2 teams of 4 students got the opportunity to compete in a robotics competition in Auckland.

On Friday 1st of December the First LEGO League robotics teams went to Auckland to compete in the National competition. The Breens Blizzards; Caleb, Fin, Melyee and Brayden. The Breens Bubblers; Joshua, Logan, Kobe, Felix. 

We got to the airport at 5:10am! Far too early in my opinion, we boarded our plane and Brayden soon realised he had left his phone at security at Christchurch airport. However a bit later into the flight, he found it in the BACK POCKET OF HIS BAG!!!! After this we went to pick up the rental van (Shout out to Mr Josland and Mrs Taylor for getting us maccas hash browns) .

After that we headed for MOTAT (Museum Of Transport And Technology) to have an educational session with Clearview and Kaiapoi North. The educational lesson was very fun as we made a marble run (that went upwards) and connected all the boards together. 

There were also giant planes and it was very fun. Next we rode a tram to MOTAT 1. There we looked around and the first bit we went to was Machine Makers. It was super fun and they even had a hamster wheel. Next we checked out some olden day stuff. My favourite part of the day was when Joshua beat Mr Josland in a body weight pull up challenge.

We then went back to the place we are staying which is most certainly the nicest house I have ever seen. We started playing games and hanging out. We got pizza for dinner. Near the end of the day we were working on our innovation projects and fixing up our script.

We woke up early Saturday morning to get ready for the first day of competition, then collected our robots and boards and went to the van and drove to the school where we were going to do the competition. 

At 10 o'clock we went to the judging room 1 but had to wait because it was a little behind schedule. We did our judging and I think it went pretty well. We started doing a bunch of practising coding and cheering on the other teams. We completed what we expected and we got a good amount of points and managed to hold our own. Our best score in the practice rounds was 265. In our first competitive round, we got 230 points which put us comfortably in the top 15 and almost in top 10. Overall it was a great day and we had a blast.

After the competition we went home to just chill. We played Logan's game for a while, which was called One night werewolf. After fish and chip dinner we started coding and writing stuff down.

The second day started with more competitions and we had to try and get as many points with our robots as we could.

During prize giving we were happy for the Bubblers as they won the Core Values award out of 56 teams and as well have the chance to go to Brazil to compete. 

After the prize giving we went straight to the airport. There we ate and Kobe also bought some donuts. After that we went through security and waited for around an hour to board the plane.

Some of the best things about the competition was that the judges were very nice and kind. Moose Man was also very funny and cool. He would also say “Gracious Professionalism” at random times and we would all go “Woo!” It was such a cool experience and I hope to do it again next year.

We had a very fun time and it was amazing, we got to experience new things and shout out to Mrs Taylor and Mr Josland for taking us there.

We would also like to thank everyone who supported us in our fundraising. Hellers for the sausages. For our raffle prizes; Harvey Norman Moorhouse Ave, Unichem Pharmacy Bishopdale, Orana Park, Willowbank Wildlife Park, He Puna Taimoana - New Brighton Hot Pools, YMCA Bishopdale, Sweet, Mitre10 Papanui and Bunnings Christchurch Airport.

By the Bubblers and Blizzards