Term 4 Summary Blog Post ( All about Term 4! )

Hi, it's Miriam and today I am here to tell you about what we have been doing in Term 4. Term 4 has been a busy term. We have done Athletics, Kapa Haka Festival, Orientation Day, Olympic Pools just to name a few. Those are just a few of the things I will tell you about.

Athletics

At the beginning of this term we started training for our School athletics. Athletics at schools in Gisborne consists of High Jump, Long Jump, Ball Throw and Sprints. Some kids at our school take athletics seriously and some don't. I personally like to try to do well in it. During the first 3ish weeks of term we practiced a lot it was almost every day that you could see our school out on the field or reserve seeing who could throw the farthest or jump the highest. 

Finally the day came and everybody was nervous or scared. As soon as I finished a race I would dread my next race or field event. Our athletics took place on Wednesday in Week 4 Term 4. During my first 100 meter sprint race I rolled my ankle half way down the track which put me back to 4th place. Half of me wanted to make it into the finals and the other half of me didn't. I was sad that I didn't come a placing but I guess that that was what happened and I had to deal with it. 

Kapa Haka Festival

We had been practicing all year for the Turanganui Kapa Haka festival. Koka Terri one of my teachers and the Kapa Haka teacher had been preparing us for this day for what seemed like forever. I had endured a year of Kapa Haka so I felt prepared for the big day. I came to school with my black shorts already on, got changed into my dress and went to the Hall to get my Moko done. I had to put on special earrings and it was a struggle to take my other ones out. 

When we arrived at the Festival the front row put on their piupiu. Next we walked into the waiting area where we waited until it was our turn to perform. When we got onto the stage I felt my nerves kick in. I didn't even know why I was nervous because I wasn't scared. When we started to takahia our Puipui sawed and made a pretty noise. After our performance was done I felt that we had done a great done. 

Orientation Day

On Tuesday of Week 7 all the year 6 kids went to visit their Intermediate Schools that they are going to next year. The Intermediate School that I am going to is Campion College. Campion is a Catholic school and I am Jewish so I was a bit awkward going into their Church. We started off the day by doing a scavenger hunt around the school learning where all the different buildings are and what they are used for. After the scavenger hunt we broke up into to two groups, one going into the science lab to do science and the other into the art room to do some art. 

In the Science lab we learnt which metals create a reaction to water and which metals make a reaction with acid. Then we saw some unborn baby piglets whos mom died before they were borne, a vertebrae of a whale and the skull of a sheep. At the art room we got into groups of 5 or 6 and each folded a piece of paper into 3rds. Then we get given a theme and we have to draw a head in the first 3rd that relates to the theme that we were given. Next we draw the neck lines into the second 3rd so that the next person in front of behind you can draw the body. You would keep passing along the pieces of paper until there was a head, body and feet. For lunch we had sausages and next we went into the church and then went back to school. 

Olympic Pools

On Thursday Week 7 of Term 4 all the road patrollers that did patrols this year went on the road patrol reward day at the Olympic Pools. We left at 9:15am and got back at 3:00pm. We got a free hydroslide pass and free food for lunch. As soon as we got to the Pools we put our bags down under the shade and waited with the other schools to find out which school got the road patrol award this year. The winner was Te Wharau school. After that we were allowed to go and play in the pools. The first thing that I did when we got to go play was go down the hydroslide. 

Then I went to the diving boards and with my friends and we did front flips of them. One of my friends Sophie did a back tuck off on the low one. When we got to cold in the outdoor pools we would go to the indoor one. Before we knew it it was time for lunch. Lunch was pizza, garlic bread and french fries. After lunch we were aloud to go out and play for a couple more hours before getting changed and and leaving for school. Overall this was definitely my favorite experience this term.

Sorry that I do not have photos for all of the events. I wish I did so I could show you all the fun we had this term. Blog you later!

Turanganui Kapa Haka Festival!

Hi, it's Miriam. Sorry I have not posted anything in a long time. Turanganui Kapa Haka Festival! Our class has been very busey, as it is Term 4 the last term of the year. Yesterday, the 20th of November Nui Syndicate performed our Kapa Haka bracket at the Turanganui Haka Haka Festival. Waiting for us to go on stage was the scariest part. Well I wasn't scared to perform I just wanted to get it over and done with. We had been practising all year and I could tell that we were ready. I had been moved to the front row so I got to wear a Piupiu. A Piupiu is a skirt made out of strands of Karakiki flax. When you move the skirt sways with you and it looks magnificent. 

We march onto the stage and wait for the guitar to start playing our first waiata. "Tu mai ra" sung Hunter, one of the Kea. As he sung we all stepped forward and formed a triangle shape. When Hunter stopped singing the boys all knelt down and we sang our school song together. When we would takahia our piupiu would sway. After "Tu Mai Ra" we sang some more songs then we did "Utaina". "Utaina" was our transition song were the boys went to the front and the girls went to the back. When we did the transition the boys were chanting the haka and the girls were singing the song. When we mixed the haka with the melody the sound that we made was beautiful. Next the boys did the haka and the girls chant along with them. I could tell that the haka scared some little kids because they ran to their parents. 

Our ending song was "He Honore". While we were singing it some of the Wai Syndicate started to sing along quietly. As the last couple of rows left the stage only the front row was left we sung the last line of "He Honore" the audience started clapping and cheering like crazy. As soon as we left the hall I thought that we had done a great job. Hopefully the teachers thought that too. But if I am going to be honest with you I do not realy want to be in the Mass Kapa Haka performance. (The mass performance is when lots of schools get together and sing the same songs, at the same time and in the same place.) The reason why I do not want to do the Mass Kapa Haka performance is because I don't want to do it again.

Us Singing Tu Mai Ra 

Singing Haramai a Paoa 

Dancing and singing to Kapiopio 

Girls doing the Poi to Pureanai

Before the Transition singing Utaina

Thanks for Reading, Blog you Later!

The Magnificent Marae

Hi, I'm back again and today I am going to tell you about our Marae trip last Thursday and Friday. This term we have been learning about Horua and one of the things that we had to do for it was go to our School Marae. Our School Marae is Te Poho o Rawiri. Te Poho o Rawiri was built almost 90 years ago. Even though it is very old the Marae is not in the exact place were the first one was built. Where Te Poho o Rawiri stands today is not where it originally was built. Te Poho o Rawiri was originally built down by were the port stands today. 

The Marae with all our stuff in it

When I first got to the Marae I was not excited at all. I didn't really want to do a Powhiri. I thought it would be boring and well not that fun. We sat out in the parking lot waiting for Aunty Buba and Uncle Albe to welcome us into the Marae. A couple minutes before we went into the Marae we had to take our shoes. I learnt that it is disrespectful to wear shoes into a Marae. Finally Koka Terri got us into our Powhiri line and Aunty Buba welcomed us onto the Marae. Her clear powerful voice made us feel welcome. After she had finished Koka Terri replied just like Aunty Buba had. Then we sang our school song and did a hungi. 

The Kapa Haka Performance

Kids Doing Rakau

After the Powhiri we broke up into different groups to do activities around the Marae. There were games like handball and skipping and then there were more traditional games like Rakau and games with Cabbage Tree trunks. There were also things like flax weaving and walking up Kaiti Hill to see the place where Cook landed and where the Marae used to be. Each group missed out on two activities. The two activities that I missed out on were flax weaving and handball. I was really bummed that I missed out on flax weaving as I want to be able to make different things out of it. That night we had a performance and our parents came to watch. We performed our Kapa Haka bracket and some school groups did Ukulele and told Jokes. The next day everyone was tired and gobbled up breakfast. After we continued with our activities and welcomed Wai onto the Marae. Packing up was very stressful and we were all glad to be back at school and back to our own beds to sleep. 

A group doing Maori art

Flax Weaving

Winn Dixie Map

Hi again, Today I am going to tell you about our activity for shared book. As you know our shared book is "Because of Winn Dixie". Again as you know "Because of Winn Dixie" is a book about a girl who moves to Watley, Florida from Naomi. Our task for shared book this week is to make a birds eye of view map of where all the characters live in the story.

The task was quite tricky because if you forgot about a certain landmark in the story then you had to restart. Our teachers wanted everything that they mentioned in the book to be on the map. THey also wanted the map to be colorful to attract people's attention. There is one house that is yellow in the book and most people forgot about that and they did it a different colour and had to restart. Luckily I didn't have to restart.

My Map of Naomi

Blog You Later!

Because of Winn Dixie!

Hi again. Today I am going to tell you about a book that we have recently finished reading in class. The books name is: "Because of Winn Dixie". "Because of Winn Dixie" is a book by Kate DiCamillo. She is a well known author who wrote: "The Tales of Despereaux", "Louisiana's Way Home" and "The Tiger Rising". We are not doing Chapter Chat this term so our teachers decided to read us two shorter books and do our own Chapter Chat.

Winn Dixie Book Cover

"Because of Winn Dixie" is a book about a girl who finds a dog at the local grocery store: "The Winn Dixie Supermarket". India Opal Buloni is a 10 year old girl whose mother left her when she was just 3 years old. Her and her father, The Preacher, move to a small town in Naiomi, Florida where Opal doesn't know anybody. In Naiomi, Opal thinks about her mother more than she had ever before. She thinks about all her old friends and wishes she had some in Florida. One day after church, she and Winn Dixie go to the local Herman W. Block Memorial Library. There Opal made her first friend Mrs Franny Block. I will not tell you any more of the story so you will have to read the book yourself.

India Opal Buloni (left) Winn Dixie (right)

Here is what I think about the book:
I enjoyed reading the book for the first time. The ending was kind of a let down because India Opal Buloni did not find her mother, but I liked the story and the plot. I first read this book when I was skiing. I liked it because it was a short book that I could read at the lodge. "Because of Winn Dixie" did not take long to read. Personally I think that this book is a book that you only would want to read once. As soon as you read it the first time then you might not feel like reading it again for another year or so. Overall I think that this is a cool book that you should definitely read some time. you could                                                                                                     read it on a plane of on a rainy day.

Go KARORO! Cross Country!

Welcome back to my blog. Today I am going to tell you about our first school Cross Country in our houses. Cross Country is where we run on the sand-dunes along the beach. If you place within the top five runners then you get to go to interschools. Interschools is at the fairgrounds. A couple years ago there used to be obstacles that you had to go over in interschools. Now all you have to do is jump over 1 tiny fence. It is disappointing.

Josefa in front and Sarah close behind!

At the beginning of this year we got our school houses. We have done one school event in our houses. The color of the houses are Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Even though we have had our houses for a while it was still a challenge remembering who was in your house. I am in Red/Karoro! If you came in the top five than you would get points for your house. When we started it was really cold, but when we were on our second lap then you would feel the heat.

I am a year 6 so we had to run 2 big laps of the course. Each lap is 1 kilometer so we had to run 2 kilometers. Every single year Kya always comes 3rd and I come 4th. And it was the same this year. Josefa came 1st, Sarah came 2d, Kya came 3rd, I came 4th and Ruby came 5th. It was a tough race! I am just glad that it is over.


Before School Today:
"I am so nervous for Cross Country."

After Cross Country Today:
"I am so happy that I am finished with that. I am so tired!"

Just look at that beautiful scenery!


Blog you later!

Science Fair!

Hi it's Miriam, and I am going to tell you about my science fair project. Since the beginning of this term I have working on my Science Fair Project. In the holidays I went to a presentation about native New Zealand plants. The presentation was at a local Marae called Te Poho O Rawiri. After the presentation we walked up Titirangi (Kaiti Hill.) Titirangi has heaps of Kawakawa bushes and we had to pick 20 Kawakawa leaves each.

The next day we went to a workshop where we learnt how to make a Kawakawa and Manuka balm for your skin. The way you incorporate the Kawakawa and Manuka is by making Kawakawa and Manuka infused oil. To make the infused oil you have to pack down Kawakawa leaves in one jar and Manuka leaves in another jar. Then you fill the jars with grapeseed oil all the way to the top, put on the lid, shake it up and then put the jar or jars in a dark place. You will leave the jars in the dark place for about 2 weeks and shake them every 2 days. Then the infused oils will be ready to use.

After the workshop I decided that I wanted to use the balm for my Science Fair Project. I decided that for my Science Fair Project I would see how long it takes for Kawakawa and Manuka to heal chapped or damaged skin. Working with native New Zealand plant is fun. You learn alot about the environment that we live in and how it is important to look after our native plants.  Now I am going to share with you my Science Fair Slides and my display board:

My Science Fair Board

   

Basic Facts, Whoops!

Hi it's Miriam. Sorry I haven't been posting anything lately. It has been a busy couple of weeks back at school. Today I am going to tell you about last week's Basic Facts Challenge. When we found out what we were doing everybody thought that it would be simple but it was not, and I am going to tell you all about it.

Our terms inquiry topic is Hauora. Hauora means well being. We have been doing some writing about our well being. For our quick writes we had to write about our physical well being, our social well being, well being for family and friends and our spiritual well being. When our quick writes were finished we had to make a cube out of paper. Each square that makes up the cube net needed to be 8cm by 8cm. You would think that it would be easy but it was so hard to do. The part that made it hard was getting the measurements exactly right.

When we had finished the net we had to draw a picture of us on one side of it and our name one another side. Once finished there would be 4 more sides left blank. On those sides we wrote main points from each of our pieces of Hauora writing. Then we got to decorate our cubes. My cube got crushed a bit because people decided to put there books/chromebooks on top of it. It is much harder than it looks.

Have a try!

Here are our finished products:

Reading Refugee

Hi it's Miriam. Today I am going to tell you about a book that my reading group is reading. My reading group is taken by Koka Ngaire (my home room teacher.) She loves books so she gave my reading group a book to read. The book is Refugee. We have been reading it for less than a week and I like it alot so I am going to tell you about what we are doing along reading that book.

So when we found out that our reading group was reading a novel written for year 8 and 9 students we all were really excited. But of course like all other good things there was a not so good thing. Koka Ngaire is only releasing bits of the book at a time. During the week along with our other priorities we have to read the book and answer questions and do activities on the book. We can read the book at read to self and at home. We also got given a little orange writing book to display all of our work in. We can do whatever we want to display our answers in our book. We also can make a cover page in it. Koka Ngaire said that this work was how we could shine in different ways.

Three different kids.

One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

I got this information from the back of the book

This is the trailer to Refugee sorry that I can not have the video on my blog, but I do not have access to it.

Term 2 Fun

Hi, it's Miriam and today I am going to tell you about what we have been doing this term. This terms topic is retro tech. We have been doing lots of thing to do with olden day technology. We have also been learning about Matariki. My maths group has been doing this thing called Auckland Island.

For retro tech we have been to 3 different museums to learn about olden day technology and try to figure out what our object is. The first museum trip that we went on is the trip where we went to the Local Museum and the Electrical Museum. The cool thing about the trip was that at the Local Museum we learnt about olden tech and at the Electric Museum we learnt about new technology. I enjoyed comparing the olden day stuff with stuff that is in the present. I liked learning how technology has changed over the years. The second trip that we went on was to the East Coast Museum of Technology. We had borrowed most of the retro tech items from the Museum and were very excited to go there. At the Museum it had all different types of retro tech dating back to the 1700. I liked how we got to see olden day computers, phones, water pumps, wheelchairs, scanning machines and much more stuff that people would of used back in the day.

For maths we have been doing this thing called Auckland Island. Auckland Island is where we have to answer a series of questions and then create a way to display it around the class. After each question we answered we had to complete a challenge about the question. Some questions were easy and others were really hard. There were road tips and maths tips. Road tips were where our teacher will give us clues about the history or some information on the topic. Maths tips are when the teacher gives us some maths equations that will help us solve the question. All of the questions that we are given have something to do with Auckland Island. All of the
 people in my maths group are year 6 including me. The Auckland Islands task was made for year 8,9,10 and 11 students. We only found this out at the end of the task. That explained why it was quite tricky. I chose to display my working in a Google My Maps.

This week we have focusing on Matariki. We had to do at least 4 activities that relate to Matariki and then on Friday we have to bring in a dish for shared morning tea. I completed a digital breakout, a feather for a cloak, a book about Matariki, a poem about Matariki and a dish for shared morning tea. I learnt a lot about Matariki and the stars. I learnt what the star names mean and that there are 500 hundred stars in the cluster but you can only see 7 of them. I like that we do the Matariki Makarena.

Winter Solstice

Hi it's Miriam today I am going to share with you some learning that we did at school around the shortest day of the year (the winter solstice) and the longest day of the year (the summer solstice.) In school we have been learning about some prehistoric landmarks that have a lot to do with the Winter Solstice.

 For our quick writes this week we have to write and information report on Stonehenge and create a Google my maps about Stonehenge, Newgrange and Maeshowe. Stonehenge is a prehistoric landmark in Salisbury, England. It was a burial ground as well as a place where you went if you wanted to be healed. Newgrange is in Ireland. It is much older than Stonehenge. It was built around 3,200 BC. Maeshowe is a passage grave in Scotland. It was built around 3,800 BC.

I found out that to build some of these great landmarks people had to build rafts to carry their supplies down fivers and then carry them across land by oxen or horses. This is my information report about Stonehenge:

Here is my link to my Google My Maps.


Blog you later.

Fa'afaite i te Ao Maohi

Hi it's Miriam, Today I am going to show you a video that Rosie and I made for our reading presentation. The task we got given for reading was: we got assigned a boat to research about and then do a screencastify of only photos and talk about what we found out about our boat. The boat that me and Rosie got assigned is the Faafaite i te Ao Maohi. It is one of the boats that will be taking part in the Tui 250 boat sail in October.

My teacher for reading is Koka Ngaire and she provided information about each boat on a google slide. The information that she provided for our boat was useful but we had to translate some of it into english so we could understand it. We learnt how the Polynesian settlers traveled to NZ. Also we got to go out on one of the Waka that is in gisborne at the moment. Well the other people in my reading group did, I had to go to Fast 5 Netball Tournament. Our boat has a Samoan name so me and Rosie had a hard time pronouncing the name so we might not be saying it correctly.

Here is the video that me and Rosie made hpe you enjoy:

Blog you later!

The Magnificent Snomanatron

Hi it's Miriam again, today I am going to tell you about the Snowmanatron. In my writing group we were looking and different pieces of explanation text and deciding what year we thought each piece was written based on the text. Then we had to read each one aloud in our group and Koka Terri (my teacher for writing) would tell us what year that piece of writing was and why it was that year.

The next week we looked at a Wallace and Gromit episode about the Snowmanatron. The Snowmanatron is a vehicle like a snow plow that scoops up snow and produces a snow man. We watched through the video a couple times and then we got asked to draw a labeled diagram of the Snowmanatron. Once I had finished drawing the diagram I began to write down what each lever and bolt was on the Snowmanatron and what it was used for. I have to admit that my drawing wasn't the best drawing ever and my diagram wasn't the best diagram ever but I was pretty proud of my self.

Then we got into writing. First we wrote steps on what to do and how to make it work. Then we brainstormed what we would say in our explanation text. I took a long time to do my brainstorm and diagram because I wanted to make sure that everything as accurate as possible for my explanation writing on the Snowmanatron. We only just started writing our explanation text so all of my writing group are only on our introduction. I want to make this writing the best I have done.

Here is my labeled diagram of the Snowmanatron:

Increible Electric Village

Hi it's Miriam again and today I am going to tell you about our trip to Electric Village.
Now when I say our trip I mean the Moana Learning Hub. We went there on Thursday the 9th May for a field trip.

The reason we went to Electric Village was because we were learning about Retro Tech or Olden day Technology. Now you are probably wondering why we went to a place like Electric Village where you learn about new technology, if we were on a trip to learn about old technology. Well we also went to the local Museum and there we learnt about old technology. For me going to both of the museums was very interesting because I got to see how the technology changed over the years.

At Electric Village we learnt how electricity was made. There are many different ways that you can make electricity and there are many different sources that you can make it out of. Here are some different things you can make electricity with:

Solar Panels
Dams
Smoke Stacks
Wind Turbines
Steam
Generators

How to Blog on your Blog

Hi it's Miriam again and today I am going to teach you how to make a quality blog post. A quality blog post is a post that tells someone about your learning, has a catchy title, makes sense, has capital letters, full stops and has paragraphs.

So to make your blog awesome you have to:

- Have a catchy title
- Make your writing clear and easy to read
- Make sure that it is interesting to keep your reader interested
- Have all the information that your reader will need
- Add extra information that is related to what you are writing about
- Check your spelling to make sure there are no typos
- Make sure you have punctuation in the appropriate places
- Have a buddy check your writing before you post
- Have 1-2 paragraphs explaining your learning
- Explain what you found hard and what you thought was easy
- Add labels to your blog post
- Have a digital interest added onto your post
- Construct Your post so that it is interesting to look at
- And last of all preview your post to see what it would look like on your blog.

I hope you enjoy my example of a quality blog post. I circled the description that of each criteria that best describes my blog post.





Blog you later!

Super 6 Sentince Stories

Hi it's Miriam here and I am going to share with you my six sentence story I created for writing.

 So basically what a six sentence story is a story with only six sentence s in it. In those six sentences you need to describe the character, say what it's problem is and then write how he solved it. Sounds simple right but it actually is quite hard. So this is my six sentence story:

Once upon a time, there live a strong and brave young man. He lived on a street in the outskirts of a remote town in New Zealand. He was a teacher at a school near the beach and at lunch time on nice days he was allowed to go surfing. But one day the school shortened there lunchtime to 10min and he wasn't able to go surfing. He was worried because if he did not go for a surf each day then he would turn into a big ugly crab! One day he came up with an idea, he programmed the lunch bell to ring at 1:50 instead of 1:10, so he was able to go for a surf again at lunch time and he lived happily ever after.

Here is a picture of the grid that we used to write outcry six sentence stories:

Amazing Exponents

Hi it's Miriam again,

Today I am going to share with you a poster that Caitlyn and I made on Exponents. The poster is meant to explain what exponents are and how to figure out how to solve them. Here I will explain an exponent to you.

Say you have 5 with a small 2 at the top right hand corner. The 2 tells you how many times you multiply that number by itself. But what if that number is a 4? If that number was a 4 than you would do 5x5=25 and then you would times 25x5 which equals 125 and then since there was a 4 at the top we need to multiply 125 by 5 one more time, and that gives us the answer of 625.

If you still don't understand then have a look at our poster and if you still don't understand after you looked at the poster than please leave me a comment and I will try to answer as soon as possible.                       

Blog You Later!

Camp Kaitawa 2019

Hi it's Miriam again,

Today I am going to share with you a little bit about Camp Kaitawa. We went on camp last week and when we got back we had to write a reflection about it. This is my reflection on google slides. I hope you enjoy it.

Super School Swimming Sports

Hi its Miriam here. Today I am going to talk to you about our school swimming sports on Tuesday.

On Tuesday Nui Syndicate arrived at Enterprize Swim Club at 10:00. We all sat down on the stands and waited for the first race to begin. The pool was a heated pool so I was not scared that I was going to be cold, but I was scared that I was going to let down my coach. You see, I go to Enterprise twice a week for swimming squads so my coaches expect me to come in a placing.

The first race began with an ear piercing "BEEP!" the Year 4 Girls dolve into the pool and started there 25m freestyle. The crowds cheered as the first girl finished her race.  Then after what seemed like forever the Year 6 Girls got called up for our 50m freestyle. Standing on top of the diving block the cold metal gave me goosebumps I have to admit I was a little bit scared. With butterflies in my tummy the glass shattering "BEEP!" filled up the room. We dove into the pool and even though I was under the water the cheers from in the stands was giving me a headache. I did my tumble turn and then carried on freestyle when I touched the wall at the other end of the pool I was exhausted but happy that I finished the race but I was even more happy when the gave me the yellow stick.

I ran up to Mom and shared the news with her. She was so happy for me when I told her that I had come in second. The races went on for a long, long time after that. I competed in two other races breaststroke and backstroke. I only came a place in breaststroke though. I was so excited that I got through to the finals in two strokes.

Me and my best friend Poppy. Poppy on the right and me on the left.

In the finals was up against some of the best swimmers in our school. For breaststroke I came last and in freestyle I came forth. I was pretty proud with myself, at the end of the day I did quite well.

Bye, Blog you later.

Miriam

Marvelous Ruapehu

Hi it's Miriam again, I hope you have hade a wonderful holiday over the summer? I know I have. 

Today I am going to tell you about my little holiday this week. Yesterday morning Mom, Dad, Nathan, Grammy and I drove from Taupo to Mount Ruapehu and settled down in the cozy hut that we were members of on the mountain. That night we watched the magical moments of the sun setting over the world. Mom took some photos of the the family and Dad didn't think that I was responsible enough to take photos with his high-tech camera. My Favorite photo is the one of me kissing Grammy on the cheek what is yours? 

Today we did the Tongariro Crossing up to the South Crater, which isn't actually a crater it is glacier valley surrounded by volcanoes which was formed 3,000 years ago. The valley was more like a large flat surface of very sharp volcanic stone that got spewed out of one of the volcanoes during an eruption. On the South Crater we could see people climbing Ngarahoe the volcanoe next to Tongariro.  On the top of the South Crater we saw some beautiful flowers called Gentiana. These are some of the photos that we took from on top of the Southern Crater and the photos from last night: