On Saturday night I went to my cousin Zak’s to enjoy the scene of the All Blacks thrashing the French in the opening test of the year, except the only thing that went wrong was, they lost!The All Blacks looked a bit shaky from the start but the turning point was when the French hooker bumped through about 6 tackles and went over the line and scored. From then the All Blacks never really got stuck in and blew the French off the rucks. At one point France had about 6 turnovers and 75 mauling metres which is pretty impressive. When the All Blacks finally got insidethe French’s 22 they had a two man overlap and they got it to the centre and he dropped it! The French managed another try with the debutant First Five easing through 3 tackles to jump over the try-line for the second try for them. Surprisingly the All Blacks scored a try but they were too little too late and they ended up losing to France 27-22. We were absolutely shell-shocked.
Basketball
On Monday I came up against my cousin and my old school in Basketball. We hung out before the game but when it came to the actuall game it was game on. My cousin Zak’s team got off to a flying start with a 10-0 lead within a minute. This time we knew we were on the wrong end of the hiding. Jordan got the first goal and we tried to come back but at half time we were down 32-4. That was bad. In the second half I started to play a bit more serious and doing that I scooped up 7 points in the second half, but that didn’t help us that much. The end score was 78-11 to them and we were no where near satisfied with our efforts and when we went to shake hands I had a good laugh about it with my couzzy bro Zak and my old mates from St.Pats.
Mt.Ruapehu
Yesterday I went to Mt. Ruapehu with my family. It took us 3 hours to get there, and it got another 196 km in our car each way, but we got there. When we reached a little slope of snow, we raced out and jumped into the snow. We grabbed the boogy boards and had races down and tried to make each other fall off. Me and my Dad found a spot of foamy soft snow up a bit higher, but when you stood in it your feet would sink, you would fall down and then to top it off, you’d lose your shoes!! I lost mine a couple of times but I always got them back. My big brother brought his girlfriend with him so he didn’t do much other than hug her and roll down the snow with her. When I had started a snowball fight, I was pelting them at my Dad, my main target. He got me in the face and blew me over, but then I just got up and threw one even harder at his guts. It was a friendly game, but when my little brother started, he was just about to go mental and just belt them at me. I had great fun at the snow yesterday and the thing I am thankful for is that I never stood in any yellow snow…
Basketball Last Night
Last night was our third game of the Monday Night Basketball League. My team is called the TA Taniwhas. We were up against the Pirongia Pouncers. They got off to a strong start with a 4 point lead, but we hit back straight away with 5 hoops and that got us a 6 point lead with 15 minutes to go. The halftime score was 28-8 to us. We knew we had a pretty secure win, but we wanted to do more, so we went harder and eventually got the half century mark with 10 seconds left in the match. We were extremely proud with our effort against Pirongia and especially the amount of buckets we got. Score: TA Taniwhas-51 and Pirongia Pouncers-18.I think I was the top scorer with 11 goals. Beef got 7 goals, Cole got 4 and Jordan got the only 3 pointer in the match. A few people got 1 goal each. The thing that motivated me in that game was all the St.Pats (my old school) people there watching me. I got about 5 steals, 6 intercepts and 7 or 8 lay-ups. Next week we come up against my cousins team from St.Pats, the chargers, and you can probably guess why I’m really looking forward to that game for a lot of reasons…
Gwynne Shield Trials
On Sunday we had the trials for Te Awamutu’s Gwynne Shield team. When I got there I had to wait in a queue for about ten minutes just to get weighed in . When I had been weighed in I went into the changing room and got my boots on. We got to wonder around,but after about 5 minutes the coach, Wayne called us in to get sorted into the teams for the trial. I was in the Maroon team playing as Halfback, but at halftime I got swapped into the Gold team but didn’t go on again. I didn’t know if I was satisfied with my effort but,I kept telling myself, “Be positive”. Later in the day I got the call from Wayne to say I had made it into the 33 man squad.I don’t know if I am in the actual team, but the squad is going to have another trial, and perhaps some games against other teams. Wayne will decide who’s in or out of the team during those games and trials.Hopefully I am successful in making Gwynne Shield, and my third rep team.
Young Leaders Day 2009
Yesterday I went to Young Leaders Day 2009 in Rotorua. It was held at the Events Centre. The two hosts were Charlie off What Now and someone else I didn’t know. The guest speakers were Nick Tuitasi, Kerry Tilby, Barbara Kendall and Russell Harrison. They had the two time World Champions for hip hop Sweet n Sour doing their champion dance. They were mean as. Barbara Kendall got the loudest welcome because mostly everyone knew her. We played games like volleyball races, Simon says and the classical Mexican Wave. Nick Tuitas i’s main advice was “always do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason. Kerry Tilby said” Just do little things to make the world a better place for not only you but others too”. Barbara Kendall said “If you can see it you can do it, Passion=Energy=motivation and what you focus on is what you get”. Russell Harrison said “Have a dream, believe in yourself and love your job”. It was a great day.
Rugby
On Saturday we played our first game of rugby for the season and year, and we were up against the Pirongia Mountain Men . Our team is called the TA Saints. My position that I normally play, and did on Saturday, is Halfback. Most of the time when I pass it ,it mainly always goes to my cousin, Zak, so I am comfortable playing there.I played a sweet game first up scoring the first try of the season within the fourth minute.It sucked that I only got half a game but I was pleased with my effort in the match. We got up to win against Pirongia 19-0.
My cousin Scott
My cousin Scott from Rotorua is staying at our house this week and next week. He is staying because he has tech over at Hamilton University, and next week he will be a qualified builder.Next Thursday will be his twentieth birthday and he will be at our house, so we are going to make him a big dinner and a chocolate cake. You can hear his car from about one kilometer away because it’s a loud as car.
Matarangi and my knee
On the 1st Tuesday of the school holidays my family and I went to Matarangi, which is just over the hill from Coromandel.We went swimming, skimboarding, bikeriding, walks and every night we played spotlight. Every thing was going fine until friday. We went skimboarding and I was going into the waves, and when I made impact with the wave, it sent me flying. I turned 180 degrees in the air and then when I landed I fel a sudden sharp pain in my knee. I stood up moaning and looked at my knee. I saw that my knee was cut open from a shell. I walked over to dad, slowly and groaning even harder then before. By the time I was out of the water, there was a shallow stream of blood trickling down my leg. Dad ran to the towels and ripped a quarter of it off to wrap it round my leg. Mum ran to get the car and while she was doing that Dad and my brother lifted me up to the top of the beach until mum came with the car. When we all got home, mum cleaned it out and put butterfly stitches on. For a day and a half I had to keep my leg straight, but it was a releif to bend it. I can alk alright now,but I don’t know about running.
Windy Wellington
Our class trip to Wellington was awesome and cold, and I was knackered by the end of the week. My favourite activity was Soundhouse because it was sweet when we made our own music and video clip. There were loads of different sounds and by the end of the day I had made my own music and video clip and it was a cool experience for me. My top 5 was no.1: of course Soundhouse, no.2:the tour of Westpac Stadium because a lot of the sports I watch are played there and it was massive. no.3:The next would’ve been ONTV when I was playing as a wheelchair rugby player, and I was a double amputee so I had to sit on my knees in the wheelchair, and at one point you could see my shoes out the side of my legs!!no.4: Weta Cave was so cool because they had the complete set of action figures from Lord of the Rings, the had the real suits from Lord of the Rings, like the Awks and Gollem. I also got to see the mask of the leader sheep from Black Sheep. And last but not least, no.5: The Karori Wildlife Sanctuary was sweet because we had a tour around half of the sanctuary and that took us 2 hours! We got to see two Tuataras,one male and one female,and the male had big spikes on his back, and they were real big. He showed us around the place and I just found that really interesting. Wellington was just an exciting experience for me, and these are the activities that just missed out on my top 5: Ferry to Picton, Parliament, Waioru Army Museum, St.Pauls Cathedral, Cable Car, Te Papa, Dowse Gallery, H2O Extreme, Wellington Zoo, National War Museum, Wahine Exhibit. Thank you to all those parents who cooked us dinner and breakfast and made sure we were safe. Another special thank you is to the people who showed us around their exhibits and places.Kapai.
