be on the What Now show. 

I woke up at 6 a.m. and got ready to pick up Nevey. Once we had picked up Nevey we drove to Shantytown and waited outside the gate for 20 minutes. They opened the gate and we got dropped off. Parents weren't allowed to stay because of Covid but they were allowed to drop us off and then pick us up.

When we walked into Shantytown they took our forms and we waited in the train station until Erin introduced us to the crew ( Morgan the director, Matt the cameraman and Matt the props guy)  and told us what we would be doing. Firstly they told us to get on the train and walk out behind Erin as she introduced the show. I didn't know that everything was planned / staged.

 Once we had done the train scene they made us go out onto the side walk and talk about why we love the West Coast. They also wished me a happy birthday and everybody sang happy birthday for me. 

The next thing they told us about was a little game show they had planned. Emma, Zade, Mea and Jordan were going to be contesting. The game was held at the fire station and was called ‘Say It Don't Spray It’. The aim of the game was to say a tongue twister without saying it wrong.  The tongue twister was ‘ shield  seldom sells shelled shrimps any Shantytown’ If you said it wrong you would get shot with shaving foam that they had in a “foam gun”. The winner of the game was Emma.

Once we had finished the ‘Say It Don't Spray It game’ we were told to line up and walk into the movie theater acting like we were going to a movie. After we walked in we all had to walk out pulling angry faces acting like we hated the movie we just saw. But In reality when we walked into the movie theater there was no movie playing but when you re-watch What Now they add a clip in: when we walked in they started playing a movie they had made yesterday with really bad acting. When the movie had finished on tv it showed the clip of us walking out angrily.

Next the producers told us to run up to the gold panning area and start sifting through the stones while they recorded us. They interviewed Jack and you could see us all gold panning in the background. We found little specks of gold but we weren't aloud to keep them, so we just dropped it back into the water. 

The last scene we took was gunging one of the teachers we have at the school, Mrs Newton. We all had to say reasons she should get gunged. Some of the reasons were: she doesn't keep the balls pumped up in the PE shed, she didn't tell off Nevey when she kicked Nathan, and she hit me in the head with a ball 3 years ago. 

She was asked questions and if she got them right we were all sprayed with the foam gun but if  she got it wrong we were allowed to throw a ball at a target and the gunge would fall on her head. The first 2 questions she got right so we all got sprayed with foam. The third question she got wrong so Karmi threw her ball at the target and hit it! The bucket full of gunge fell on Mrs Newton's head and we all laughed.

The very last thing we did was we all stood outside the post office and they sprayed us with all the foam we had left. This was the funnest part because we were all jumping around as the foam kept spraying us all. By the end of us getting sprayed we were all basically white with lots of foam on our face and heads. 

The crew was very nice and energetic. I liked how we all got foamed in the end no matter what. We also got a free small bottle of blue gunge to take home as a prize for being on the show. I found this experience quite fun and exciting but also at the same time there was a lot of waiting involved because we had to wait in between each scene.

Lake Daniell William Pike Tramp

 Yesterday, Wednesday the 9th of September, I got up at 7 and got ready in preparation for the Lake Daniell William Pike tramp. I arrived at school at 8 and our class and parents left for Lake Daniell at 8:20a.m. In my car was Nevey, Olive and I.  all week we had been doing work around leaving no trace, hypothermia all in preparation for wednesday.

On the way up we were all quite tired because it was still quite early but we ate chocolate biscuits and M and M’s. All the car groups met up at Reefton and went to the bathroom for the first car break. The car ride went for 2 hours. The second car break we had was at lewis pass which is in the southern alps.  when we arrived at the start of the tramp. We all numbered off and started walking

Last year I did the exact same walk but last year it was cold and raining. This year it was sunny and a nice day to go for a walk because this year we did it in spring. The walk there was quite easy and fun. We all walked through the beech forest.

When we arrived at the lake (kohanga Atawhai- Manson Nicolas hut)  we were allowed to walk through the newly built hut. Inside the hut it is very nice and gives off camping vibes. It is quite homely and there are 2 sleeping rooms. We all ate lunch at the hut and we went on the jetty to look out at the lake. Some parents took photos of us all on the hut and then we started walking back to the cars.

The way back took longer and felt worse because everyone was tired and wanted to go home. Even though I was tired I still kept walking and didn't complain. Some kids got told off because they were having a moss fight and throwing moss at each other. They got told off because they were not following the rules to ‘leave no trace’ We have been working around leaving no trace and putting things back where we found them. It was quite funny because on the way back I heard a lot of my classmates whining about wanting to go home.

 When we got to the cars it was the best feeling ever. On the car ride home I suddenly got all my energy and Nevey, Olive and I couldn't stop laughing. We drove all the way back to our school and dropped Olive off. My mum knows Nevey’s dad so we dropped Nevey off at her house and went home.

Overall I actually enjoyed the walk but I wished we were allowed to stay the night. I think that it would have been fun with everybody there for the night. I also think that it would be a good track to stay the night at because the walk is very easy and flat the whole way. I wonder if the Year 8s could do Lake Daniell tramp again for the overnight tramp instead of the other walk that has been planned?