cancer sorority bags

today we made bags for the cancer sorcity pactients

Eating Dirt

William pike challenge - Skiing

Today we walked up to Temple Basin taking an hour and a half to walk up. I was at the front of the group and we had to slow down a lot to wait for the people who were slow. When we got up the boys started throwing snowballs but soon stopped as their hands got cold. we had lunch and then got ready for skiing. I had no idea what to do so I took all day to learn how to stop with the pizza cut. We had dinner which was delicious! We went to bed and I fell asleep soon after lights out. the next day we had breakfast and played ping pong until we were allowed to go out. when we got out we had a huge snow fight so that the snow could soften up. we also went tobogganing down a slope which was really fun! when we hit the ski field I mastered my turning and pizza cutting and Mr Sinton-white gave me the all clear for the Nutcracker (a rope that tows you up the hill) it took me a few goes before actually getting it. When I arrived up the top, I slowly pizza cutted down and got told to try turning. after lunch I had a lot of goes up and down the slope and had soon mastered the turning. after taking about five hours on Casady (the ski slope) we headed back because my hands were starting to freeze in my gloves. we walked back quite sore and walked in the door. I took my boots off and a bit of steam rose from them. we had showers and then dinner. the people doing speeches got some practice in front of strangers! I wasn't one of them. once we had pudding we went to bed but I couldn't get to sleep because of THE DAMN CREEKING DOORS!!! when everyone settled I thought I would get some sleep but THEN PEOPLE DECIDED TO PARTY TILL 11:00!!!! I finally got to sleep and woke up at five am. you wanna know why? THE KEAS DECIDED TO HAVE A SQUARKING PARTY TOO! AT 5 AM!!! WORST! NIGHT! EVER! in the morning everyone was sore. but only our room had heard the keas. we waited for the snow to soften again and then got out. sadly at the top of Casady, the snow was still icy. but I skiied down only falling about 5 billion times. mrs highgate was having to ski in GUMBOOTS! shes a legend! when we got off we were all still sore and no one wanted to walk back down. when we went inside, Mr Sinton-white's wife was in there as she had just walked up with two young children. one was 4 and one was 5. and she had to piggyback the one which was 4 halfway up the hill! what a legend! then she had to walk down with us about an hour after waking up! WHAT A LEGEND!!!!!!!!! we all walked down and I was in the fast group at the front. it took us 53 minutes to walk down but our legs were dying! we staggered into the car and took the journey back to school. when we unloaded the trailer we realized there was an unclaimed bag. ... we had stolen a strangers bag from the goods lift. everyone laughed and giggled a bit before realizing someone had to return it. Mr Sinton-white said he would do it so that was a relief! all in all the trip was amazing and I would love to do it again!

Poll Tax on Chinese immigrants

Poll tax in New Zealand

In the 1880’s New Zealand pushed taxes of the Chinese immigrants because of how many
there were coming into New Zealand. But only one Chinese immigrant was allowed in per 10 tons of
cargo and they had to pay a tax of £10 and that's about $1700 today. In 1896 the law was changed
from 10 tones to 200 TONS and the tax was then £100 pounds (that's nearly $1900!).

In 1881 New Zealand followed Canada and the Australian colonies in forcing entry taxes on Chinese
immigrants. The minister of customs waived the poll tax from 1934, but it was not repealed until 1944
after other countries had abandoned it. In 2002 the New Zealand government officially apologised to the
Chinese community for the injustice of the tax.

What do you would happen if we introduced the tax again?

I think that the Chinese would get angry and that we would soon have to drop the idea after too many
Chinese people rebelled. At least that's what I think

End of native logging

Teacher strike!

Wednesday the 15 of August was a big day. Not just for the teachers,
but the parents and the whole country. The children enjoyed it of course but the parents were stressed out.
Up in Auckland, Jeremy wells took a busload of kids to the zoo for free.
But that is only for a few kids. The rest of the country had to deal with children
and a lot of people had to get babysitters or work from home.

It had been over 24 years since the last time they striked.
It wasn't only for a pay rise but for more teachers.
They all wanted better pay but none knows if the strike had an effect on the government,
and there may be another one soon!

I think that the teachers need more money for the amount of work they do at school and home.

The vietnam war

This war broke out in 1 Nov 1955 and ended on the 30th Apr 1975 all because of the U.S. government viewing its involvement in the war as a way to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam. The Vietnamese decided to hide in the bushes and shoot the helicopters. But this backfired as America came up with agent orange. This was a liquid that was sprayed down containing harsh chemicals that could mutate people and kill them. When the soldiers returned home some had babies but the kids became mutated and deformed. Some kids looked fine on the outside but on the inside the could have the following-

Connective tissue disorder, which is EDS ( Ehlers Danlos syndrome)

Hypermobility 
Vision problems
Muscle weakness
Sleep apnea
Epilepsy (benign occipital epilepsy)
Orthostatic hypotension
Dysautonomia
Long QT syndrome
Joint pain
GI problems
Migraines
Acid reflux 
Arrhythmias
Balance problems
These were only some of them and all of them occurred to one child. Others could get: skin darkening

severe acne

liver problems

AL Amyloidosis.

Chronic B-cell Leukemias.

Chloracne (or similar acneform disease)

Diabetes Mellitus Type 2.

Hodgkin's Disease.

Ischemic Heart Disease.

Multiple Myeloma.

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Huge lumps

And all because of a pointless war that led to nothing

The opinion of a man affected by Eugenie Sage

I am very annoyed cause the conversation minister banned me and my mates from mining on their land only because we're knocking down trees. Were leaving the land better than when we arrived cause we plant the grass back and plant saplings for trees!!
How long till I get another job? Another thousand years is what I say. I have to say that I'm only good at mining and mining is what I do!
I was at the bridge opening, the Taramakau one to be exact! But I wasn't happy, I was angry, and I and a few thousand people protested against Eugenie Sage closing our mines! GRR! Even one news came and took some clips of our outrage. If she runs with the decision hundreds upon hundreds of jobs will be lost and then some people may have to leave when they grow up because of the lack of opportunities!!
I want to march up to Eugenie Sage and give a piece of my mind!! In my opinion, she's crazy! Yeah, we’re probably making wildlife run away but they’re not dead. And if your gonna go crazy about that then cage some up and breed them in a zoo! And if you not going to let that happen then move us to a different location otherwise your going to lose money when we quit!! The time has come to take action and keep our jobs!! We need some medicine for the Eugenie Sage Affect!

Global Warming

William Pike Challenge Award #1

Getting up was easy, the rush of excitement was overpowering, I was shaken awake by the adrenalin rushing through my veins. School was a blur, I remember arriving then being sorted into cars then taking the *sigh* 2-hour trip to cave stream.

When we got to the start of the cave, the sun shined onto the water causing sparkes excitement throughout the group, I dipped my foot in the "freezing" water, the cold ran up my leg forcing me to take my leg out of the drifting water. When we started to walk into the cave through the wafting water, my legs had gone numb from the cold, but that just pushed me to go further in. The water found its way up to my waist, my bottom was frozen. Halfway through the cave Our teacher aka Mr. Sinton white got us to turn off our torchs, the darkness surrounded me my insides shriveled up but later  unwound to enjoy pure darkness, the water was rushing down below the ledge I was on, the only noise that filled the cave was white rapids crashing agianst the rocks dominating wee bits of limestone, all was echo-y and peaceful, a whole 3 minutes past with me being able to think deeply about life, the sounds of water filled my ears relaxing me... then the torches turned on and we had to move on.

At one point the first obstacle appeared, gushing rapids burst down from rock that was higher up, my headlamp lit the sparkling water as I climbed the mini waterfall, walking along stumbling here and there I enjoyed the experience, at last light was able to be seen as it flooded the cave. I covered my eyes but it still glared through my dripping fingers, I climbed up the ladder to victory and let the sunshine and dry me off. driving home I thought about all the events that happened, cave stream was astounding and breathtaking he experience ripped all stress out of my head to switch my brain to caving mode, so next time I go to Christchurch I'll be prepared and complete cave stream again!