A reflection of Wellington camp this week by a group of our year 8 kōtiro.

Day 1

The plane to Wellington felt like it was 5 minutes long. First we went to Te Papa and saw a big colossal squid. We also saw the Gallipoli exhibit and saw the big statues of people that were in Gallipoli and they looked very, very realistic!

After lunch we went rollerblading and climbing. People who didn't want to try, tried it anyway and enjoyed it. Climbing was terrifying but fun and climbing the rope was really hard! 

After dinner we went to the escape rooms. It was really hard to escape on time. We had to find clues to help us unlock doors and find things.

Day 2

We went to the Weta workshop and learned about Lord of the rings and Thunderbirds being made. We saw Gollum and other props from movies and learned how they were made step by step. We saw how they filmed Thunderbirds using miniature sets and 'bigatures.'

Then we went to the zoo and saw super cute baby meerkats! We learned about red pandas and how they are going extinct. We can help them by getting animal-tree-free toilet paper (look for a symbol of a tree with a tick) and buying pens instead of pencils. We got to buy ice creams to eat as we walked around the zoo.

Bowling that night was amusing and thrillng! Annabella and Sophie were particularly proud of their scores and it was cool to hang out with different people from our group. We also got to have pizza for dinner!

Day 3

We went to CapitalE which was lots of fun. Micah was the director and had to do lots of cues. There were also floor managers, camera people, actors and more! We made a movie like a news report about an alien invasion using green screens. 

After lunch we went to the art gallery and did screen printing! It was fun. We made screen prints of our name based off of a mural we saw in the city. It was all about growth and was named after seeds. 

We also went to parliament and saw our local MP, Tracey. We went into the debating chamber and saw how the walls in there represented different wars. We learned about where Jacinda's office was and about how kings can only step on red carpet areas and not green ones!

Day 4

On the last day we are going to go on the ferry and train and travel for 9 hours to get home!

The year 8 camp was awesome! Sophie is looking forward to seeing her cat again.

By Hanna, Sophie, Micah, Annabella, Phoebe and Georgia.