For ‘House Day’ this year, the Omimi family travelled to the distant lands of Warrington beach.

As per usual with ‘House Day’, the weather was fantastic, and there was a euphoric buzz from student to student. Expectations were high. Upon arrival, it was set it stone that it would in fact be a great day; the surf was calm, the ground dry, and the sky clear. There was no hesitation to begin, since our day was to be abundant with activities. We got ourselves organised into our groups and started with activities which involved getting in lines, the first of which being lining up in order of our birthdays. Once completed, we had to, from sitting, jump in the air and shout our names, one at a time, from front to back, like a Mexican wave. Because of the unspoken law, that everything on House day is competitive, everyone was quick to do so, and it turned into a race. The next event called upon the Donatellos, and the Michelangelos of the groups. No, I’m not talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I’m talking about sculptors. In our groups, we had to create a 3D sculpture of our group number (‘2/4’ for example) using nothing but members of our group, all of whom had to be involved. If I remember correctly, 2/6 won this event. House Day is not House Day without a few races, so we felt obliged to do a “Sack race” and an “Egg and Spoon race”. Omimi is a very energetic house, so obviously when we were asked to create a House chant, things got a little bit hectic. The routine needed to be easy to follow, since we were planning to perform it in the auditorium at an assembly, which we actually did do. One of the chants included a remix of Toni Basil’s ‘Hey Mickey’. Despite not being the most theatrical guy, I still enjoyed it. It was time to head to the beach to do more activities. A la mode de “House Day”, we were asked to make volcanoes out of sand. The only requirement was that the volcano needed to have fire and smoke, so we were supplied with 3 matches, and some newspaper. Obviously, Mr. McKinny was going to take this one out, and that he did. He created a volcano en par with Mount Vesuvius. Before we knew it, it was lunchtime. We had a barbeque accompanied by the dulcet tones of Hendrix, and John Frusciante. After lunch, the Year 13s had to take everyone in three different activities, which were “Ultimate Frisbee”, “Capture the Flag”, and “Rounders”. Everyone had to gather into their groups, and each group played off in all of the sports. I was stationed at “Capture the Flag”. Although the concept is simple, it was chaotic, since the rules were pretty vague. Every 20 minutes, the groups rotated to a different sport and to a different opponent. After an hour, we were almost ready to head back to school, but not before the traditional, and pretty infamous for cheating tug-o-war battle. Each group had to face each other in a knock-out tournament of tug-o-war using the ridiculously big rope Mr. McKinny supplies every year. Before leaving, we had a prize giving where each group was celebrated for its merits and were given bags of lollies as a prize. Being tidy Kiwis, we all cleaned the area of any rubbish. We stormed the buses, and headed home. Sadly, since I am Year 13, it is sad to think that it was my last House Day, but it is definitely easy to say that they have created many good memories for everyone involved. It is an excellent and original tradition which can only be brought down to the brilliance of Ms. Henderson and all of the teachers involved. Overall, despite the fact that it was my last House Day, it was a great day.