Wednesday 30 November 2016

Check out some of our short videos of our Arthur's Pass Adventures - will be updating some each day, so stay tuned!

This is Isaac & Jesse on the 300m Sensory Trail through the forest at Arthur's Pass. They were blindfolded the whole time and as you can see, there was a bit of problem solving on the way, that provided some entertainment for their teacher!






Friday 25 November 2016

Day Five: DOC Centre, Stretcher Making & Mock Rescue...Ice creams and Home!

It's raining, it's pouring...and we're off to the DOC centre to learn about the endangered animals in Arthur's Pass!




It's still raining and pouring, so we learn how to make stretchers in the community squash courts.
Why might we need to know how to make a stretcher?

Each group has 2 rain coats and 2 pieces of wood (branches).





Mr Robertson shouted us ice creams just before we left Arthur's Pass...we're so lucky!


Day Four: Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall, Orienteering, Rock Art, Sensory Trail & Geocaching!

Off on our walk up to Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall!

The puzzle, that caused tears, tantrums and sulks...but lots of thinking and teamwork...eventually!
Well done to the first group who solved it in '6 or 7' minutes!

Devil's Punchbowl Waterfall!


Halfway around Arthur's Pass Village...my group really wanted to win Orienteering...

How cool is this?!

The 'Ninja Turtles' ended up coming 2nd...with a time of 38.36 mins - 5 minutes behind the winners!

Researching about Inuksuk - Inuit Rock Art - fascinating and very creative to look at. 









On The Sensory Trail...this is about 300m through the forest. A few tricks along the way...will upload the video of Tim walking into a tree soon...





The girls chilling out before tea...

After tea we learnt about Geocaching - basically a worldwide treasure hunt. This was very cool and we can't wait to continue it back at school!

Found our first one! 

We wrote our names and the date in the miniature notebook. 


Found our second! You put in a treasure and take a treasure. Emily had a wee turtle key ring she put in for someone else to find.

These two clowns amused us for quite a while!

Trying to find our third Geocache near the waterfall behind the lodge - this one was rated as a 4.5 to find. The scale is 1-6 - 1 being the easiest; 6 being the hardest. 

Found it! Under the viewing platform - had to use our torches on our phones to see it.

Inspecting the treasures...

Who needs fancy pudding? Good ol' instant pudding and jelly works a treat - no need to do the dishes either with these scavengers cleaning up!

Day Three: Temple Basin, Shelter Building & River Crossings...and a birthday!

At the start of our hike up Temple Basin Logan pointed out the beautiful Mt Cook lily which is technically a buttercup - the largest in the world and only flowers for 2 months of the year!

Starting off on our walk for the morning - a nice refreshing day!

These guys can still natter away like old women...even when hiking up a steep hill!

We loved all the alpine plants on this walk.

Almost at the hut - Temple Basin is NZ's oldest ski area; formed in 1933. It has 4 ski tows and you have to do the walk we did to get up there to ski! (It has a wee lift for your gear though.)

While up here we thought it was a great idea to do our SOLOs - super comfy in amongst the moss and tussocks.
Clearly too comfy!

Missing the view Emily!

Coming down - pretty rocky, loose and lots of cloud.

Heart shaped rock # 358 - thanks Prudence!

Every now and again we would catch a glimpse of Mt Rolleston - Arthur's Pass highest mountain.

This guy actually said, "Miss Blair can we have an all nighter on Thursday night since it's the last night?"
"Ahhh...absolutely NOT!"

About to begin our river crossing adventure! 20 people every year die in NZ rivers because they cross when they are flooded. We learnt to cross safely and to look after each other while doing so.




Tea time - meatballs!

Making them work for their tea...

Megan's birthday cake - well done girls for creating this spectacular cake!


There were so many dishes tonight we didn't finish till 9:00!
"Many helpers make light work".

Last job for the night - thanks Cayde!