really enjoyed the experience of snowboarding. Even though I’ve never done it before I still enjoyed it. 

The part that I found the hardest was the toe stand. I think that’s what the name was, when you’re facing your toes up at the mountain. This was while you’re trying to teach me and Leo how to ride a snowboard.

My favourite part of the snowboarding was when I fell over and started laughing. It was a little bit tricky to follow you and also snowboard at the same time.

Extremism

We strongly agree with the article because cyber safety is a real thing and if you can make a stand and agree with the writer you will be making a big difference in the cyber safety infiltration too. The cyber safety threat involves us too because this day and age is all technology and threats do come on to people’s phones. If you stay safe and try to defend yourself against cyber safety, the government will keep trying their best to keep everyone safe. You will have to defend yourself until the government gets everything under control. Technically  we can’t stop cyber attacks because we don’t know who they are and where they are from or why they are doing it. When new phones and computers are  brought, they should have a special chip so we can block certain contacts from tracking us.

RAFTING

 On Friday last week  we went rafting with some of the class and Mr S. We were supposed to be here at 8.15 but I was a little late. The instructors from the polytech came to pick us up in their vans. We went to the polytech HQ. They gave us some wetsuits and rash tops and a rain coat. We played a game using the first letter of our name  to say what we liked. I picked a character out of a movie ( Totoro). 

The instructors loaded up the trailers with the rafts. We put our lunch bottles and drinks in a big bag. We got in the van and headed up to the river. The Arnold River. While we were waiting on the instructors to get the rafts off the trailer we played a little game called bump and we also played a game called seaweed. The instructors gave us all a safety talk of what we can do on the rafts..

The instructors took the rafts to the river, we hopped in the rafts and practised what we learnt on land. We headed down the river talking and learning. After we went down the river we ran into some rapids, some small rapids and some big rapids. The way rapids are made is when the current of the water is heading down stream, the rocks in the river make the different type of rapids. Small rapids are big rocks down below, deep  underneath the water, and big rapids are from big rocks near the top of the water 

There is normally about 5 to 6 people in one raft including the instructor. When we were on on the river, when we are hitting the rapids, there were two girls in my rafts. They wanted to hit the biggest rocks for the rapids so we could get stuck! We managed to only hit two rocks and we only got stuck on one. 

When we’re about halfway down our instructor started telling us what to do. Only on one of the other kids rafts They started jumping off and practicing how to get back on to the raft!  Our raft ended up doing it but I didn’t go in the water because it was optional. I wanted to stay on the raft to help them get back in because I didn’t want to do it because the river was too cold and wet.

 About halfway down the river we hit some strong currents, Dan told us to start rowing backwards. My hand was on the paddle and we hit a current and the wet paddle went slipping out of my hands. The paddle ended up going to a part where I couldn’t reach it and then the instructor grabbed it for me.

About two to three hours in we had lunch The instructors also brought hot chocolate with marshmallows. We also had a toilet stop when everyone was finished their lunch. The instructor took us on a walk,  they had made a little track a few days before we came. We finished the walk and we got back to our lunch stop.  Whatever Mr S. took for lunch made a mess in the bag so when we go back we had to clean the bag out because Mr S.s lunch had made a mess. 

Probably about 10 to 15 minutes before we finished on the water, hitting towards the end, there was this rock that we jumped off. It was optional if you wanted to jump off of it.  A few people didn’t want to jump off but I wasn’t one of those people. The instructor showed us how to do it properly without breaking our neck.

We got back on started rafting again. Near the end of the day one of the instructors on the grass decided to impress some people by doing a trick they call a “wheelie” but it was just them spinning around. When the instructor did do the trick he headed a dead tree that was hanging out of the side of the paddock. He hit it and fell into the water! 

When we got to the end of the river, instructors were getting the raft back onto the trailer and one of the instructors got us playing a game which we all found fun. It was a game where you had to stand in a circle and then when they set a time, they said, “One! Two! Three! Then you look up and stare at someone but if they are staring at you as well you give them a little high five and say your favorite fruit! 

When they did get the rafts on the trailer we didn’t get into a line. We hopped into the vans and on the way back we chatted about what did we like, to what parts did we not like and I liked almost all of it. 

• Taz

My Taonga is My Mum 

My mum is loving and sweet. She brought me into the world. It’s like that saying that people say, “I brought you into this world, I can take you out.”

She makes me dinners that I love. My favourite Is beef stroganoff for dinner and for lunch is cob loaf. 

She takes me out sometimes during the day. We come back late sometimes during the night 

She’s loving and sweet but sometimes, if you annoy her, she gets really grumpy! This reminds me of the pūrākau, “Rona and the Moon” because in that narrative the woman gets grumpy at the moon when she trips over, while getting some water. I am not sure if this happened to my mum she would be as grumpy!

My mum is my taonga because I only have one mum and she cannot be replaced!

• Tas Cobb