4J's Run Reflection

This is my 4J's running graph for 2018. I have another 2017 running graph, but I decided to put just this one up here.

The 4J's run has improved my fitness levels by a vast amount, even though you can see that my run times spiked up during terms 2 and 3. On average, I have done the 4J's run once every few days
(The run is 2.8km long) and I have run exactly 106.4km this year, but I ran 156.8km last year.
That means I've run about 400km on the 4J's run if you include my runs from 2015/16 as well! That's long enough to get you from southern Auckland to Napier! Crazy stuff! Today, on the 26th of September 2018, I sprinted down the final stretch of my last run, and probably my last run in general, ever. I mean, I'll keep my fitness up next year by biking in the warmer months (Like October-April) so my fitness level won't plummet completely, but it will drop a bit, according to my calculations.

WPCA Ski Trip Reflection 2018

                      Day 1: Monday 10th of September 2018

It all started off on the 10th of September, and my heart was fluttering with nervous energy. That morning, I munched down a bagel for breakfast and brushed my teeth. Luckily, I had finished all of the packings yesterday, so I didn't have to waste my precious time on that. I left home in my dad's car at 8:30am and arrived at school at 8:40. Not too long after that, I got Mr S-W to check my luggage, and he gave me the thumbs up: same as last year. Back in the classroom, Mr S-W told us who would go in who's car. Luckily, I got Sonny and Liam: a pretty good combo in my opinion. At 9:00, we sped off in my dad's car, bound for Temple Basin. I had never gone across the new Taramakau bridge at 100kph, so that was quite cool to experience. For the rest of the car trip, I listened to Radio Hauraki in the front seat, as we ascended slowly up the Southern Alps. Finally, at quarter-past 10, we arrived at the Temple Basin Goods Lift. So I grabbed my big travel pack and dumped that into the small metal cage, along with Dad's, Liam's, and Sonny's. We spent a bit of time there, and it wasn't until 10:35 that we parked in the small TB carpark. We had to wait for everyone to get their packs on, and then we set off on the very steep walk up to the ski lodge. This year, there was a lot less snow than last time, so that made the climb up a bit easier. But there was a lot of loose, large rocks, which slowed things down a bit. But I literally only JUST made it up the mountain, with only 5% of my energy left (I think). It was noon by the time we got there. Unfortunately, there wasn't really any lunch to enjoy, but the 2 OSM's I ate earlier on kept my stomach happy. As the afternoon progressed, we dumped our bags in Room 4 (our room), and we went to the Ski Rental shop to rent some skis and ski boots for the days ahead. Just after 2pm, we were out on the slopes and skiing. But I didn't have too much energy, after climbing a mountain, and the ski boots were painfully tight (just like last year). By 4:30, we had to walk with our skis, in ski boots, back to the lodge, and the boots made the journey very painful and slow. I was looking forward to a very hearty dinner (like pizza), but it was served at 7:20pm (very late!) and guess what it was? Peas, broccoli, and a disgusting soupy goop. Yuck! So I ate some snacks from my lunchbox instead. That night for dessert, I slurped up an Earl Grey tea with food, but just without the food. And I was looking forward to a comfortable bed, but my bed turned out to be short and lumpy, which made it extremely hard to sleep on. And just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, Sonny and Liam kept me up until about 9:45pm with their non-stop talking. But finally, I fell asleep.

                Day 2: Tuesday 11th of September 2018  

I woke up the next morning at a pretty early time: 6:15am, so I only got 8 & a half hours of sleep overnight. Then Alex and Jai got up around 6:45, and I made myself a morning coffee at 7:00. After a few more people woke up, I had a match of table tennis in the sunroom with Alex, Jai, and Jack L. I ate another bagel for brekkie at around 7:30, with apricot jam (not as good as strawberry tho) Since the snow, was frozen this early in the morning, Mr S-W got out the good-ole toboggans at 9:40am, and I had a lot of fun with my friends on them. There was a small, circular red one which turned out to be lethal. I absolutely sped down the slope with that one, & my dad had to catch me at the bottom. But the Plastic Polar Bear toboggan was actually a bit faster, but it was safer & easier to control. It was really fast & bumpy, and I could feel myself flying through the air in some parts! Even though it was sunny, it still took until around 11am for the snow to soften enough to ski on. By now, I was really starting to hate the ski boots, and bruises were already developing on my ankles due to them. Damn it! I was skiing for a few hours that day, with a break or two in between for food. I didn't trust the Cassidy rope tow though, because it almost sprained my ankle last year, even though Cassidy was the slowest. That day, I came back into the lodge around 5pm, but Jai, Alex, and Mr S-W were still skiing down the slopes until 6pm. And dinner wasn't served until 7:30 (again), which was a real bugger. And just like last night, it was peas & broccoli with turnip mash and slop. But the good news was, I found some bread to toast. The bad news was that it was white bread (sad face). But it was still alright anyway. And just when I thought nothing could get worse, I didn't have time to have my evening tea! (another sad face) Tonight, some of my friends had to read out their speeches to the lodge's occupants, but I had to get to bed before Lochie even started on his. And as usual, Sonny and Liam were talking non-stop, this time about gaming and eating too many marshmallows. Didn't get to sleep until almost 10pm.

              Day 3: Wednesday 12th of September 2018

I woke up around 6:40 the next morning to Sonny and Liam snoring pretty damn loudly. So I dressed back into mufti and left Room 4 for my daily coffee. Around quarter past 7, I had another few rounds of table tennis against Jack L in the sunroom. As usual, I had a bagel for breakfast, which tasted pretty good. Unfortunately, we didn't do any tobogganing this morning, because, by 9am, I was busy packing my bags, since we would be leaving the ski lodge today. At around 10am, we walked down to the Goods Lift to dump our travel packs in there, and then we walked back to the lodge for a couple hours of skiing before lunch. I didn't do any skiing though, because my ankles would kill me if I put my ski boots back on again. Lunch for today was some Subway-like rolls with salad and cheese in them, along with some tomato & lettuce salad in a bowl, which actually wasn't too shabby, but I would've preferred vegan cheese in the rolls. After that, I decided to take some photos of Dad skiing down the mountain, and I also took a photo from the top of the Cassidy (Beginner) tow-rope. In fact, it was so steep up there (about 40% gradient), I was slipping over half of the time! I actually ended up sliding 50 metres down the mountain on me arse! It was really fun! While I was walking back to the Ski Rental shop around 1:30pm to return my skis and ski boots, I stumbled across Heather (Mr S-W's wife), Stella, and Walter (their children, 5 and 3 years old respectively), who had come up the mountain for a day trip!
Finally, around 2:15, we set off down the mountain and back to the carpark. It didn't take us long to get out of the snow, and we were down at the car park by 3:10! We left the Goods Lift by 3:40, bound for school. At 5pm, we dropped Sonny and Liam off at school (temporarily), and at long last, we finally got back home around 5:20, where Mum had prepared 2 hearty, delicious vegan bean burgers.

                                                                   The End!

Chinese Poll Tax

The Chinese Poll Tax was a poll tax that was targeted at Chinese immigrants that moved to New Zealand during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At first, to limit the number of Chinese people coming to New Zealand, the NZ government only allowed 1 Chinese immigrant per 10 tons of cargo, and when they arrived in NZ, they had to pay a poll tax of £10 (equivalent to $1700 in today's money). Later on, the limit was shifted to one person per 200 tons of cargo, and the poll tax was increased to a whopping £100 ($19000)! If a Chinese immigrant didn't pay the poll tax, they had to catch a ship back to their homeland, and they would've had to wait for many months until the next ship arrived. The poll tax was lifted in the 1930's, and the poll tax was finally eradicated during the mid 20th century. In 2002, the NZ government officially apologised to the descendants of the Chinese immigrants who had to pay the poll tax.

NZEI Strike, which happened just yesterday on the 15th of August, 2018.

Just yesterday, schools around the country were shut down due to all the teachers doing a strike, and that was the first time it'd happened in 24 YEARS!!!!! The teachers were protesting against the government for a pay rise and the number of primary school teachers in NZ is decreasing. this has nothing to do with hi-school teachers. I think that the teachers SHOULD be striking because I can have a day of school, which I like to have. Plus I have an awesome person who looks after me and my annoying little brother. So TEACHERS STRIKING IS AWESOME!!!!!

Social Studies #2: The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was quite a violent war. It was started by the Indochina War, in which France tried to claim Vietnam as a colony, but communist forces which were known as Viet Minh fought back. Apparently, the war continued as a result of conflict between North and South Vietnam, and then the USA eventually got itself involved in the war. But sadly, millions of people were killed or injured due to the Vietnam War. The war ended around mid-1970's, and North Vietnam had united Vietnam as a country. But somehow, the end of the Vietnam War coincided with the start of the Dawn Raids, which I mentioned in a previous episode. Thanks 4 reading, and I'll see u on the next 1!

Social Studies #1: The 1974 Dawn Raids

In the morning of some day in 1974, at around 3am, police burst into houses with really big, bright spotlights and [BLEEP]s. The government then forced the Pacifica people out of their Auckland homes, and get back on planes bound for Tonga, Samoa, Fiji etc, due to a huge economic downturn. Even though they were welcomed with open arms into New Zealand in the late '50's, most of them were still kicked out of NZ.
But a few Pacifica people made up an anti-racism gang called the Black Panthers, who protested against the NZ government to keep the Pacifica people in New Zealand. But unfortunately, it didn't really work. And that's my view on the 1974 Dawn Raids, first social study for 2018!
See ya on the next one!

Cave Stream Reflection

As we pulled into the Cave Stream Scenic Reserve, my heart was thumping madly for the second time. I got changed into my wetsuit, and then I had to wait a nerve-racking 15 minutes in the scorching Canterbury sun. I was actually so hot that I wanted to run straight down to the cave's entrance and get started. But no, I had to wait through the briefing before we started our long, tiring downhill walk to the starting line.

Once we started shuffling into the cave, the cave water cooled me down...too much! Within just 2 minutes, my legs were already numb from the cold water (even though I had thermals and a wetsuit)! After about 20 minutes of being in the cave, my body had mostly adjusted to the temperature, and we stopped at an area where we turned our torches off (yes, all of them!). There was only one word to describe that moment: SCARY! Luckily, the water shallowed out after that. At one waterfall, the current was SO strong, 2 people who knew everyone's names pulled me up the waterfall like I was a ragdoll!

After that, I came across Jai, who asked me how far the end of the cave was. I said about 10 minutes, and it turns out I was correct. Near the end of the cave, Reed Antman dived into the freezing cold water, which I found quite weird. While I was climbing up the rock face at the end of the cave, Mr Sinton-White asked me how the cave was. I replied: "Yeah, it was sort of alright." But to be honest, once I got out of the cave, I felt like a survivor of a zombie apocalypse.