Fresh from Year six Camp and Happy Birthday Sammi! (1/12/12)

Hello blog readers! I am back from camp and ready to write about it.
BUT FIRST...
It's someone's birthday today...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BESTIE SAMANTHA E!
I'm not telling how old she's turning but I would like to tell you more about her.
Samantha is a short, quiet and artistic girl. She loves to paint and collect Rilakkuma and Disney pins, but she hates P.E and people waking her up.
If she had to change her name, it would be Zoey.

Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMMI (A.K.A Miko Meeks)!
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WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD
Now, let's focus on camp.
It was amazing. It was amazing that everyone wants to go back there.
It will always be a memory to everyone.
Camp is where you get to be free, travel, get delicious food and have fun with your best mates. (If it was an army training camp, forget what I said.)
And that was exactly what happened at our camp.

MONDAY:

Monday was the day when everyone struggled to carry their luggages, say goodbye to their families and friends and get bus sick.
After meeting in the school hall we headed for our two buses. Half of my cabin mates were on the same bus as me and half were on another.
Luckily not most people on our bus got motion sickness and luckily our bus did not break down, but the opposite happened to the other bus. So we stopped at a town called Matamata.
After a half hour break Bus B (the other bus) caught up, got the bus into shape and had a break with us then we both rode off.
Finally we arrived in Auckland and we entered Butterfly Creek, our first visit in Auckland. Butterfly Creek 'is the home to the crocodiles and butterflies and other animals', so we took heaps of photos of the animals.

After Butterfly Creek we went to the home of the Sister's of St. Joseph.We sang a couple of songs to them then had some food they gave us and looked at their archives.
Then we were off to the place where we were staying, Willow Park Christian Camp, to eat, sleep and do fun activities.

TUESDAY:

After a good night's rest we were off to Maritime museum to see their historical exhibits about boats (since they live close to the port of Auckland.

Later on we went on a boat to view the Port of Auckland. We saw groups of boats carrying cargo exported from New Zealand. 

When the boat ride finished we rode on the Auckland Tram and saw places around Mission Bay.

Afterwards we went back to Willow Park Campus and played mini golf, tennis, ping pong and other sports.

WEDNESDAY:

The middle day of camp. This is my favourite day out of all days. Why? Find out by reading further...

Firstly we were off to the Auckland Art Gallery. We viewed the exquisite paintings and sculptures. Most of the paintings and sculptures were made overseas but we found some created in Aotearoa (New Zealand).

We looked for about a half an hour then ate morning tea.

After morning tea we told stories by using pictures.

When we finished we ate lunch then played a game using a ball and net and tossing it into the air lots of times.

 The Art Gallery visit finished and we rode the bus to the famous Sky Tower. We saw an amazing view from the top floor and walked on the glass floor to see what the astonishing view looks like from the floor.

Now, this is my favourite part. Are you ready?

As 8:00pm strikes, everybody puts on warm clothes, thick socks and gets ready to hit the road.

It was ice skating time.

While on our way to Paradice Ice Skating, my cabin mate saw this boy doing the Gangnam Style dance in his car. He was doing the dance for over ten minutes and Olivia and I were laughing our lungs out on the whole bus trip.
When we arrived at Paradice we immediately put our skates on then skated around in the dark with music booming.
This was my third time going ice skating and I get faster every time I go.
I learned how to skate as fast as pros without falling. One time I nearly fell but instead I did a 360 spin.

THURSDAY:

The trip leaders planned us to go to two factories that are famous in New Zealand: the place where they print newspapers, APN Printers and the famous ice cream company, Tip Top.

Our first stop was at APN Printers, where they print newspapers like the New Zealand Herald and Dominion Post. They showed us how they print newspaper, how much paper they use everyday and presented to us their robots who lift rolls of paper.

The Tip Top factory visit followed by and we saw how the ice cream is made, what ingredients they use and saw the other products they made. 

At the end we got delicious ice cream for free and watched the history of Tip Top.

FRIDAY:

It was a sad time for everyone because this was the last day of camp.

But before the long bus trip we went to Stardome Planetarium and Observatory. We saw how the solar system works and watched a video that taught us about the seasons.

We saw constellations of stars. Most of them (maybe all, I don't know) are upside down.

We ate lunch at the park next to the observatory, One Tree Hill Domain, and went on the flying fox. The ride was scary at the beginning but it just got more hilarious at the middle of it.

Farwell, Auckland! It was time to leave for Rotorua. We also stopped at Matamata but it was a better trip than going to Auckland because the other bus didn't break down and not a single person got bus sick.

It was back to ordinary life in Rotorua. No more sharing rooms with besties, no more getting canteen food. Just back to the ordinary.

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You guys may think that I go to Auckland too much and I bet you wanna know why.

It's because my parents have friends there and we like spending the holidays there. My family loves to travel.

And for school, they want older kids to get out of town by themselves and to learn how to live without family. They also want you to enjoy and live while we're alive.