Optimist Yachting

On Monday the 11th of November the first group of 2013 optimist yachters went down to Pandora Pond. First of all we got changed, got our life jackets on and sat by the flag. We had a little talk about the wind and then Miss Cuthbert told us to check our yachts and once its checked sail from island to shore for about twenty minutes. My partner was Oliver W and he is a really good sailor and he made us go really fast. We came first apart from Nick because he is too good. There was a really cool challenge near the end and me and Ollie sat behind a letter like everybody else and Ms Perry took them to the island and we had to sail to the island and look in the pile for our letter and sail back to shore.  Ollie and I came second and Nick came first but he is good and he was by himself so he goes way faster.

Nick Coming To Shore

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The NYLD 2013

Young Leaders' Conference “Are we there yet are we?” I said excitedly. “Almost” said the driver. Nicola, Charlie, Nick, Josh and I get out of the car and after three hours of driving to Rotorua we were finally at the Kuirau Park Motel. The boys room was upstairs. When we went in there was a big fight over who gets the two single beds but then I ended up getting the double bed in the other room.

The next morning we were told to go make our lunches so we went to the girls' room and there was so much home baking.  After we had made our bread rolls and stuffed our bags with baking until they would explode we headed off to the car for the next adventure to the Energy Events Center.

When we got there we waited around for a while then we went inside and got the best seats in the grand stand, right in the middle. Some of the speakers names were Billy Graham, Pio Terei, Ants from Prestige Hip Hop group, Cam Calkoen and one other . The most inspiring was Cam Calkoen. He talked about how when he was little he signed up for the athletics 100 m race and when he did it he was nervous and people started to cheer for him and he had thought no one would cheer for him and it made him feel really good. He also said you can do anything you believe you can. I thought the conference was a great experience and we learnt lots about being a good leader. I hope next years school leaders and house leaders have a really great time at the conference.  

Hatchet

Audio recording >>

Swimming Sports

 I hear the clapper and I dive off the side of the lap pool . I am racing down the side . I can hear cheering. I look up and see Josh ahead of me and start to speed up. I turn around for the second lap. I go as fast as I can. I see the flags. I reach the end. I came last but I think I did really well. Afterwards I was completely exhausted and felt like I would collapse.