Tikanga: Tangaroa The god of Sea

Tangaroa

Tangaro is the son of  Ranginui and brother of  Rongo, Tūmatauenga, Haumia, and Tane

Papatuanuku and the Tangaroa is the god of the sea.  Tangaroa was attacked by his brother  Tawhirimatea (the god of storms.) And so he was forced to live at sea.

The contention between Tangaroa and Tāne, the father of birds, trees, and humans, is an indication that the Māori thought of the ocean and the land as opposed dimensions. When people go out to sea to fish or to travel, they are in are representatives  of Tāne entering the dimension of Tāne's enemy. And so it is important that offerings were are given to Tangaroa before any such adventures.

Amazing Year 8 Challenges!!!

Year 8 Challenge #6 Tramping

On Monday the 21st, I woke up excited and enthusiastic to go tramping at Mikonui flats. Travelling to school felt like it took forever. 

Sleeping in a 4 person tent with 5 people was the most awkward sleep ever. As we were all got crushed, and apparently I was kneeing Hannah's ribcage. And I was also apparently humming in the middle of the night. 

A couple of years ago on a tramp, somebody put what's called "THE STONE" in my teachers pack. "The stone" is a medium weight stone that has been painted green. On the tramp this year I was the unlucky camper. Just before we were about to leave the carpark, Mr S-W came up to me and said "I'm just doing a pack check." I found this a little strange as he had checked nobody else's pack. As we walked to the campsite I thought I felt lopsided in my pack but chose to ignore it. Towards the end of the day, I was unpacking my pack when I came across "THE STONE." I was a little annoyed but mostly surprised he snuck it into my pack. 

One of my favourite parts of the trip would be when I ignored 

the brain freezing water and jumped off a rock. It wasn't that high but it was still nerve-racking to jump off, especially to dive. I was so scared I was going to bellyflop into the water, but apparently, I was graceful and I just slipped into the water.

Another highlight of the tramp would be river crossing. We crossed the Tuke river. It was surprisingly deep, but i had no worries as we crossed in groups. I can't wait for my next challenge!

BRING IT ON!!!

Mad Lib Theatre

This week for writing, my class chose to do mad libs. We started off with a Titanic scene and performed them on the green screen.  I am currently working on a scene from Jurassic Park. Creating Mad libs, don't just improve your Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs etc. But also, your confidence towards stage performances. Mad libs have opened up a wide range of new words to my vocabulary list. In the Titanic scene, I acted as Rose and Emma was John. 

My Debate Journey

We just had our 6th class debate!!! For me, debating is very difficult for me as I dislike speaking in front of a class. I also had to go up against some very feisty competition, the first time I had to this I let her overpower me, but as this being my 6th debate I stood up to her and tried to rebut her as best I could.

Debating has taught me to : Use effective Google Search techniques, evaluate websites, argue a point of view, check if websites are scholarly, paraphrase someone else’s research, take on a role within a debate team, whether it be the opening statement, main argument (& crazy crossfire), rebuttal and collaborate with my teammates to organise our arguments.

TEMPLE BASIN PHOTOS

Most epic 3 days EVER!

I have been on many, many class trips before but this had to be the most epic! At the start of the year, my class was finding it hard to work together and look out for our peers, But this trip brought out the best in all of us. Skiing is a difficult sport to learn especially since you fall over and over, but my class didn't just leave that person to get up themselves, they would go over and help. It was so cool to see my class working together.

Usually, I don't like travelling on through the pass, but the car trip turned out to be hilarious, as we covered just about every topic from Brothers to flattened bunnies. Even the hike up the mountain was fun, as we took 2 walkie-talkies up the mountain. A few people were so excited to see snow and went crazy throwing snowballs every minute. Calder through so many snowballs and they all went down my back. A bit later on Calder was waiting for some people to catch up, so I went up and dumped a massive chunk of snow over his head, and it all got stuck in his sunglasses.

The first day of skiing was a little hard for me as, all my friends were either way up the top of temple or at the bottom learning to ski. So I had nobody to learn new skills off, that was until on the second day when I took a leap of confidence and tried to go to the very top of temple. Unfortunately, on 1 part of the tow rope I didn't see a rock and I face planted into a patch of rushers. It was hilarious just laying upside down in a patch of rushers.

The instructor did say " Temple basin is really hard to learn to ski, but if you can ski here, you can ski anywhere!" I may have fallen over so many times, but I got up and tried again just as many. Going skiing was the most EPIC time EVER!