William Pike Challenge #2: Rafting On The Grey River

William Pike Challenge #1: Cave Stream

The Cold Adrenaline Rush hit Me as fast as a Bullet Train. Darkness like nothing I had ever experienced before. Cave Stream is only about 600M but takes around 1-2 hours. You can walk 600M in about 6-7 minutes. 

The water of Cave Stream comes from a snow melt in the Mountains, so it's obviously cold. There are many side caves that you can explore which either come to a ledge overlooking the Cave or a dead end. Going upstream is much easier than going downstream because you slip less, well, apart from a few nasty, fast running parts.

With only a torch each to light the way we were making our way toward the metal rung ladder at the end. Mr S-W told a story as we experienced real darkness. If you put your hand over your eyes you wouldn't even notice the difference. 

My favourite part was when I climbed up to my personal favourite side Cave which over looked part of the eroded passage way.

It really is a great challenge to kick off the year.

Social Studies: Haast to Milford Sound Road

Say I lived next to the Hollyford River and suddenly… A road is built right next to me and the noise of the traffic keeps me up ‘till midnight. The pollution in the air smells terrible. Cows near a river means pollution, more tourism means pollution (We exhale Carbon Dioxide) and littering, more cars mean more pollution. Untouched land is going to be ruined and animals will be forced back by the barrier of new civilization. Get my point? Building the road is a terrible idea.

Social Studies: The Rainbow Warrior Bombing

“3, 2, 1! Fire in the hole!” (Massive bomb noise that cannot be computed). Another Nuclear bomb was set off in the atoll. That was when the Rainbow Warrior sailed in. “Ce bateau n'arrêtera pas de protester/That boat won't stop protesting” So spies set a couple of limpet mines on their boat. “KABOOM!” There goes the generator. “BANG!” There goes the motor. The Rainbow Warrior docked at Auckland and sunk beneath the waves. What went wrong was that somebody died… oops. And then we were arrested and convicted of manslaughter. Yay.

Social Studies: 1981 Springbok Protest

The time has come to… Watch The Springboks VS The All Blacks. This game is gonna be awesome. NOT.  Smoke bombs were dropped and bats were raised. I mean come on NZ, you don’t need to be split in half any more than you are now. People just wanted to watch a rugby game. But nooo. The whole thing turned into a bloodbath, people got injured and died. There were over 150 000 people who got charged with offences in the protest. After rampaging for fifty-six days through July, August and September in 1981 it finally stopped. But the rift between NZ and SA was never healed. At least I can go back to watching my rugby in peace. And maybe from the couch, not the stadium.

Memes that reflect on the Election.

WPCA Challenge 5: Skiing at Temple Basin

On Monday morning we went to temple basin to go skiing. I went snowboarding instead and by the end of the two days we were there I managed to learn how to control it. overall I liked the trip and can't wait for next year.