first day experiences

Hey room 14, it's us Ronjay and Gabrielle, here to tell you all about our first day of school experiences...

Ronjay's experience...

 My heart was pounding out of my chest as I got out of the car,it was my first full day at Cobham and I was both nervous and excited all at the same time!!! When I walked through the school gates I felt like I just entered a Whole new world!! Even though it might seem scary, all you need to remember is that you're not the only one feeling scared because hundreds of other students are going through the same thing you are.

Anyway, I walked into the class and put away my things,instantly i could feel everyone else feeling nervous,so it made me feel better knowing that i wasn't the only one feeling scared and shy... After I placed all of my things in my desk, Ella C. the person who was sitting at our desk asked me where you put all of the things, after I told her that you put it into your desk we talked about how we felt about starting a new school and it turns out she was as nervous as me!!

 I felt really happy  at that moment because she was the first student at our class that talked to me.When class started we played some "get to know you games" and tried to memorize each others names,by lunch time I had made a few friends who were really nice.

  

After lunch we talked about the 3rp@c which is RESPECT, RESPONSIBLE,RESILIENT, AND POSITIVE.. when i got home i told my mum  and dad about my first day experiences.. i told them that it was the best first day of school ever!!

 by: Ronjay

Gabrielle's experience

I pulled my coat closer as I walked to school through the shrill penetrating rain. It was my first day at Cobham and I was going to be late. We had been caught in traffic and had to walk. My brother had started walking but luckily I met a girl with a similar case.I hadn't been nervous before this, but now my heart was pounding and I felt like my stomach was in  a knot. 

To make it worse when I got to school I couldn't find my classroom. In the end I ended up asking two girls from my classroom there names were Daniela and Amelia. I was late and when I got to my classroom I was met by a class of new faces staring up at me. I was a wreck. The cloakrooms looked like toilets and I  had to ask for assistance. I was first on the list of the roll and I had no idea of what to do!

We played some games to know each other like bumpty bump bump bump where you ask someone the name of the left or right person or their name or your name and they have to say it before you say bumpty bump bump bump! and by the end of the day I knew most of the peoples names and made a few friends.It was an awesome first day and I  love Cobham! 

Liam K'z and Heze'z water watch report

The road to camp was as flat as a squashed possum. Then we arrived at camp, we slaped on sunscreen and bug spray and we were soon off to do water watch. Earl and Kelvin were our instructors who helped us to catch bugs. First the whole class sat down and Earl and Kelvin showed us all the equipment we needed to capture the bugs.

The whole class walked down to the stream to catch some bugs. We were in groups of three and we had to wear huge gumboots which  were very heavy. So we were at the river and in our groups Earl and Kelvin showed us how to catch the bugs and we were soon of.

Liam, Heze and Dan were in a group and we had an awesome idea, that if we were above every one else we would catch all the bugs, and it did work quite well.

Then we all went back to camp and looked at all the bugs. Some of the bugs were quite interesting and some were a bit boring. Earl and Kelvin gave us a sheet of paper that had all the different bugs were on and we had to compare them. After that the day was finished and Earl and Kelvin left.

THE UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE!!!!!! By Wynn Mo

  

At Kaituna camp!!

As a write this, I recall the most extremely sweat pouring, my feet getting all screwed up and me dying because of dehydration. I thought that I’d gone on the wrong path but, at the end, it was a super achievement.

Just as I was about to lunge for my epic climb on the hill, someone told me this isn’t Mount Herbert. Alright, I thought. Let’s walk just a bit more. Finally, when I walked just a bit more, someone had just said we are not at Mount Hebert yet. So………… I wiped out my laziness and kept climbing. That was when we had a rest. Suddenly Mr. Rait said something that annoyed me, disgusted me, and destroyed my hope. He said that you ca only see Mount Herbert when you climb past a lot of mountains. WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY????!?!?!!? I thought. I couldn’t handle it. I drank halve my water bottle and then remembered. Whoops I thought looking diuretically at my water bottle. That time was the worst. But then people gave me fresh water mwhahahahaah I thought, carelessly drinking up all the water they gave me. Whoops, I thought again

Well, I completed the walk and my feet were numb, crooked feeling and red for the firt few days. But soon as I realised, not everyone in the world has climbed as Mount Herbert. My lips curved on my grateful face.

This is just me acting out as climbing Mount Herbert.(Well, this kinda happened lol)  ^__^

                                                                                                                                                     

Amy Xu's Kaituna Camp Story!

Room 14's camp at Kaituna valley was literally the best out of my 3 camps, first of all the campsite was GREAT and the food was awesome too. If you're interested, please make yourselves comfortable and listen to my amazing camp story.........

It was a cloudy and misty morning when we took off for camp.I waved good-bye to mum and settled my backpacks into Gabrielle's car trunk. I was a bit worried because of the weather, but after a while tiny rays of sunlight began to make their through the thick cloud and I knew it was going to be a fine day.Along the way we spent most of our time chatting or working on our camp booklets that Mrs. Follero handed out.It was a very smooth ride.

Then after ten minuts our car pulled into Halswell Quarry, there we met the park rangers Murray and Vicky. They explained where the quality rocks that we build our houses with came from. Then they lead us on a tour around the quarry and showed us some of the rocks that people used as materials. Vicky mentioned that we had to each carry a rock up the hill so that we'll get to know how it feels to word in a rock mine like this. It was soooooo heavy! OMG! After that they showed us all the National gardens here, there were gardens of China, Korean and Japan.

Finally we arrived at our campsite. As soon as I got out of the car I fell over. That is because we parked our cars on a slope.  It took me some time to get used to the uneven landscape but I still looooooooved room 14's campsite: There was a creek and a swing ball stand. There was also a "Liam swing thing" and the best thing was that our tents were already set up for us! We saw some white, fluffy sheep wondering towards us trying to see what was going on.

On the second we were waken up by the sound of Mr. Rait singing, actually I was already awake because I couldn't sleep last night. Ella and me readied our backpacks then joined the group down at the kitchen. There we filled our drink-bottles and prepared our lunch for a long, tough day. We are going to climb Mt Herbet! Last night we declared our goals about climbing Mt Herbet, my one was to mot groan or moan or whimper to at lest half of the way and to walk with the middle group and not at the back.

The walk began. The trip through Mr and Mrs Depass's land was easy because it was flat land but once we've passed the gates the lands began to slope up steeply. Thorns and sting nettles began to appear in huge bushes even. Even though it was a glorious and sunny day the ground was still wet and covered with mud puddles. I STEPPED INTO ONE!!!! And the worst thing was that it had poo in it. The mud went up to my ankles and I shivered, wondering how will I get it off when I get home. Each step made a sqealching sound as I walked. Every time we had a break Mr. Rait would hand out biscuits to everyone and then we'd be energetic again.

After the Fores Ride our group entered a plain. Since no one destroyed this land, every single grass were the same length and as the wind blew on it, it made a gentle ripple that made the plain look like a sea of glittering gold.Then 2 hours has passed and we still haven't reached the top ,so students began to ask Mr. Rait why we've still not at the top". Sorry but we're  not even on MT Herbet yet!". He remarked loudly.

Finally we came to a half and had lunch. It was a beautiful scenery. The light blue sky with just a hint of puffy clouds and an equally gorgeous landscape to match it. We were up sooooo high that we can actually touch the clouds. After lunch we started off again. This time we entered a maze of prickly bushes. Full of cobwebs! Seriously there were spider webs wrapped tightly around the thorns. One brushed against my cheek! Eew!

After hours of burning in the sun, tripping over and dehydrating, Rm14 has reached the top. There we took pictures and filled our drink bottles.

Man!! Glad that's over! But I still liked the climb a lot!

After we got back to camp, it nearly 3 o clock. There we had a BIG rest and a delicious dinner and dessert. I went for a little swim in the creek to relax my foot muscles a bit more. We also played some games to fire off the time. My favorite one was a game called "Iceberg" It was all about teamwork. As I lay in my sleeping bag, I decided that this was truely the most best and challenging camp ever! I loved it!

Lily's camp experience

What’s up everyone my name is lily and is my experience from kaituna camp 2013!! 


When we all arrived at school we put all our gear into the horse float and then we set off...


I was in a car with Jo Hosburgh (graces mum), Grace, Gracie, Georgia and Erin. It was hilarious we all started singing to a song at the same time and laughed our heads off!!! We all said our goals for camp and what we wanted to achieve.
     


Our first stop was Halswell quarry. We learnt about all the bush and plants, we had to carry a rock up the hill so we had an idea of what the workers life was like. When we stopped to have a look at the quarry we learnt about the kinds of rock you can find in the quarry. We then had lunch, played games and took heaps of pictures in a big picnic area.
 


When we arrived at camp we unloaded the horse float and put all the milk in the fridge (and stream.) We then started water watch, we learnt all about the insects and bugs in the water,  the most popular one was the toe bitter!!! 


After water watch we all bonded and learnt more about each other in our 2 hours free time. Most of us sat in a group and played truth or dare where Liam k ate poo!!! (he has been obsessed with poo ever since.) Ella m and i played a bit of cricket with a few other people and slipped over in the sheep poo a few times! Then we went to the stream, we jumped from rock to rock then we got tired of that so we  ran to our tents and got our togs on! There was a deep part in a big spot so we went swimming, splashing each other in the freezing water. Beside the stream there was a huge bit of land with trees and vines so Ella m and i went exploring.....


That night we had burgers for dinner and jelly and ice cream for desert! We went around in a circle saying the highlights of our day and said our goal for the next day when we climbed the huge mount herbert!!! Our class played a few games and had a few laughs, then we got told to get ready for bed.


i shared a tent with Gracie! We were so excited we talked and talked for ages then finally went to sleep. When we woke up we talked even more brushed our teeth then got ready for the day.


We had cereal toast or spaghetti for breakfast, it was delicious! Then we reminded each other of our goals and made our packed lunch for the mountain.    


Then we set of having no idea the walk would take 8 hours...... We went up the road to the start of the track as we got there we noticed all the haunting stinging nettle on both sides of the track. Lots of people got stung by it, including me :( luckily there was foxglove near by!!! I got to know every single person in the class better during the walk because i kept on changing groups. Everyone loved it when we stooped because mr rate gave us a biscuit and we could have a drink. We had to save every last drop of water because the only time we could fill up our bottle was when we reached the top, it doesn't sound that long of a wait but it felt like forever!!! There was a point on the hill where we all stopped to have some of the baking from our lunch box, it was so windy i had to put on my waterproof coat to stay warm. Olly took some pictures of me jumping in the air. Then we carried on and reached the steepest part of the hill,  that lasted for about an hour. Then finally we reached the top!!!!!! All our hard work paid off!!! But we still had to get to the bottom. We ate our lunch , took a class photo and Lomond did his victory dance!!!! Going down was my favourite part, Heze and i raced each other down the hill to reach the Liam's and Ella m. Liam k continued his trend with poo by sitting in it and smothering it over his face!!!!!!! We had to walk through a field off bulls and cows, there was lots of poo so Liam was very pleased! Chloe was so tiered so people carried her bag and some people even carried Chloe!!!! We found some bones from a bull so we started throwing them, it was so funny! By the end Liam k was covered in poo and we were all exhausted and starving so we had some baking.


We had sausages for dinner talked about the walk then go ready for bed.


Gracie and I were the last people to get to sleep but we did eventually. When we got up we got ready had breakfast then packed up all our stuff, put it in the horse float then went to the church..


At the church we looked at all the graves and went inside, after that we drove back to school.
                              


Kaituna is the best camp I have ever been on, I highly recommend going there.


kaituna rules!!!!!!!
made by Lily 

KAITUNA CAMP By Gabrielle Baird

                                  KAITUNA CAMP

Recently we, room 14 went to Kaituna camp. Mr and Mrs Depass had kindly there land to NZ and we were going to spend three days there. Many of the parents kindly offered to take us there. I went with Zoë, Amy, Ralph and Daniel with my Mum, Belinda.

The first destination was Hawswell quarry. There we taught about the hardness the men who worked there had to go through, the rocks and the history of the quarry.  We also had lunch there and played tag with a chicken.

Our next destination was our camp. When we got there we all wanted to see our tents but first we did water watch. There were two men there called…………  Together we looked at bugs, water temperature, what's in water and lots of there cool stuff! The best part of it was the bug watching. We learnt lots of names of bugs that we never thought were in our streams. My favourite one was the toe biter.  Most species are quite large (2 cm or more) but some of the largest, such as Lethocerus, grow up to 12 cm, the size of your finger!

Finally we got to look around the camp. The worst part of it was the horrible port-a-loo! We found our tents, played a few games and settled to sleep early because tomorrow we were turning into mountain warriors who were going to tackle the legendary Mount Herbert!

It was 9 when we first set out on our main adventure.

First of all Mr Rait warned us about the pesky poison ivy and how our friend the fox glove that grows by it will help us if we got stung. We walked through Mr and Ms Pass land to get to the base of a hill that we would climb and then get to the mountain.

It was a pleasant walk with a bit of huffing; moaning collapsing and carrying other peoples bags along the way to. I was stung a couple of times but it was either on my clothes or it was a dead branch.

Every so often we would stop for some information about the landscapes or a rest where sometimes Mr Rait gave us some biscuits.

Some of the facts Mr Rait gave us were on Horopito otherwise known as the pepper tree and we soon found out why. Sneakily Mr Rait made us try it saying that the Maori came down this track and believed it was a good sign and would chew on it and make a wish. He said it tasted like peppermint. So on three we all ate it. Many spat it out like me but few swallowed it and made a wish. Another one was hugging a tree to find out how old it was.

When we got to the top everyone was knackered and to get up our spirits up we got given chocolate by Mrs Follero. Then we trooped down again and filled our water bottles and went into the disgusting long drop!

The next day we played the games like the island race where we had to get to the other side without falling off our sheets of paper.  My table, which was Something Nice won!

We also made up chants with our table because the parents made up dynamite that went like this:

We are dynamite

Don't mess with dynamite

 If you mess with dynamite

It goes tick tick tick tick 

Boom dynamite

Boom boom dynamite.

We made something that went like this:

Boys: Yeah it's hot in here there must be something nice in the atmosphere

Girls:

Boys: Yeah it's hot in here there must be something nice in the atmosphere

Girls: Lolly pop lolly pop oh lolly lolly pop

Camp was cool. I really enjoyed it and my favourite part was all the games.

Gabrielle Baird