Nina's Blog

My Dream Horse

2008-08-05T14:13:00.000-07:00

My dream horse-

Name- Firegod- JJ for short

Breed- Arab/Kaimanawa

Colour- sorrel chestnut

Markings- a white stripe down his nose and 4 stockings on his legs

Age- 4 years old

Type- gelding

Loves- jumping, mustering cattle and sheep, dressage, goats, peppermints, chocolate biscuits and other horses

Hates- being dirty and getting his mouth hauled around.

What I would not give to get a horse like this!

this picture was the closest one I found suiting the description.

Camp

2008-07-30T14:25:00.000-07:00

Camp was so fun! Skiing was the best and I also loved the laser tag and going to the Waioru Army Museum.
OK so this the whole week………

Monday- we got to school at about 45 minutes past 7. We packed our bags into the trailer and 20 minutes later everybody was packed up and we set off to Ruapehu. Nobody was sick and we only stopped once. So 5 hours later we parked at the Waioru Army Museum. We had lunch then a man called Bruce came to show us around. The first thing we looked at was the greenstone waters. It was meant to represent the tears of the families and friends of the people who died in war. Then we went on to look at the weapons and of instruments of World War 1 and then World War 2 and finally the Koren and Vietnam War. We stared into trenches and got to crawl though an escape tunnel. When we got to the end of it all we went up to the class room. Bruce said a few things and then we had to dress up in the army uniform. I was a solider and so was Koren but Connie was a General and Kelly was some other person so we were not all the same. Mr Chapman and Mrs Fergus took some photos and then we had to be really fast with taking the clothes off! Kelly and Rhys were the last ones so they had to do press ups! Bruce said usually you had to do about 50 press ups but since he was nice they had to do half of one and hold it there! Koren and Connie were laughing at them so Bruce made them come down and do one! It was really funny but I was very careful not to laugh! After all that we piled back into the bus and when off the Military Training ground. When we got there we meet George, Mr Chapman’s brother-in-law. He showed around the LAVs (light armoured vehicle). We got to climb inside one, then out and over the top of it. It was quite fun. A little while later after everybody had had a go inside it we got back into the bus and drove to the camp. I was so relived to be there but we had to stay in the bus while Mr Chapman sorted out the sleeping arrangements. As it turned out Galatier School brought more than they were originally going to so we didn’t share the lodge with them. We got to stay in the backpackers which had a kitchen and drying room and everything all to our selves! I bagged a room and ended up sleeping in the same room as Koren, Connie and Kelly. I was so glad to climb into my sleeping that night. I was sick of driving and was really tired!

Tuesday- I woke up early and woke up Koren, Connie and Kelly. We got up and padded to the kitchen. Mum and Sylvia were up and Mum got our showers organised. The boys were all still snoring but Maddy, Roma and Caterina woke up after we had got out of the shower. Rhys walked into the kitchen in his pjs when we girls were almost finished our breakfast! Soon we set off to Mt Ruapheu. A while later I was staring out of Will and Sam’s car (there were too many people in the bus so I had to go with Maddy and Mitchell) at the snow. We had to wait for ages for Mr Chapman to put the chains on the wheels but finally we got going. We got up the top of Happy Valley on the lowest part of the mountain. We took the chairlift down and went into the ski hire. It took ages to get them though because there were so many people! At about 11 o’clock we started our ski lesson. It was hard because we had to walk up the hill after we went down. After lunch we got to go down the actual mountain. It was really fun except it was hard to get up when you fell over. Also there were heaps of people so we had to wait for ages when we came down to the chairlifts! After skiing we went to the hot pools. It was so relaxing! We had dinner at a restaurant and then we went back to camp. I was so tired and fell asleep as soon as I got into bed.

Wednesday- we woke up a bit later than on Tuesday but still before the boys. I was half a wake though breakfast. Mr Chapman got the weather page on the ski field and announced that we would not go up today but we would go to the Toupo Adventure Park. It took ages to get there but it was worth it. We went into the maze first but that was so annoying because I couldn’t get to the middle for ages! Then we did lazertag and that was heaps more fun. I was on the Orange Team and we lost 2 games but won the 3rd one. After that we went to the Huka Prawn Farm. I was the first one to catch a prawn but that one was my first and last. I kept fishing but had to unhook all Kelly’s and Koren’s prawns. Roma caught 4 prawns! Some kids didn’t catch any! In total we caught 18 prawns. We had a tour of the place and that was pretty fun. Then we went to the Huka Waterfalls. It was drizzling a bit and it was cold so Sylvia’s Milo and Mum’s cake were tasted better than ever! We went home earlier and when we got back we just played games and had dinner then went to bed.

Thusday- Today I got up and Mum made me go back to bed. It was raining a bit so I didn’t know if we would ski today or not. In the end we did. But it was cold and the wind and rain hurt our faces. Still I had fun because I was a much better skier today and so I raced Revlin down Happy Valley. I won most of the time beacuase he fell over lots. But the only time he won was when I waited for him when he fell over once then as soon as he was up he took off where as I had to turn around! I was freezing cold and soaking wet when I got into the van. I was so cold I was going numb and shivery. I just couldn’t get warm. But we finally got back to camp and I had a shower and perked up a bit. We went into the movie room and watched “The Frightners” It was a good movie and was quite funny. We had a yummy dinner afterwards and I fell asleep sonn after the got into bed. No talking that night!

Friday- we packed up our stuff in the morning and headed of to the National Park for our last activity before we went home. It was rock climbing. I had fun doing although it is very energy sapping especially for me. After rock climbing we went home. It was pretty boring but I read a little bit and played a game on Rhys’s phone. When we got home I was so tired. The Milo that Dad made for us was very welcome! So in all I had a great time. It was my last ever camp at Makahu School and I made sure I made the most of it!

New Internet Games

2008-06-24T14:22:00.000-07:00

Heres a new list of Internet games.

http://www.horseisle.com/
http://www.runescape.com/
http://www.girlsgogames.com/ (4 the girls)
http://www.freeonlinegames.com/
http://www.gamesheep.com/
http://www.funorb.com/ (a good one for the boys)
http://www.miniclip.com/
http://www.horseland.com/

You should try one or more of these. Hope you find one that you like. Have fun! :-)

School Work on WW1

2008-06-24T14:12:00.001-07:00

This is our recent school work.

WORLD WAR 1

I like learning about WW1. I have heaps of important facts stuck into my brain now!

Like How many people were killed from new Zealand- 18,050
And how many New Zealand people were wounded- 41,317

Here are my focus questions and how I answered them……

Why did Britain declare War on Germany?
Britain and France declared war on Germany on September the 3rd, 1939, because Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France had a treaty with Poland that said if a nation invaded any of the three treaty nations; it was the same as invading all three nations. So when Germany invaded Poland, it was as if Germany had invaded Britain and France as well. They also wanted to stop Germany before she became too powerful.

Who Won WW1?
The Allied Powers won the war, when at 6am of November the 11th 1918; Germany signed the Armistice of Compiègne. The fighting ended at 11am. Then on the 18th of January the Allied and Germany signed the Treaty of Versallies and the Peace Conference opened in Paris. But the Central Powers knew that they could not win the war since American forces were coming in even more numbers. So they gave up and that was the end of World War 1 also known as the Great War.

How many people altogether were enlisted in WW1?
60 million people were enlisted in WWI from Europe. As well as 128,525 were from New Zealand and 412,953 from Australia.

Who was On Each Side?

Allied Powers
Australia, New Zealand , United Kingdom, United States, Belgium , Canada, France, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Montenegro, Newfoundland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, South Africa

Central Powers
Bulgaria, Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, German Empire

Pretty good if i must say so myself. :-)

My Favourite Horse Breeds and Colours

2008-06-15T14:36:00.000-07:00

Arabians are a breed and my absolute favourite. The Arab is the oldest breed in the world and thoughbreds are descended from them. Arabians are very high- strung meaning that they get silly over the littlest thing. I love Arabians because they are very intelligent and caring all though they run into fences and stuff like that. They are a very ‘fine’ sort of horse, very delicate. Arabians have lovely body structure and their coats are usually quite silky and smooth. Here’s a picture of one-

Another favourite breed of mine is the Kaimanawa. They are a New Zealand wild horse and they come from the middle of the North Island near Tihape. Kaimanawas are usually gentle and a very quiet ride. Kaimanawas are good jumpers and lovely dressage horse. Since they are fantastic on hills, we use them a lot. Kaimanawa’s can do heaps of things. Games are a fun one and as they are usually small it is easier for us as well. Kaimanawas are a mix of all different breeds but they all make this one. Here is a picture of one-

My favourite colour of the Horse is skewbald. A skewbald horse is any colour (except black. Black and white is Piebald) and white. I love the chestnut brown and white. Skewbald horses used to be called a breed but not anymore. Here is a picture of one-

My other favourite colour is palomino. A palomino is a sort of golden colour and I like them with a blonde mane. Palominos are quite pretty especially when they are all plaited up. Here is a picture of one-

What are your favourite colour and breeds?

Basketball

2008-06-10T14:34:00.001-07:00

I am playing a new sport now. Basketball! It is so fun and I like it much better than netball. My team is called the Toko Black Coals. We lost 3 of the grading games and only won 1 but we still got into the second grade. So far we haven’t lost a game since that very last grading game. There is another team from Toko called the Toko Gold Nuggets. We bet them but I can’t remember the score. The members of my team are… Jack, Livvy, Robbie, David, Lee, Johanna and Ila. Sorry but I don’t know their last names. Anyway we don’t play like the NBA stars but we are pretty good!

Lucy Dissection

2008-06-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

Before the dissection Lucy looked like this-

On the 6th of June my Dad came out to do a sheep dissection. It was so helpful and I learnt heaps about the parts of the body. Like the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. We did it on the school farm beside the offal hole. Perfect place isn’t it! First of all Dad cut open Lucy (the sheep) and we looked at the hind leg and its joint, a ball and socket joint. Then Dad showed us the heart and passed it around for us to inspect. After that Dad did the lung. One thing which surprised me was that lung floats and liver doesn’t. He said that sometimes the lungs look like the liver. So that’s how we figured that out!
For me the stomach was probably the most interesting thing. We had a look inside of the rumen (stomach) and just as I said it would be, it was full of processed grass! Well it was green and looked like cow poo or at least a cow with diarrhoea! The small intestine was 14 meters long!!!!! We stretched it out and Rhys did meter long steps. It was so funny but when we wound it up again everybody lost interest and we carried on.
The next cool thing that happened was that we looked at the face. Dad showed us some small bones and said that when the police do post mortem on a murdered person if those bones were broken the person has probably been strangled. Last of all we looked at the eye. Dad cut it out of the socket and when he cut it open some ‘eye juice’ came out and splatted onto him. It was very funny. After that Dad cut it a bit more and got some ‘eye jelly’ out. It was like lemonade jelly, very clear and transparent. Underneath that there was this beautiful greenie- blue colour. It was so cool. Doing that was very fun and I learnt heaps.

After the dissection lucy looked like this-

End of the Holidays

2008-05-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody holidays are over, (wahhh! :-( ) oh well, back to school! I had heaps of fun during the holidays and I hope every else did too! The highlights for the holidays. Well……. My favorite time was when I went on a horse riding course in Stratford. It was really fun and I learnt heaps! When we were in Stratford doing the course we stayed with Annie Tapper in Cardiff. The ponies stayed there too so we had to do 2 trips each day!
Connie and I also went to Sarah and Hannah’s place with our ponies. I took Delilah and Connie took Shadow. We had heaps of fun there as well. I helped Sarah to build her cross country course, then we rode it and it was heaps of fun.
Well we will have to deal with school for a little while and then we will be free again! :-)

Before the Leadership Conference

2008-04-13T15:06:00.000-07:00

Today I am going to the Youth Leadership conference in Wellington. I am so exited! This will be the first time and it should be heaps of fun! I am going down with the other year 8’s, Koren and Rhys. Also Mum and Mrs Fergus are coming too. This will also be the first time that I can remember that I don’t have to drive down to Wellington with my sisters. Yah!
Rhys, Koren and I have also brought lollies to bring a long. It may sound stupid but I am so exited I have to write down everything! Well I brought barley sugars Koren brought fruit bursts and Rhys brought Macintoshes. Koren hates them but I like a few of them. We also brought along some cash. Me-$10. Koren- $20. Rhys-$20. So I am the poor one! Well anyway I can’t wait until we get started and I will write more next time!

Sonnet competition

2008-04-10T15:07:00.000-07:00

Hey there. We had a sonnet (kind of poem that Shakespeare invented.) competition a little while ago. There were people that entered from all over the New Zealand and part of Australia into it. There was a senior class and a junior class. I was entered into the junior one. I had written 2 sonnets. The rest of the school had only entered 1. Well the mayor of Stratford and the vice- president of the Shakespeare society came down to our school with good news. Out of about 30 something people 3 of us had been placed! Right,
1st-Koren Drake (Possums)
2nd-Nina Poletti (My Wild Horse)
3rd-Callum Old (Tennis)

Well I thought it was really cool that we got placed! Here’s my 2 sonnets.

My Wild Horse
O, beautiful horses wild and free,
Running fast, jumping high into the air,
And how I wish that you belonged to me,
I could take you into my nice warm care,
But then I would take your freedom from you,
That would be bad; you have lived your wild life,
Taking you from it, you would hate me too,
I let you go, though through my heart, a knife,
But I do not die although I feel pain,
Tears come quick to my eyes but I am glad,
So off you go though the drizzling rain,
Shaking you nice head so, a happy lad,
I watch you with wonder, lovely are thee,
Sorry horse it wasn’t meant to be.

Shakespeare in Love Films
Remember now the play of two sweethearts,
A tragedy by Shakespeare oh so sad,
A play is celebrated by the arts,
A couple met and fell in love like mad,
Juliet and Romeo, ring a bell?
Also think about modern films now,
Most come from Shakespeare, listen I will tell,
A wall between two lovers and is foul,
Usually something bad comes between them,
Sometimes it is family sometimes not,
In love movies families make mayhem,
And most of which is not to be forgot,
So now you know how they are so alike,
How they use Shakespeare to make the films just right.

Delilah's First ODE

2008-04-06T15:18:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I went to a ODE on Delilah. There were four people in my class. It was her first ever one and I though she did really well! In the dressage she was a bit too fast but other wise it was really good. In the show jumping I had 3 refusals but none of them at the same jump. Then in the cross country she refused almost every jump but she jumped the first one and a few others really well with out refusing. Well at the end of it all, Connie was 1st in dressage and 1st overall. Roma was 2nd overall and the other girl, Sarah Newton was 4th. So that meant Delilah was 3rd. I was so proud of her! She didn’t lose and got a placing! After it was finished I took her over the jumps again and after a bit she was jumping really well! She is such a cool horse!

It's So Much Better Living In The Country Essay

2008-04-02T15:41:00.000-07:00

It’s so much better living in country than in town. I have heaps of pluses here.
Right, number one plus for how I feel about living in the country compared to town. I get so much fresh air! I’m healthy and stronger than most kids because I have heaps of room to run around in and I get better meat and veggies. All of this helps me keep fit and healthy. Even though I don’t get to go to as many pony club events and other sports because we live so far away, I can ride and play at home. We live on 900 acres and (lots of people have more than that) with all that room no way would I be bored!
By the way there is not as much crime such as robberies and graffiti. Also there’s hardly any car crashes. So since we don’t have those things it makes the roads and even going outside a lot safer. For example my dad lets me and my sisters’ bike down the road to a friends place. There are no foot paths so how would we stay safe? This is because my dad knows that since we are so far away from town there would not be super fast cars coming around the corner to mash us. Also there is not very much graffiti (in fact there is hardly any!) because the people that do it can’t think of a reason to do it down here. It’s not going to be seen so what’s the point? That’s what I think of graffiti. We don’t have to lock our houses because we don’t have very many robberies. They don’t even know where we are! Also they probably think that we might have ham hanging from the roof and corn in the cupboards. No room for valuables. That’s all well for them but we do have some! But we still don’t get robbed which is very, very good!
Nobody around here gets to go to any more than 3 sports. That’s just because we live so far away! But there are heaps to choose from such as netball, rugby, soccer, hockey, basketball and so on. And because we are so strong and healthy we can play all of these! Also we meet new people and get to know them really well. I have heaps of friends just from playing netball! And even though we use lots of petrol and diesel, it’s worth it!
School. It might be boring but let me tell you it’s a lot better than town ones! You know everybody so well and it’s a bit like have heaps of brothers and sisters! (No, I don’t mean fighting over whose turn it is to do something!) And since there are as not as many people in your school you are not subject to betrayal and stuff like that which is pretty nasty! We also get more individual teaching time with our teacher because the groups are so little. That makes us a lot smarter!
One thing our parents/farmers must like about the farms is how much cheaper everything is than from town. We get cheaper meat because we kill our own stock and get the fresh meat instead of the stuff that you get from the supermarket which is probably full of chemicals. It’s the same with fruit and veggies. They probably also get a nice profit from their farm as well. Well they must do because none of us are starving and in rags! But since the meat and wool prices are going up and down all the time I suppose you don’t get as much money as town people do. I think it depends on what sort of job you have. So if you have a huge car manufactures you would probably get more money than if you had 20 acres and were farming a few sheep and beef cattle! But if you have a 1000 acre farm you would get more money than if you were working at a dairy! So really it does depend on what kind of job you have.
I think we should thank our parents for moving to the country because of what I have said about school, sport, farming and how much crime that doesn’t happen (!) and that all these things help us have a better lifestyle!

The Drought

2008-03-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

For ages there was no rain. Absolutely no rain at all. On the 29th of March our spring dried up. No water for us to drink. No water for the stock. Brown as far as the eye could see. Our cattle, sheep and horses were getting thinner. When suddenly on the 30th of March 2008 the skies opened and down it came. RAIN! The farmers all cheered. The long waited rain had finally come. Now grass will grow stock will fatten and it will all be green once more though out the land.

My ODES

2008-03-30T15:24:00.000-07:00

So far I have been to 3 One Day Events.( Horse show that include dressage, show jumping and cross country)
My first ODE- At Etham Pony Club. Dressage 1st. Did pretty well for first time. Beat Connie and Sarah anyway.) Next, show jumping. What a disaster, well jumped jump no. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 pretty well but jump no. 7 Te Waiata just did NOT like the look of so refused suddenly and I went flying over her head. Wheeeeeeeee! DONK! Owwww! But got back on, got her over it and carried on. Cross country last. Well started off well but got to jump no.7, Te Waiata refused. Over I go. Wheeeeeeeee! DONK! Owwww! But still carried on finished and that was the end of ODE no.1.
My second ODE-This one was at the famous Matthew Grayling’s property. Dressage 1st. Not a very good time then. Te Waiata seemed to have forgotten how to bend and canter on the right leg! But other wise pretty good. Well I was 10th out of 21 people so it must have been! Then show jumping. Well she refused 3 times so we were eliminated. Put down to 14th. After that, Cross-country. Refused 3 times again. So must have been put down to 21st. But didn’t stay for the results. End of ODE no.2
My third ODE- At Carlyle Pony Club with Connie. Dressage. 1 word. AWFUL. Got 3rd to last. Connie was last. Cross country second. (Strange huh) Got eliminated at the water jump. So did heaps of others so probably just stayed where I was. Show Jumping. For the 3rd time in Te Waiata’s life I got a clear round. At the end got 20th out of 23 people. Connie was 21st.
Well I have another ODE coming up on the 6th of April but this time on Delilah. Hope I get some where. (Probably on the ground. Remember Wheeeeeeeee! DONK! Owwww! At Etham) Well wish me luck! See ya

Cars Should Have Never Been Invented. We Should Still Have Horses Essay.

2008-03-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Well to start this subject off let me tell you the main plus. Not as much global warming! Everyone knows how that would help! Another one is that people would not get sick from the fumes that a car produces. Now think about the horses! They would be exercised and healthy. What about abuse? Well there would be a person going around and checking the horses out. If they were abused then there would be consequences!
Some people that would be affected by this subject would be car manufacturers; they would not have a job. Hang on though! Look at all these other jobs around. There would be a constant demand for blacksmiths, vets, stable managers, grooms and so on. But what about people who don’t own horses already? Well………… Stables! Horse stables would have popped up everywhere. The stables would have horses and carriages. It would be like a taxi place! Or you could buy a horse and keep it at the stables.
Money…Big question. So here’s the answer. Use the money you spend on petrol, diesel, engines and wheels on your horse. Horses need brushes, bedding, tack and feed. So the $$$$ you spend on your car can go towards a living thing! (Cars are not alive!)
But some people would not know how to ride or drive. Go to your local stable and spend a little money on;
some riding lessons or
a hired driver for your carriage.
There, problem solved!
Now you would have to wake up a little earlier. So what? If you suffer from tiredness go to bed earlier! Even though you would go slower everywhere you go, it is better than speeding and getting killed or hurt. It would also teach people to be a bit more organised.
So as you have seen in my essay horses would be better than having cars, because of what I about the cost and the better living of human and horse. If this law happened everyone would be better off.

Internet games

2008-03-03T13:09:00.001-08:00

My favourite internet games are

1. www.horseisle.com
2. www.runescape.com
3. www.miniclip.com
4. www.freeonlinegames.com

Maybe you should try some of the internet games as well!

2008-03-02T13:09:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone here’s a update from 2008 about me.

Now I’m 12 years old and am a yr 8. I still am crazy about horses and at the moment I am getting payed to ride Delilah but Shadow is coming soon hopefully. My best friends are still Koren and Sarah and I have and e-mail pal that lives in Tauranga! I’m starting to go ODES (One Day Events) but I never win anything! I love doing speeches and can’t wait until the nest competion! Well see ya
Nina
pic is of me and Aroha my campion calf!

horse isle

2008-02-25T13:07:00.001-08:00

hey talking to all horsy fans. Try this website. www.horseisle.com its an awesome online horse game. You get to buy horses sell them and also buy tack and feed. Take a ship to the other isle such as desert isle, jungle isle and many more. Use a caravan to go to other places on that isle like( on the Horse isle) earton to appleton and heaps of other places. U can even jump and do dressage, racing and cow rounding up. train your own horse and make it the best it can be!
Have Fun!

My Sonnet

2008-02-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

Heres a sonnet i have written

My Wild Horse
O, beautiful horses wild and free,
Running fast, jumping high into the air,
And how I wish that you belonged to me,
I could take you into my nice warm care,
But then I would take your freedom from you,
That would be bad; you have lived your wild life,
Taking you from it, you would hate me too,
I let you go, though through my heart, a knife,
But I do not die although I feel pain,
Tears come quick to my eyes but I am glad,
So off you go though the drizzling rain,
Shaking you nice head so, a happy lad,
I watch you with wonder, lovely are thee,
Sorry horse it wasn’t meant to be

Makahu's School New Teacher

2008-02-10T12:20:00.000-08:00

We just got a new teacher! :-)
Her name is Mrs Fergus and she came to Makahu on Monday the 10th of February. :-)
Mrs Fergus is really nice and funny. :-)
She got married a little while a go and my friends Sarah and Hannah Woodruff were her bridesmaids.:-)
Mrs Fergus teaches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. :-)
It should be fun having her at our school. :-)
:-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-):-)

My New Pony

2008-02-04T12:37:00.001-08:00

In a few weeks I am going to get a new pony. She is a 5 year old kaimanawa mare. Her name is Shadow at the moment but I will change it when she comes to my place. She is called Shadow because she is a dark brown almost black. Shadow has been in the same herd with our other pony Sunny ever since they were mustered in together but then they were still together. They along with a grey colt and a palomino mare were taken into custody by a man named Bryce Wood. He broke Sunny and Shadow into the saddle. But Sunny was so laid back that Bryce went to fast with Shadow and she did not work for him. So Bryce sent Sunny to us. But Sunny had only been with us for a few months when Bryce rang up and told us that Shadow had dropped a foal! 7 days later Sunny did too! The sire was the grey colt that had been running with Sunny and Shadow. (The palomino was from a different herd than the other 3 but must have gotten mixed up with them in the yards.) So we have Ataahua and Bryce has Ken, they are half siblings! Anyway since Bryce found out that I was looking for a bigger pony he decided to get Shadow sent to a man who would break her in slowly. And the man has. So all that is going to happen now is that Bryce is going to ride Shadow for a few weeks then I am going to get her. I am sooooo exited!!

When I Grow up

2007-08-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

What I want to do when I grow up is be a breeder of horses.
I would go to kaimanawa musters and buy unbroken horses for about $200+ then break them in and sell them for about $1000+! When I get enough money I would buy a few pure bred Arab mares and send them to a pure bred Arab stallion. If one of the mares have a colt I would keep him for breeding so I wouldn't have to pay money to send my mares to a different stallion! Plus people might pay me for letting my stallion breed with their mares! I would do most of the breaking in myself but some times I might turn to someone for help. Somehow I can't imagine my life without horses.

Horses of Makahu

2007-06-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

We have heaps of horses in Makahu! We have 20 horses altogether!

My family has 6 horses. Their names are Lily,Te Waiata,Sunny,Storm,Penny and Ataahua.
Rhys and Justin's family have 3 horses called Kuzco,Brezze and K.C.
Kristal's family has 2 horses called Blue and Tux
Mr Ford has one horse.
The Jurys have lots of horses! Kelly has 1 horse called Casper. Her Aunt Phillapa has 2 horses called Middie and Stew. Her Grandad has 3 horses called Muzzie ,Lady and Muzzie's daughter. Muzzie's daughter hasn't got a name.
Maddy's Dad has 1 horse called Buster.
Brooke has two ponies called Abba and Deiliah
Makahu probaly has a lot more horses than that but these are the ones i know.

My Horses

2007-06-04T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hiya. I have 2 ponies. Both of them are kaimanawas.

One of them is called Ataahua which means beautiful in maori. She is still a foal. I am working with her and have all ready got her to lead nicely. She is being weaned at the moment so its still a long time 'till I put a saddle on her and ride her! Ataahua is 14 months old.

Te Waiata is my pony at the moment. Te Waiata means The Song in maori. She is a really good jumper for a kaimanawa pony! I am seeing a pro at the moment so soon I might be able to go to a show! (Hopefully!) Te Waiata is a13.0 hand dark bay pony. Shes 12 years old.

In all we have 6 horses and ponies. 2 of them I have just told you about but we still have 4 more.

Lily is Mum's 16.2 hand, white Percheron cross thoroughbred. Shes our boss mare.( We only have mares.) Lily is 14 years old.

Storm is Roma's 15 hand bay horse. Shes grumpy and hates horses coming up behind her. When they do she kicks out at them. Shes a fullbred quater horse. Storms 27 years old.

Sunny is our other kaimanawa pony. Shes only 5 years old so she is sometimes hard to control. She is Connie's pony. Sunny is a 13.3 hand sorrel.

We just got a new pony. Her name is Penny. She is a 11.2 hand grey. Shes a fast mover and is very cute. She is Caterina's pony. Penny is 13 years old. She looks like a mini Lilly!

So theres all our horses. We are looking for 1 more horse for Dad. Then we'll have 7!

Horses are so cool! I hope you like them to.

Kids For Kids Concert

2007-05-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

I woke up. The day of the kids for kid’s concert, I was so nervous! Chris took us the TSB Showplace. It was packed! We all went into the theatre place and went onto stage when Russell told us. We got the nice comfy chairs. :-)
When everyone was here Russell told us who everyone was and we clapped each time. Finally Suzanne Prentice came on stage and we clapped really hard.
The first song we did was Consider Yourself. I sang as well as I could and I stopped feeling nervous. The practice went on until the last song. We all filed out and I thought that it went really well and that we would be pretty good. Mum picked us up and we went of to the movies and to do some shopping.

Finally! The actual night! After ages of practicing we were here! I had butterflies in my stomach.
We all went on stage and it began. In the song Granddad, Suzanne Prentice dressed up as an old man and in the song Matilda the Gorilla,a man in a gorilla suit came onto stage. The girls were screaming so it didn’t sound very good. My favourite song was All Gods Critters. And my least liked song was Don’t Rubbish the Children. I am so glad that the money that was raised is going to unfortunate children.

Te Wera Camp

2007-05-20T14:19:00.000-07:00

On the first Monday and Tuesday of the term, Makahu School went to Te Wera Camp. We got picked up in the school bus and travelled to Te Wera to meet up with Huiakama.
When we arrived, Huiakama wasn’t there so we played on the adventure playground. It was cold but we were soon warm with all the running around we did! We played “stuck in the mud” for a bit, but then the Huiakama kids arrived.
Mr Chapman called us all into the dining area and we all found a seat at the tables. Mr Chapman introduced us to the owner of the camp, Carolyn. She talked for a bit about the rules and boundaries and then Mr Chapman told us what we were going to do today. The older kids were doing river study with Mr Archer from the Taranaki Regional Council. The younger kids were doing archery.
When Mr Archer arrived the little kids were going down to the field to the targets. Mr Archer spoke to us for a little while then he told us what we were going to do.
He said “You have to hold this sieve in the water beside the bank and get this scrubbing brush and scrape the side of the bank with. All the little creatures go into the sieve. Pull the sieve out and don’t look into it! I always tell myself to not look but I still do! Don’t look because you won’t see anything! Bring your sieve over to the white tray, hold the sieve over it upside down and hit it with the back of the scrubbing brush. Give it a really good whack!”
We all laughed at that!
Soon we were walking down to the stream. We had got into groups of four. My group was Megan, Samantha, Koren and I. When we got there, the groups spread out along the river. One person went down to get the water, they brought the water up, filled the bug box. Then another person went down with the sieve and brush, brought it up and we whacked the sieve hard!
One group got a crayfish and a fish! I’m not sure what the fish is called. My group got a weird wormy thing. It was a yellowish colour and with ting hairs on its tail. It was fat and liked curling up. Koren loved it. NOT! She thought it was really weird.
When we went back to camp it was lunch time. We all had lunch at the tables. There were a few wasps hanging around. Luckily no one got stung. We all played on the adventure playground.
After lunch we played Predator in the arboretum. I was a dog and I could eat anyone, whether they were green or orange. But I had to keep away from MAN and RABIBIES. I had 2 lives to start with but in the end I had 6! Dogs didn’t have to go to food places but we had to find water. Connie and Kristal were dogs too. We only found 2 waters each when we had to find 3. Luckily Kristal and I didn’t see MAN and RABIES.
We went back to the camp and the little kids went of to see bushman Bob. Us older kids went up to the dining area. When we got there we were split into groups. One group went of to do Team Building while the rest of us went to do archery. I was in the group that went to do archery first.
At archery we got into pairs. My pair was Koren. At first I kept shooting the arrow over the target, but soon I started to hit the target. I even got a bulls-eye once! Callum got 2 bulls-eyes!
After archery we went over to the team building. We passed the others on the way. They were going to archery. Kelly yelled out,” the walls the hardest!” The wall? What’s the wall? We were soon to find out.
We saw Miss P waving us over. We went round the corner and smack dab in front of us was a tall pole. Miss P explained that we had to get the tyre over the pole in 5 minutes. Callum’s team didn’t get it over but my team did!
We picked Megan up and pushed her up the pole and then gave her the tyre. She had to stretch really hard and twice she dropped it. Finally she got it over and it came sliding down the pole. We couldn’t get it up again so Chris grabbed it and threw it up in the air. It flipped once in the air and then came down on the pole. He did it again but this time it came off.
The next thing we did was the balancing board. We had the same teams and we had to jump on to it without the end touching the ground. Finally Megan got on to the board and then the rest of us got on quite easily. At the end even Chris got on.
The last thing we did was the wall. It was really, really hard. We had to lift the person over the top and onto the platform at the top. My team picked up Brendan first. We eventually got him up. It was so hard that Chris had to help us up. Finally we were all up. We all got down again, and ran of to the dining area. Then we went home.

On Tuesday we went back to Te Wera camp. We were going to spend the whole day with Bushman Bob. I couldn’t wait. The older kids all crowded into the hall and Bushman Bob spoke to us for a little while. He was talking about bush survival. After that we started walking down to the place where we were going to build bivvies, the little kids got to go on the motor bike but we had to walk. When we got to the place Bushman Bob told us to use our imaginations and pretend that you’d been in a plane crash and you had to build a shelter. He then split us into groups and showed us the places that we were going to build our bivvie. My team was, Koren, Angus, Connie, Brendan and Megan. Our place to build bivvies was a sort of sheltered clearing with lots of Manuka around us. We had half an hour to build our bivvies. Bob came after fifteen minutes and had a look at ours and then went away again. Soon thirty minutes was up and we all gathered at the first group’s bivvie. It was in the bush and it was quite sheltered by all the trees and had natural shelter form the southerlies. He spoke for a bit and then told the team to get into the bivvie; he was going to do the water scale and the Richter scale. First he poured water all on the top of the bivvie and then he poured in on the south side where there was an opening because the team had forgotten about the southerlies. The people there got wet. Their frame was pretty strong but if the wind blew their tarpaulin would be blown off. Their score was 7 out of 10. The next group was in a big clearing with not many trees around. Their bivvie wasn’t very stable and when Bon poured the water it all gathered up in the middle and if there was lots of rain then the middle would have fallen down because on litre of water weighs 1 kg. When he did the Richter scale the whole thing fell down. Then we went to ours. We were ok on the water test and the Richter scale, so ours was 8 out of 10. We won!
After that we had lunch. Some of the kids finished their lunches fast and since there were some toadstools nearby they got stick and started to bash them.
After lunch Bushman Bob showed us were his campsite was. He showed us a winter bivvie and a summer one. He said they had been there for about 4 years. Then he showed us his survival tool belt. He named each thing and told us what it was for.
When we had done that, we all trooped out of the forest and over to the big hill. Puffing and panting we all made it up. I had a 1 minute rest and some water while I waited for some others to go up the hill. Then they came and we set off along the track. When we got into the bush Bushman Bob took off somewhere and we carried on. When we got to the end of the track we all stopped and some kids sat down. Bob joined us holding a fern. He said it was called “mamaku”. We had a piece each. It tasted like cucumber and was really gooey.
After that we went back to the start of the bush track (we saw a billygoat along the way!) Bob showed us a snare and told us about it. Then he showed us a map and taught us some navigation. We could see the little kids playing down at the camp.
Once that was done we tramped back down the hill and back to camp. The little kids were there and we all said thank you and goodbye.
We were off home!

poems

2006-09-21T16:39:00.000-07:00

Tanka
Wild Horses
Stallion rearing
Wild horses running free
Nobody catch them
Foals are born wild and free
Let them stay that way.

Tanka is a longer version of a Haiku. A Tanka is a syllable poem. 5 syllables are in the first line then 7 syllables in the second. Another 5 syllables in the next line then 7 then 5 again.

Quatrain Poem
Fire
Fire will crackle and spit,
Fire produces hot black poisonous smoke,
Fire’s hot flames fly, flicker, fall,
And then I start to choke
As the fire dyes,
I fall to the wooden floor,
Then I start to die,
As the horrible smoke drifts out the door.

Quatrain poems are rhyming poems. This kind of poem is got stanzas in it. I have 2 stanzas in my poem. The rhyming part goes like this a, b, c, b. The b’s both rhyme together. I had to be very descriptive!

Cool Kitez

2006-05-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we started to learn about kites. Then we thought about making japanese carp. We read a book about them. Then Miss Lewis said "Do you know what, we are going to!". We were so pleased and started right away. It took 3 days to make the carp. Today we flew them. We also flew some other kites as well. We made them today. We made a dragon kite together and I made a small diamond kite with Kelly.
We had to get some straws and tie them together to make a cross. Then we made slits in the end of the straws and stuck wool in the end to make a diamond shape. Then we put some cellophane over it and stuck a small tail on the bottom. Then we flew them. The diamond kite was hopeless but the carp kite flew well. It kept doing flips and tricks all over the place.
Rhys, Shane, Justin and Callum's small kites were the best kites.
Today was not really good for flying kites beause the wind wasn't good. But it was really fun and I loved it!

Rottenrua Camp

2006-05-03T16:58:00.000-07:00

Monday
I started packing on Saturday and finished on Sunday. I had 3 bags of clothes with zips. My sleeping bag was purple and brown. I had trouble getting all my cloths into my bag. I bought $21 with me in my wallet and it was in the pocket of my day pack. I brought my pink fluffy slippers with me in my black and yellow bag. I went to school in my mum’s car. I was really exited. When I got to school I saw two white transit vans. One of them had blue stripe on it and the other had a black stripe. They both had a white trailer on the back. Mr Chapman was loading my
stuff into the back of the back of the trailer. Soon other people started to arrive. Soon we were ready to get on the road. Then we were off to “Rottenrua” in the “Bay of Stinky”. We had lunch at a playground in Taumarunui but we had to stop when someone felt sick. After lunch we were on the road again and we played some car games like eye spy and three in a row. When we got to camp I noticed my cabin straight away because Miss Lewis had put signs up on the door. We unpacked our gear out of the two transit trailers and ran to our cabin. We made our cabins tidy and soon we were all ready for tea. We had spaghetti bolognaise and it was nice. After that we got into our pyjamas and hopped into bed for a good nights sleep.

Tuesday
I didn’t sleep well because the bed was lumpy and I was tired from travelling. First we got up and got dressed into our clothes for the day. Then Miss Lewis told us to head down to the kitchen and to bring our plates too. We had cereal (rice bubbles, cornflakes and weetbix) and toast. We also had some orange Raro for a drink. We washed our dishes in the kitchen. Then we went up to our cabins. When we got to our cabins we brushed our teeth and then had free time and chilled out for a while. We travelled in Tracey and Troy Transit to the buried village in Rottonrua. At the Buried Village we went to the museum first. We saw lots of old pictures and we saw pictures of Guide Sophia and a war canoe called a waka. We also saw lots of old things from the citizens of the eruption. We wised though the Buried Village track. The most interesting thing I saw was the remains of the Rotomahana Hotel. We finished off the trip at the gift shop and café. I bought a small rugby ball a pair of earrings and a mug with kiwi on it. Then we went back to camp for a BBQ lunch. After that we got into our togs and were off to the hydro slides at Leisure World in Tracy and Troy Transit. When we got to the place I felt so exited! Mr Chapman told us the rules and of we went. There were three different coloured hydroslides according to how hard they were. The blue one was the easiest, the red one was faster and the black one was the fastest and scariest of them all. It had two drops on it. I had lots of turns on the black one. The most daring trick I did was backwards, head first. The blue one was open to the sky, the red one just had a light roof over it but the black one was real dark in places. In the black one it was scary at first because I got a shock from the drops and it was all dark. When we had to get out Mr. Chapman paid for us to have a go on the dodgem cars because it was starting to rain outside and the go carts were outside getting wet and the track was wet too and we couldn’t go on them.
After Leisure World we went back to camp and got into clothes for Pizza Hut and we were off again in a few minutes in Tracey and Troy Transit. When we got there we had to wait for a while but then the manager came out and he showed us how to make pizzas, the big oven and fridge. It looked interesting. Then we chose a table and the manager came round and we ordered our drinks. Next we went to the serving table and chose our pizza. Then we went and sat back down and munched our pizza. I had pizza and chips. There was an ice cream machine for pudding and when I went to get my ice cream I couldn’t turn the ice cream machine off so I got really full! I went back for more chips because the ice cream was so cold.
We went home and before we got into bed we played some games like ‘grandpa’s green undies.

Wednesday
I woke up after a good night sleep and went down to breakfast. I had cornflakes and weet bix and some Raro. Then we had free time and I went down to the shop and bought some lollies. Then we went to the Rotorua Museum When we got to the museum a man came out and gave us some stickers for us to wear that had ROTORUA MUSEUM on it. The man‘s name is George and he took us inside and showed us some things about Tarawera and how volcanoes erupt then he gave as some work sheets and after that the man called George took in to movie room and we watched a movie. It was cool. After that we were finished looking in the museum and then we headed outside. When we got outside we went to the transit vans and we got our mourning tea and sat on some chairs and ate our mourning tea. Then we hopped into the transit vans and then we were on the road to Te Puia. When we got to Te Puia we got out of the transit vans and I saw a person who was going to be our guide to show us around. She took us to the Cultural show where the nga whare were. A lady welcomed us on to the marae and she chose our chief. His name was Jimmy and he was from Scotland. The challenger looked funny and I tried not to laugh. Then we had to go into to main whare were we took our shoes off and went into the whare and they performed the show about love stories and songs for us. When it was finished our guide took us to the geysers and the mud pools. When the wind blew our way we could smell the sulphur. She told us to sit on the rocks but not where the fumaroles were and they warmed our bottoms. Then we went to do some weaving and we made flowers out of flax. I made 5 flowers. After that we went back to camp grabbed our togs and travelled for half an hour to Waikite Hot Pools. The hot pools were warm. We made a friend and her name was Angel and she was from a school in Auckland. She was tiny and she is 11! Then we went back to camp ,had takeaways for tea and went to bed.

Thursday
I had woken up after a good night sleep and went down to breakfast I had weet bix and we were of to the Luge in Tracy and Troy transit. When we arrived went into the main building and we got into the gondola it was slow but still it was amazing! Well the view was. You could see Mt Tarawera! It also went very high. It was cool. When we got to the top Mr Chapman gave us a ticket for 2 rides and of we went! I put the ticket in the slot and it let me though. The luge was black and it looked like half a skateboard and half a bike. I hopped on one and the man told us to pull back and I went forward. The man said you had to pull back to go slower and let it go forward. And of I went! It was really fun. The first time I went on the luge I raced Rhys and I crashed into him! When I got to the bottom there was a chair lift to take you up the hill. I had 4 goes! It was really fun. Then we went back down in the gondola and went over to Tracy and Troy and went back to camp for the water sports on the lake. We got into our togs and we went down to the blue lake. The boat was already there but the man wasn’t. A little biscuit was already there and we sat in it. Then the man came, his name was Paul, and he hooked the biscuit onto the back of the boat and Caterina got in. She had a life jacket on. Caterina had a turn biscuiting on the lake. Then he got a bigger biscuit and three children went at the same time. I was one of them. It was really fun and bumpy. I thought I might fall off. I wanted to let go on purpose but I didn’t want to get wet and get cold. I fell off at the last minute of my first turn. I had three turns. After that Mr Chapman had a go and he fell off twice. Pat had a go and he only fell off once. When everybody had had a turn, Paul took the biscuit off and put on the water skiing equipment, Kelly, Connie and me went first but Kelly had the first go on the skis. It was really hard to stand up. And I fell of 4 times. After I had skied I got dressed and went back to the cabins and played gridiron until dinner time then I went to bed.

Friday
I woke up and said “this is the last day of camp!” And I started to pack. Then I went down to breakfast and came back up. Mr Chapman was loading our stuff into the back of the trailers. Soon we were on the road again. We started playing Car Cricket New Zealand v West Indies and New Zealand won! Brendan McCallum (Callum) was a very good bowler! After 4 hours we were at Makahu School and mum arrived we loaded our stuff into mum's car and then we were at home. I ran inside and fell on my bed. I was exhausted! So was my family!

Nina's Blog

2006-02-28T14:20:00.000-08:00

I am Nina and I go to Makahu School. I am 11 years old. I like horses and I have my 2 ponys. One is called Te Waiata. She has bucked me off lots of times. She is very fat and stubborn. She is a Kaimanawa pony. The other one is called Ataahua.She is very cheeky. She is only used to halter,not a saddle or bridle because she isn't one year old yet.