Leaving for an exciting holiday

It was a cold Sunday evening. The car was already packed and all we were waiting for were the keys still hanging up on the hook and the owners of them. Shannon(mum) and Anthony(dad) were rushing through the house sorting stuff out when finally the door burst open and our Mother came out, and close behind here our father, the reason they took long was because they each had little snacks to help us get to our destination without a rumbly stomach. So mum and dad unhooked the keys, step by step got into the car, put the slightly rusted key into the keyhole, turned it and the van successfully turned on, we were on our way.

But as my family and I were leaving home we realised that we hadn’t had dinner so while Anthony went to his workshop with two of my brothers, my mother, brother and I went to go and get some dinner. The choices were out of Wendy’s, Wendy’s or Wendy’s. So after we picked up the food from Wendy’s we drove to my father’s workshop, ate the food, and then left to travel by car for 5 hours down to a little town known as Ohakune. You must be wondering why are we going to Ohakune? Because 30 minutes away lives the great Mt Ruapehu. We are going away for 2 weeks on a snowboarding holiday!

The Rotorua Experience

Have you ever been to Rotorua and thought of anything besides the smell? Have you ever thought that maybe you’d want to do something besides swimming, eating or sleeping. Have you ever thought about doing something fun and exciting like… zip lining, bungee jumping or maybe even having fun on The Luge. The Luge is basically a 1/2 person vehicle that escorts you down the mountain on tracks. Sometimes very fast and sometimes very slow. So let me entertain you about my adventures with my family about the holidays.

As we are traveling home to Auckland from Nelson we stop off at a few places, Wellington, Rotorua then back home. But while we were at Rotorua we thought it would be fun to do a little bit of adventuring. So just before we head back home we decide to take a little drive by, by Skyline Rotorua. And there are so many cool things their. But I already knew what we were going to do their, we were going on the Luge ride. It’s so cool, and the last time I was there was 4 years ago! and back then I wasn't able to go on the advanced by myself, but now I am, because I’m over the age of twelve and I’m over 135cm in height.

The Gondola ride up was fun. There are six of us in a eight person Gondola so we weren't squished at all. The view is great, you can even see the mountain bike tracks and also the city looks beautiful. The not so good news happens when we get off the Gondola. The line for the Luge rides are packed! Like seriously packed. There’s just one word for that. Patience, lots and lots of patience. But before we go and wait for a while we first need helmets. And these particular helmets are fancy pants. There are different colors for different sizes, like red for small, blue for medium, and well you get the idea right.

Anyway the line has not died down yet and the sun is blazing down on us, well, at least it’s not raining. Looking at the three different tracks, Scenic, Intermediate and Advanced, we decide which one to go on. Most of us want to go on the Intermediate to start of with, But sadly we found out that on your first go you had to go down the Scenic track. After learning about the rules on how to drive they let us go for a little ride down the track. My brother Levi and I raced down the track and managed to pass other riders on the way. At the bottom there’s this two seater ride that escorts you back up to the top from whence you started.

At the top my brother and I have to wait a little while for the rest of the family. Because we bought a family pass and that means we all have to stay as a group. When the rest of the family get to the top we finally go for another ride. But this time we go on the intermediate ride. A little more tricky, sharper turns, one little jump and a faster ride. So this is what we did all day until the pass ran out and after that we hopped on the gondola and rode back in a real car.

Fun Times

These holidays my family and I do exciting things like, travelling, writing blogs, swimming, dancing and many other things. But, these holidays are different. With the new boat we can do more things. Our family just got a Kneeboard and a Boat Biscuit(not an eating biscuit) which can I say is pretty cool. Today Dad promised us that we’d get a turn on the boat. So after my 2 brothers and I had finished gardening we packed our things and got ready for the boat trip.

I first went with dad to launch the boat, where we’d ride across the water to meet up with the rest of the family. When the boat is in the water, the gear is in the boat and we have our life jackets on we set sail for the beach across the water. When we meet up with our fellow boaters, My Dad, Anthony offers to take me on a little ride on the Kneeboard. It’s a simple thing really, You start on your stomach, then wriggle your knees into place, adjust the strap, grab the handle and ride the waves. It was so much fun, I fell off all the time, and take my advice, don’t open your mouth when you fall. Because when you open your mouth you swallow a lot of water and it leaves a bad aftertaste.

After the little kneeboard session we picked up mum and two of my brothers and went biscuiting. Mum and Dad never went on the biscuit. The waves were higher than ever, I’d fall off at least every five minutes! When it was just me and my little little brother, the weight was not so even and if we didn’t fall off we’d tilt on a 70° angle which is a little freaky. And as the wind started picking up so did we. We’d start to fly for a few seconds then drop and hit the water, and go back up, then come back down.

At the end of the day we got massive tans, hungry tummies and huge memories. From a hard day's work/fun. Sadly we can’t just go home and relax. We had to wash down the boat and our life jackets. Then we’d have to move the boat back into place and put the cover on it, and finally after all that work we could come inside, have a shower, relax and watch movies and eat till our tummies are full.

Rock Climbing In The Holidays

The equipment you shall need is:

• Harness
• Carabiner
• Rock Climbing wall

The things attached to the rock climbing wall is:

• Automatic belay
• Rocks
• Plastic
• Cable

The place was pretty cool, the place that we went to was Rock Climbing! It wasn't very big, but it was big enough for me, Toby and about another 3 or 4 people. When we got to the Rock climbing we weren't sure if we wanted to go. But when a man (me) of great courage stood up and said he wanted to do it my brother Toby decided he wanted to do it as well. We already knew how to climb rocks but we needed reminding just to confirm our confidence. After reprocessing the rules into my brain over and over again I was finally ready to do some climbing.

The first rock climbing wall I did was the easiest out of them all. Whenever I’d look over my shoulder at Toby I’d see him trying his hardest to get to the top. Sometimes he would get to the top and sometimes he wouldn't. There was one challenge that killed me. It tested my strength, I did it but after then the others I did wasn't easy. One Rock Wall I helped Toby getting up the whole way. I was next to him on a different wall having fun with him. My mother and I were so proud of him and his achievement and so was Toby.

There was one wall where you don’t use your hands you use these tiny poles and put them in holes on the wall. That’s how you climb up the wall it’s not easy especially when the poles don’t grip into the wall easily. On another wall you time yourself on how fast you can get up the wall. I was extremely proud of myself when I got 18.65 seconds. That’s really fast for me. Then is was time to go home, thanks to mum me and Toby got a drink afterwards and had some chocolate eclairs.Then after a bite I said, “Thanks mum these are the best”.

Here is a link to the Rock Climbing site if you'd like to go there.

Mt Ruapehu Part 1

These holidays I’m going to a mountain. But not just any mountain, I'm going to a mountain with SNOW on it, and that means I’ll be snowboarding on the mountain. Well if you haven't already been to the mountain of snow before then let me entertain you while I tell you about my fun time with my family. There are 6 in our family, Mum and Dad, four sons and no daughters. Just to let you know we were not on the mountain the whole time. The thing about my mum and dad is if there is not a spa at the bach we’re staying at, we will not rent that bach.

It always starts off with us at home packing our bags, both the night before and the day that we leave. It takes us a little while to get down to Ruapehu. The town we stayed in was Ohakune, which is only about 30 minutes from the actual mountain. If you were wondering how long it takes to get from our home in Auckland to Ohakune, the answer is approximately 5 hours.

The house was pretty cool. After setting up camp at the bach we didn’t really do anything except say our prayers and go to sleep. The next morning we got our season passes for the snowboarding and played in the snow for about an hour, then drove home went for a spa and watched a movie. Our family loves watching movies. We have over 300 of them? Sadly we only brought about 100 of them.

3rd day, time to hit the snow today. It was exciting, finally getting on the snow, I can’t wait to show my moves and snowboard. There are no skiers in this house! There are two sides to the mountain - one side’s called Turoa, the other side Whakapapa is where we are snowboarding on for today. It’s a blizzard on Whakapapa side. Toby the youngest of us all is snowboarding and the age of 7! So adults that means that anyone can try it.

The way that we all started learning how to snowboard is we would do something called Heels and Toes. It’s just turning and braking, the way you do that is you lean over your front knee, bend your knees, turn your hips and look where you want to go. Heels is when you’re on a snowboard looking down the mountain and you do all the stuff I told you and turn. When you do this you’ll then be facing down the mountain and on your heels, but you have to remember not to bend too far forward or to far back because you could fall. Toes is the exact opposite to heels. You start on heels and turn, when you’re on your toes you face up the mountain.

When we don’t go to the snow we either hang at home watching movies, play board games, go for a spa or we’re out of the house going shopping and looking around town. But what’s fun is the basketball court in town. I went there with my mum, and four brothers. “Beep” the finger whistle blew and the game had started. The teams were me, Toby and Mum, vs Noah and Levi. People were shooting goals, dribbling the ball, doing double dribbling, traveling and doing a lot of fouls. The crowd went wild (the players)! It was a fun game, the score was something : something, but what we do know is Levi and Noah won by a little (a bit).

One day some decided they didn’t feel like going to the Mountain. So we both went our separate ways. I was with the wise group, the group that stayed and went into town with mum and Toby. We were looking for something to do. We finally found the solution to our happiness.

The place was pretty cool, the place that we went to was…

I’ll have Part 2 in just a little while, but while you wait I might be able to come up with another blog for you about what I did and the fun I had doing it.

Something New ( Part 2 )

As soon as my face touched the surface of the water it felt like a brush sweeping across the floor. A massive Sting Ray was just beneath my feet! Finally we start to move, Allen holds on to this rope above us and pulls us along the whole shark tank and back. "Ahh" screamed a girl, I went to go see what was going on & I saw it. A massive female Tiger Shark swimming right passed my very eyes!

30 minutes passed by and it only felt like 10 minutes. We were at our finish. There was one thing that I wanted to do, there were handles at the bottom of the Cage. So I held my breath and under I went.

After we got changed we met up with the rest of the family & swapped places with the others except for Toby who was sadly too short. But that meant that he knows the place off by heart now. There was one thing he loved doing & that was playing this awesome video game about sharks. there also was a cool little park that him and Noah enjoyed.

To wrap things up I'd just like to say thanks for reading my blog. When coming home from Kelly Tarltons I think of how much fun I had hang en with those sharks. I think that I'll remember the time I first swam with the sharks. To wrap things up I'd just like to say thanks for reading my blog. Stay tuned for more adventures.

P.S. Watch out for my next post which is kind of a video!

Something New ( Part 1 )

My family love trying new things. This particular thing is what me and my family has always wanted to do. We're going to Kelly Tarltons for the Shark Cage event! It's when you get to swim with the Sharks! Kelly Tarltons is a giant underground aquarium.

Suddenly I hear footsteps running up the stairs, mum is rushing us to get ready for... the Shark Cage. Only a few minutes later we were in the car on our way, we were LATE! Whilst we were in the car we put on water shoes and our togs.

Speed walking was our new best friend, luckily we had this amazing staff member who showed us a short cut. He was very cool. Then we met our instructor for the time, his name was Allen. He got us wet suits for the Cage, and he even gave some of us these cool singlet hood wet suit. There were six of us not including Allen, there was me, my mum, Noah & these three tourists.

Allen showed us around the place and we even got to see a live sea turtle, Sadly it swallowed some plastic so it's in special care. Then he showed us some cool fish that would pop up out of the water. They thought it was feeding time. We were warned about them biting, and that you would get more hurt with the fish than with the shark.

Finally we get to the Shark Cage. A snorkel was handed to us just before we hopped in the water. The water was chilly & there was Go Pro's that we could use while being in the water.Allen said a lot of rules, if I wrote them all there would be a never ending list. Snorkels on ready to go...

The Accident That Almost Ruined My Holiday

It’s my league game today and to be honest I don't feel like getting up. I’m tired, but I shouldn't tell my coach that I’m tired this morning. Two minutes later I get woken up by my mother... you know mothers are like that. I had to be there by 9am and it was 8:30 so I needed to hurry up! After the game I’m going to the snow mountain, Mt Ruapehu.

To my surprise I got there a little early and my team wasn't training, they were playing on the park. After a while Tyson (our coach) called us in to have a quick chat about today’s game. He told us that we were playing Ellerslie Eagles and let me tell you they are not an easy team to beat so it will be a tough game!

The whistle blew and we’re ready to go. The ball was kicked far down the field. We chased the ball all the way down the field. Bang, the opposition was spear tackled. “1”, yelled the referee. After two tries we were getting hacked off so we tackled hard. I tackled one of the biggest guys in their team, he fell over and put his knee right into the side of my leg. My leg was fine until I stood up, I was limping, my leg was so sore. If I wanted to tackle I had to fall flat on my stomach, put my hands out and wrap them around their legs and they were down.

I got a charlie. I had to get taken off the field before half time. It was annoying. So I waited until the final whistle blew and the game was finished I’ll see how well my leg is before the snow tomorrow.

The Surprise At The Beach

“Lets go down to the beach today”, I sang to my mum. Our family were very excited, even though it is the middle of winter we still love to go for a refreshing swim. I am on holiday with my brothers & cousins in Pauanui. We stayed just down the road from the beach.

It didn't take long to get to the beach only about three minutes. when we arrived at the beach we played a little with the sand. Which when you drew on it, it becomes black, cool aye.

So after playing with the sand for a bit we decided it was time to go for a swim. When my toe touched the water I felt how cold it would be. I couldn't possibly tell how many times I ran in & out, in & out. Then I made up my mind to walk in until I got smashed into the water from the waves. I lifted up my legs and felt them, they were icy cold, but I carried on.

When I got smashed a couple of times I suddenly felt something… “oooowwww”, I yelled in pain. Then I went to kick it of my foot. It was a crab that nipped me, it felt this size . Then I ran out with the crab clinging on to my foot, I desperately wriggled my foot to get that crab off of me then finally it let go and I ran to shore.

After that surprise there were no more and we had a lovely time playing in the water and on the sand. Then it was time to go home. I had a fun time at the beach.

Frozen In The Morning (This Is A Narrative)

A shiver ran down my spine when I took a step outside my door and saw everything Frozen! The grass, the side walk, the road & even my car! I almost froze! It felt so cold even though I was wearing my six layer sleeping bag and my Mac Pac jacket! No matter how warm I got it wouldn’t go away. So I slammed the door shut and waddled up each stair like a penguin in my sleeping bag. Then finally i knew it, the heat pump (heater). Worth a shot.

So I ran for the remote, turned it on and finally felt satisfaction. The first time this morning I felt warmth. Isnt it nice to be warm again. Then I felt something slither down my back, I didn’t take notice of it and walked past it.

Then I stood on something, it looked like ice. I picked it up. It was ice…”TOBY”

The End