Final Days in New Zealand

Queenstown Jet Boat Adventure ~ by Jovan

This blog post will be about the boat ride we took. On this boat ride they showed us some of the places that movies were filmed. If you have seen the two towers lord of the rings film, when Gandalf and the balrog are fighting on the mountain, we saw that mountain and we saw the misty mountains. My favorite part of this boat ride was when our driver (Craig) put his hand up and pretended to swing a lasso and with the boat he did a 360-degree turn. In the middle of the boat ride we stopped and went on land we walked around, and we all found a stick (Tejas, Nix, and me) and we took a picture and said what Gandalf said

                                             YOU SHALL NOT PASS!

The story that Craig told us about the river we jetted down with mountains that have real jade in them was long ago there lived a giant and this giant ate the maidens of the town. So, one the kings daughter got taken. The king said that whomever got his daughter out of the giant’s cave could marry her. One man who was not as wealthy as the king and loved his daughter, went out to save her. He found her  tied to the giant. He tried to cut the rope and he could not so the girl cried and cried. Her tears broke the rope! They got married and lived happily ever after. There is a jade mountain and it is not allowed to be mined that is shaped like a giants head. The story says that the giant watches over the jade stone. 

 Queenstown Luge and Tiki Trail ~ by Tejas

In South Island New Zealand we went to a place called Queenstown Skyline, Gondola, and

Luge.  The Luge is a track where you race down a mountain side on a go-cart and then you take a ski lift to the top of the mountain and then you come down (pretty much skiing with wheels).  The one thing I didn’t like was the hike up the mountain. We started on one trail that would take 45 min to a 1 hour of hiking up.  Then we cut through a wood into a forest which led us to a new trail they would take a little less time. The problem with this new trail was that it had to many rock and wood stairs. The path was dangerous because rocks fall which can sometimes block the stairs.  After the walk I felt like I couldn’t do anything, I was so tired and hot.  Once we got up there, we bought a pack of 20 rides for the luge tracks.  We took a lesson on how to work the go cart then we went as many times as we could.  When you were riding if you pay attention to the road the view is great there because you get the view of the whole city from the top of the mountain onto Queenstown. Jovan and I wanted to race my dad so we only looked at the view a few times.  In the end we had lots of fun and got some good exercise.    

NZ Glow Worms

Te-Anau Glow Worm Caves ~ by Jovan

In our next New Zealand adventure, we took a boat to a glow worm cave. First thing that you should know is that glow worms are not actually worms, they are actually a short-lived type of flying insect. When glow worms are in their larval stage that is the only time they eat. The glow worm has four stages:

1.      They live in the egg for 20-24 days

2.      Next they are a larva which is when the glow worm makes a nest and eats

3.      Then the glow worm starts to fly

4.      Finally the females die quickly after laying their eggs (1 day) and the males die of exhaustion in  5 days

Glow worms have these things called fishing lines, so they make a sticky line from their bodies that hangs down from their nest. Other insects can’t see it but then they fly into it and then their stuck and it gets eaten by the glow worms. The experience was so nice we got to see the glow worms glow (because they were hungry) and we got to see the lines to but they were so thin you could barely see them all in all it was way cool and be sure to look at the pictures.

Penguins and Puzzles In NZ

Puzzling World ~ by Tejas

We flew from North Island to South Island New Zealand. We went to a dazzling called Puzzling World.  It’s a amazing place that is literally made of puzzles.  There were four main puzzles the Great Maze, the Puzzle Room, the Illusion room, and the Tilted Tower. 

The Great Maze is a maze with four towers on each corner.  On each tower there is the real entrance and the fake entrance.  You must get to the real entrance all the way up to the top and then do that three more times than get to the exit and then you can say you completed the great maze.  Me and my family did a challenge who could finish the maze first.  It was me and Jovan vs. Mom, Dad, and Nix.  In the end me and Jovan won because we did all the steps.

The Puzzle Room is a room with a bunch of tables and a restaurant.  On each table there were four complex puzzles.  One puzzle was a puzzle with Kiwi birds.  Me and my Dad did this kiwi bird puzzle and we got it first try but it took a while.  We also had a little bit of help from one of the staff.  In the end we finished it. 

The Illusion room is a room full of optical illusions.  These are like objects that when you move they turn or when you look at this picture from two different areas one time it’s smiling and the next it’s frowning.  As you walk through the illusion room you will see the hall of faces.  There were face as that looked at you if you looked a different direction.  The faces were Winston Churchill, Mother Teresa, Albert Einstein, and Vincent Van Gogh. 

The Illusion room eventually leads you into the Tilted Tower.  This Tower is literally tilted like if you were to stand in the middle of one room you would fall.  You got to watch water move backwards and see what’s would happen if your building was tilted. In the end we were all puzzled on how they did it.  This adventure through the puzzling world was truly amazing.     

Blue Penguin Colony Reserve ~ by Nix

We drove three hours from Christchurch to Oamaru, to the Blue Penguin Colony reserve we had to dress  really warm and meet there at 08:15PM once the sun starts to set the penguins come back to the reserve for the night they swim to shore and climb up the hill. They all walked past us and they were cute and small and there wings were blue, which is why we call them blue penguins. My mom thought they were so cute, she wanted to take one home to Canada and name it Pixy, and give the penguin my room and bed, but you were not allowed to take the animals, it is illegal.





Here are some facts about Blue Penuins. 
1. It is the smallest penguin of all penguins
2. A grown up blue peguins weighs 2.6 pounds
3. They do most of their work in the night and sleep in the day
4. They can only be found in Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania

Maori Cultural Experience

Our Maori Cultural Experience ~ by Jovan 

While we were in New Zealand we went to a Maori dinner experience. The Māoris came to New Zealand with settlers from Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand with waves of Waka (canoe) voyages somewhere between 1320 and 1350. We learned about the Maori people, and how they got to New Zealand. They performed their songs, showed the clothes they wear, dances, and how they fight.  The Māori are the indigenous inhabits of New Zealand. Maori define themselves by their iwi (tribe), Hapū (sub-tribe), Manunga (mountain) and awa (river). The Maori are a Polynesian people most closely related to eastern Polynesian. Maori speak fluent English. Maori are superstitious and religious believing in gods and the spirits of ancestors. The Maori have a language that is called the te reo that they also can speak. One of the words are Kia Ora the meaning is hi or hello. Everyone in New Zealand say hello with saying Kia Ora.