Noah's ARC

Our first actual adventure race of the season, the ARC! (Adventure Racing Coromandel) For this race, all the adventure racers from New Plymouth split to make 3 even teams to give everyone more experience for the bigger races coming up. I was captain of our team, which included (from left to right) me, Bronwyn, Hannah and George.

George's dad is pretty much a pro photographer, so most of the pictures in this post are from him.

My ARC this year went pretty much like this:

Friday night:

Check in and race briefing

receive maps

plan route and final packing

Studying the maps and planning a route

sleep

Saturday:

Race kicked off with a raft building and paddle leg

   

then a short bike

  

a run/trek on a sick coast trail, including a stream bash to a waterfall

 

a long bike section, including a optional section through the local bike park, a rifle shoot, and a 300m tunnel!

 

a run/trek, including a zipline thingy across a river and a swim to get 2 checkpoints.
 

This was by far the most exciting part of our race, as the trail we took ended just short of the zipline due to a rock slide, and rather than run back and around to the track on the other side of the river, we decided to slide/fall down a 5m cliff/bank, cross the river and climb a equally as foreboding cliff on the other side. We made it with only minor scrapes and bruises, but everyone was pretty scared, because we dislodged some pretty big rocks, I caught the two girls after falling down the bank, and then we had to use a rope to get up the other side! It certainly made for a good post-race story though!     

one last final bike

finish!

dinner and debrief

The three teams from New Plymouth took first, second and third, and Danny and Oak's junior teams cleaned up as well, so we were all pretty happy and exhausted on the way home :D

A massive thanks to our support crews (i.e our parents) and our amazing coach, Mr. Hewlett. We couldn't have done it without you!!!

  

Tiger Jackets and Stuff

The Tiger Jacket. For anyone who is associated with New Plymouth Boys' High culture, it is known as a symbol of success, either in academics, sports, culture or leadership. Every boy hopes to earn one during their time at the school, and even the naturally very humble New Zealanders will look for opportunities to wear it with pride :)

I first earned mine this year for Leadership, after being made a prefect and a Head of House, and I'll be honest I was actually very proud and honored to receive it. Funny, considering that two years ago when I moved here I thought they were a pretty ugly waste of fabric. haha!

The assembly when one receives his Tiger Jacket is a very special and formal occasion, Your whole family is invited, you get to walk across stage, and each boy gets to ask a favorite member of staff to present him with the jacket.

 This is me, nailing the donning of my jacket. As a joke among the boys, you get graded on how well you put the jacket on, and those whose arms get stuck or forget to flip down their collar get teased relentlessly :D

 Shaking the headmaster's hand!!!

 Our 2015 leadership team: in Tiger Jackets in front are the Head Boy and his deputy, in the jackets behind them are the four House Leaders, and the rest make up the "prefect" team.

I just recently earned my Tiger Jacket again, this time for academics. If all goes well, by the end of the year I'll earn one for volleyball and adventure racing too :D

On the left: me with my parents in the boarder's lounge after first receiving my TJ

On the right: me with my best friend and adventure racing teammate, Cory Sutherland, after we both received ours for academics

My Spin on Things

I got back from Germany positively bouncing to play more ping pong. Oak and I had been spinning the idea of a DIY ping pong table around in our heads for ages, and decided to finally get the ball rolling.

Our first attempt was a bit of a letdown, because we were skunked as to where to find a cheap substitute for a table, and the local hardware store delivered a backhand blow by closing just as we arrived. But we still managed to get a good enough grip on things to make a racket with our game just before dinner.

The next weekend we rallied our forces, and spent all Saturday morning on the project. The service at the hardware store was much better that day, and they even gave us advice forehand-eling our purchase on the way to the car. By the time we had carried, measured, sawed, taped and assembled the table Oak and I were pretty smashed, but very pleased with the stroke of genius that led to our final product. Hopefully I've put a good spin on this story, because I expect a volley of praise and compliments! :D

Back to Germany!

I spent the last two weeks before school started this year in Germany! And this was totally thanks to my mom. Ever since we left the military and moved away from Germany when I was 11 she has felt that it's super important for me to not lose the language. (hmm, possibly for my mission?!?) Anyway, we suddenly realized that this summer might be my last chance for a trip back. So very much spur of the moment and last minute we checked in with an old elementary school friend of mine, and then bought tickets to send me over!

 

I'll be honest, I wasn't really sure how excited to be about this trip. I knew my German was rusty, I was going to stay with a girl and her family who I had only seen once or twice since elementary school, and I was going to be missing the last weeks of my summer vacation to go to school in FREEZING Germany.

Oh how wrong I was! Well ok, yes my German was rusty to start, and it was verrrrry cold, but Carina and her family were so nice and welcoming I felt at home straight away, and they took time to do all kinds of awesome stuff with me, and she goes to an all girl's school so that wasn't bad at all! :D

a sneaky picture to prove I was at an ALL GIRLS school haha

Exploring the old city castle and cathedral on a Sunday afternoon.

2nd Grade class reunion!

Our nightly "Tischtennis" and "Tischkicker" games

  

 Felling and chopping firewood

and sooo much more! It was a perfect way to end my summer vacation :D

Wanganui River

Possibly our most fun trip of the summer was this week-long expedition down the Whanganui River. It was a combined effort with with our friends the Sutherland's and Jack Boon, both of whom we know through adventure racing. 145km of river, it combined some of the coolest river gorge scenery I've ever seen with some pretty intense rapids to make for an awesome adventure.

         

Highlights for me were...

Having all of our food work out, because I was had been in charge of all the menus, grocery shopping etc.

A unexplored mud cave and the ensuing mud battle,

Spending one night on a Maori "marai" and recieving a "powhiri" or traditional welcoming ceremony,

 

And especially all the cliff jumping! It was on this trip that the Sutherland boys taught us the essential kiwi skill of "popping a fat manu", which is basically type of bomb that produces a very satisfying huge splash.