Horse riding on Friday

Our activity group went Horse riding on Friday July 3rd. It's a 20 minute

drive to Rangihau Ranch. Then, in the stable we were all given instructions

(in slow clear English!) before we were allowed to get on the horses and

set off slowly. We rode for 1.5 hours. We saw new-born lambs on our way to

the top of the hill. Then we had a beautiful view of the Mercury Bay

Estuary. After that we rode down through a Kiwifruit orchard to the Coroglen

River. It was a wonderful afternoon

Japanese night

Open Night is different every week. Last Wednesday our Japanese students volunteered to make dinner for everyone. It was chaos in the kitchen, but they produced a delicious dinner - curry udon, yummy sushi, and a fine green salad. Every student came to enjoy the Japanese food - now they're trying to decide who will cook for the next few weeks - there are 11 nationalities at school at the moment! It might be Saudi night soon!

Rotorua Trip

The next few posts on this blog are all from a trip we took to Rotorua a few weeks ago. The Activities department organized the trip and any interested students could join. My wife Robyn, and I went as group leaders and we had8 students with us and we really had a blast. Check out some of the photos of what we managed to do in just 2 days.

This photo shows the students who were on the trip, outside the Backpacker that we stayed at. Across the back is; Heiko, Nicole, Laura, Josefina, Patrizia, and in front is Tomoki, Marlene and Kazuki.

White Water Rafting

Our first activity on the Saturday morning was white water rafting on the Kaituna River. This is a short trip but it is grade 5 which means some pretty serious rapids. The trip ends with a drop over a 7 meter waterfall which is said to be the highest commercially ratfed waterfall anywhere in the world. This trip was great fun and really set the stage for what was to become a grteat weekend.

The Luge

Saturday afternoon was bitterly cold but we still headed off to the Gondolas and went up Mt Ngongotaha. The view over the city and the lake was great, and the luge rides were tremendous fun. Josefina would have had more fun if she had worked out how to use the brakes!!! But it was cold up there and eventually the weather chased us, one by one, off the luge track and into the cafe, where it was much warmer.

Tamaki Tours

On the Saturday evening we all went out to the Tamaki Brothers Maori Villiage to enjoy first hand, a Maori cultural experience. This evening included a traditional challenge and welcome, some time in the villiage and then a wonderful cultural performance of Maori song and dance, followed by a hangi, which is a meal prepared in the traditional cooking method of hot stones in an earth oven. There were more songs and fun afterwards as you can see!! Nicole was happy to join the group on stage and show us what she had learned during the evening.

Waiotapu

Sunday morning was a visit to the Waiotapu Thermal Valley. This is just one of several places around Rotorua where you can see the region's unique thermal activity. There is lots of steam, hot water, boiling mud and amazing colours all in a natural setting. We really enjoyed our visit there on a cold winter morning