Rotorua National Cup Series Event 2

Recently we went to Rotorua for the second event in the national cup series. This time I didn't compete. Instead I did homework and took photos of the family climbing. I had a lot of fun hanging out at the gym with some of the climbers from the other gyms. In his grade Josiah got first. He topped out his first qualifier, got the furthest on his second qualifier and topped out his final. Mum and Dad both did well in masters. Mum got fourth and Dad got third.

School is going well with plenty of killer homework to try and complete. Our chicken eggs arrived a couple of days ago and are now in the incubator at school. They are so adorable even though they look identical to other chicken eggs, it's probably because I know that there are little chicks growing inside them :) Our chicken coop is nearly finished. We just need to put the roof on. For humanities this term we are studying Ancient Alexandria. It is very interesting. It's really nice to be doing maths again and not just practice stuff. We are learning about statistics which is a lot of fun.

Matariki, which my school celebrates, is coming up so there is lots of stuff going on for that in Maori, and also in art where we are making things with flax. I am looking forward to singing the songs we are going to sing.

Busy Term Two

Sadly for me term two will be even busier than term one was. I guess this is partly because of it being eleven weeks not the like nine that we had last term because of camp.

Three days in and I already have a zillion things due and that's just for half the term :(.

This term for occupations (the first half of the term) we are continuing our study of chickens by buying five chickens and looking after them in a hutch that we are making ourselves from a design made by someone in the class.

On a happier topic the holidays were great! In the first week I just lounged around sleeping, eating and reading ... but in the second week the whole family went down to Christchurch for the first competition of the National Cup series. We had decided that because it was the holidays we would stay on for a few more days and do some climbing at Spittle Hill. After the comp I was feeling really tired and wasn't looking forward to doing more hard, tiring stuff, but when we got into it I became hooked. My favourite part was when I succeeded at a V2 that J and C had given up on. I even did it the same way.

The next competition that I'm going to is not a national one; it is one at HangDog for secondary school students. It is aimed more at beginners than people who climb heaps so any teens that want to go totally should. For more info please see the HangDog website:

www.hangdog.co.nz/riot.asp

Very crazy first term!

Oh my gosh. It's the end of term already and it only feels like two or three weeks. this term has been really busy with school taking up just about all of my time, homework taking up free time that isn't spent climbing. If the rest of the year goes this fast then it'll be next year before I it feels like a term is gone. the first climbing comp of the year is rapidly approaching. we are going to spend a few extra days down in Christchurch climbing at spittle hill. just a couple of weeks ago I had my 13th birthday. I can't believe I'm actually a teenager, it doesn't feel any different.

Other than school there hasn't been much going on for me. Last Saturday was my school's fair. Heaps of people turned up and it was mayhem trying to actually do anything. We sold so much stuff.

Yay only three more days of school before the holidays are here!

Finals and Travelling to Cairns

Trinity Beach 7 Oct
Comp day 2:
My final was a really consistent route and lots of fun to climb. It was consistently very hard and no one in Youth C or Youth B Girls topped. I came 3rd, Josiah came 1st topping all his climbs, and Mum and Dad got 5th and 2nd. In speeds I came 2nd and Josiah also got 2nd. In the afternoon I went shopping with the kids from Rotorua and one of the girl's Mum. We did lots of crazy stuff. The girls bought fluoro vests, but I didn't get one 'cause I didn't have any money. They bought me a fluoro green headband from Supre. We went for a swim at their backpacker, but it was freezing so we were only in for five-ten minutes. After the prize-giving most of the kiwis went back to their backpacker for pizza. I really enjoyed the comp.

Travel Day:
We got up at 7 and left at 9. I t was raining for quite a bit of the drive to Sydney. We stopped for lunch at a rest spot along the way. When we got to Sydney airport we had a several hour wait for our flight, so I went on the free wireless internet via Dad's laptop and did some work on my canal brochure. I also looked at some very overpriced souvenir shops. on the flight we watched "The Brothers Bloom" and ate disgusting food. It was very hot when we arrived in Cairns. We took a taxi to our motel.

The following photos taken by Michael Davis.
mikedavisphotography.smugmug.com
Displayed here with permission.

My Trip to Australia!

I have just got back from a holiday in Australia.
I will be posting the journal that I wrote over the next few days.
Here are the first two entries.

Wellington Airport 1 Oct.

We are at Wellington Airport at the international departure lounge. Before we went to the departure lounge we had to fill out departure cards, Dad made a mistake on his: he wrote zaland instead of zealand but he managed to fix it so that was okay. After that we confirmed our other flights at the ticketing office. We are eating the food that we can't take in to Australia. I am really excited about going to Cairns. The comp will be really cool too. I am going to take lots of photos on the plane. My favourite thing about the trip will be seeing the reef.

On the Plane to Australia 1 Oct.

We have been on the plane for around maybe 20-30 minutes. They are handing out meals now, I'm having a chicken meal. Mum Dad and Josiah are having vegan ones. I can't see any water but I'm not in the window seat so maybe Josiah can. we were watching the soloist but it stopped working so now we are watching something else. Me and Josiah got given little goody bags. We were supposed to board at 3.45 but we boarded at 4.05.
Later:
The meal was quite nice. I enjoyed the bread and the after dinner mint. The flight attendants still haven't collected the trays.

The National Champs In Christchurch

Last weekend We went to Christchurch for the National Championships. I topped out my first climb so I was very pleased with that, but My second climb didn't go quite as well. I was dynoing for a hold with my left hand and I fell off, I should have moved my body first before letting go of the wall with my hand. My final went okay, but my feet kept slipping off the holds because I was wearing my new shoes which had not been worn in yet. The placings in our family were Me: 2nd National cup speed (there were medals for the overall ranking and they gave them out at this comp), 3rd National Champs Speed, 3rd National Champs difficulty. Josiah: 1st National Cup Speed, 3rd National Champs Speed, 2nd National Champs Difficulty. Mum: 3rd National Champs Difficulty. Dad: 3rd National Cup Speed, 2nd National Champs Difficulty. Here are some photos that Mum took at the comp:

The Auckland Competition

The Auckland comp was really cool.

I had lot of fun going on the Climb Zone with my friends K, E and B. The climbs were really nice. I was pleased with my footwork most of the way. When I fell off on my second qualifier it was because I had not got my foot up earlier and failed to get it up at that point because I could not get it over the lip onto the hold that would make me be able to reach the next handhold.

Josiah and Dad both did Opens again but neither of them got into finals.

I won the speed climbing which puts me first equal overall in the series. I came fourth in the lead climbing by one hold. I got third in the series but did not get to stand on the podium because we had to leave to get to the airport to catch our plane home. The photos taken at the comp can be seen at inkbig

Josiah is in Europe!

The team left on the Monday after the competition in Auckland. At the moment they are in Zurich, Switzerland, training. Soon they are going to Imst, Austria, for the world cup competition. They are keeping a team diary. It can be viewed on the Climbing New Zealand website

Photos From the Rotorua Competition

These are some of the photos that my Grandparents took the competition in Rotorua.

This is me on my first qualifier:


This is Josiah on his first qualifier:


This is Mum on her first qualifier:


This is me on my second Qualifier:


This is Geoff on his second qualifier:

Josiah Going to France

Josiah is going to Europe with the 13 strong (one of the biggest we've ever had) New Zealand National Youth Team in just over a week's time to compete in the Climbing World Youth Championship in Valence, France. He is very excited about going to Europe especially since he might get a chance to go outdoor climbing in Italy as part of the training that the team will be doing to prepare for the competition. In Imst, Austria, they will be attending a world cup competition which the older ones are allowed to compete in while the younger ones will watch the competition and train on the secondary wall.

Josiah has just started a blog in which he and Mum will be writing about the journey.

It will be rather different not having him at home for three weeks. I am probably going to miss him towards the end of his trip.

Josiah is the only competitor from Wellington in the team. He is training very hard for the competition.

Mum and Josiah are very busy doing things to prepare Josiah for going to Europe. This means that like before the Hangdog competition the house is in a bit of mayhem with school work not getting done because Mum is too busy to enforce it and I am too lazy to do it.

It is very interesting listening to all the stuff that Mum is reading to Josiah such as anti-doping and baggage restrictions.

The Rotorua Competition

The competition at Rotorua was lots of fun. My grandparents came up with us to watch the competition. It was very cool having the whole family competing. My first climb went really well because I topped out along with 11 other girls out of the 17 that were there. My second climb did not go quite as well because the hold I fell off was not as good as I had hoped and I didn't manage to go back down to the previous hold when I realised that it was not very good because the previous hold was even worse. I was coming 3rd equal into the final. I still need to work on my foot work because in the final I didn't think about my feet at the point where I fell off. I came third after the final. After the competition when we were at home we watched the videos my dad had taken of our climbs in slow motion and it was really cool to see the points where Josiah fell off because of his feet slipping off holds.

Last weekend we went outdoors to Turakirae Head and I got a V3 called "Palmer's Garden World". Josiah got four new climbs including a V5 flash and V6. A flash means you get the route first go having seen people try the route before whereas an onsight means you haven't seen anybody try it and haven't been given beta about it.

Hopefully I will soon be able to post some of the photos that my grandparents took of me and my family at the competition.

The Hangdog comp

The Hangdog comp was really fun except for the fact that I got 8th which was quite sad, but one of my friends C got third in her grade and Josiah got second in his. Dad also came second in his grade placing him first equal in the series for his grade. Josiah is second in the series for his grade. Over all it was a very successful competition and I believe most of the people from out of town enjoyed it too.

My first qualifier was probably my best climb because I got to the second to last hold. I fell off because I didn't get my feet up high enough to reach the last hold. In my second qualifier my foot poped off a slopey little edge which I knew was insecure but I trusted it too much. My final was okay up to were I fell off when I seemed to forget that I had feet and just went for the next hold with my hand when my feet were too far down. J, the president of Climbing NZ, let Josiah enter Opens which was really cool. Josiah came 10th and impressed everybody with how well he climbed.

The next competition is in Rotorua. I am really exited about it. Me, Josiah and K, one of our climbing friends, are training really hard because we want to do better at the next comp.

Lots of Things Going On

My Sugar free month is finally over, yay! But I still won't be able to have much sugar because me and mum agreed that after our sugar free month we would only have sugar once a month for things like birthdays and other special events. I don't really miss sugar that much which is good because it means that I have pretty much broken the craving. The hardest part is when people offer me food with sugar.

On Friday we are going to a science fair in Johnsonville. I am doing a project called "How Dilute is Vinegar?". I wasn't going to do one but I decided recently to do one when I had nothing else to do on free-choice school-work day. My brother Josiah is doing a project about spiders and their webs, how much prey they catch and so on. It will be lots of fun. Apparently there are tons of people coming and a few of them are doing speeches, Josiah included. I am not doing one, though I might film Josiah's speech so that we have a record.



This is me stiring some vinegar into the baking soda when I was doing my experiment.

The climbing competition at Hangdog is coming up soon and I can hardly wait. It will be lots of fun and I am training really hard so that the climbs will be easier. The people in my grade are really good and there are lots of them, so I don't make a big thing about where I get or anything. I just enjoy the climbs and the company of all the climbers. Dad and me are planning to film some of the climbs and the climbers from our club.

The Hangdog Winter Boulder Series kicked off to a great start last fortnight and the second round is tonight. Our friend B is setting and hopefully he will set some really nice routes. I hope to do well in my grade and I want to get some hard problems.

Technicraft is nearly over. I only have three more weeks of woodwork and then it will be over. On the upside I won't have to get up early and bike on Tuesdays, and I'll have more time for my school work, but on the downside I won't get to have lots of fun making cool things in all the different classes. I will miss seeing all my freinds and doing the stuff.