Who is William Pike?

Who Is William Pike?

 

Do you want to push your worries aside and skip to adventure? Then the William Pike Challenge is definitely for you.  The William Pike Challenge is all about learning how to get out of your comfort zone alongside your peers as well as developing leadership skills.  This programme was designed by William Pike.

 

William Pike, a teacher who was in a tragic accident, losing his right leg but not losing his passion for adventure had set himself goals from day one, to walk, to be a great teacher, and to go back up to the Dome Shelter where his injury occurred on Mount Ruapehu. William now encourages and helps many tangata (people) who are new to having prosthetic legs, etcetera.  This is how the William Pike challenge came about. 

 

The William Pike Challenge is a programme for year 6-9 students to get out of their comfort zone and to go out and explore the outdoors. The William Pike Challenge is great for your physical and mental wellbeing.  There are three tasks you need to complete to finish your challenge, passion, community service and outdoor activity.  

 

Do you want to develop a new skill?  Try the passion project.  For example we decided to develop a skill in parāoa (bread) making and drawing.  I (Aylah) made many loaves although my favourites were definitely fruit parāoa and focaccia parāoa.  The whole kitchen would smell like a bakery afterwards.   

For my passion project I (Zara) decided to choose drawing because I wasn’t the best at drawing and drawing is a good life skill to carry especially if I go into building or architecture for design. I am getting better but I definitely need more practice. 

 

Helping the hapori (community) always has a positive impact on both the people or nature you’re helping out and your moods.  We enjoy helping others at our kura by being in the library issuing and returning books, being in the p.e shed helping students get equipment to enjoy their break with, or even stopping traffic at road patrol.  Cleaning the beach and making you a tidy kiwi is a great feeling especially when you are doing it from the kindness of your house. 

 

Outdoor activities are always the cherry on top.  This is where you learn about yourself and others.  For one of our outdoor activities was a paihikara (bike) ride on the Mananui Wilderness trail as well as Hurunui Jacks.  Mananui was confirmed as the easiest trail out of the two.  Hurunui Jacks was definitely more uphill and harder terrain.  Although the ride back was amazing.  

 

Another highlight of the outdoor activities was the ski trip.  The ski trip at Porters was very exciting because we got to find our limits and then explore within their stages, making the slope very thrilling. The William Pike Challenge “makes everyday a good day .“

Tane and Ngā Kete o Matauranga Maori

Celebrating Te Wiki O Te Reo Māori

 

 

Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge 

 

Most iwi in Aotearoa have their own pūrākau (stories) around ngā atua

Māori (the Māori gods) and their triumphs. The pūrākau of ‘Tāne me ngā Kete o te Wānanga’ (Tāne and the Baskets of Knowledge) is no different. Here is one version of the narrative.

 

Io-matua-kore, the supreme being, summoned his heavenly guardians

– Rehua and Ruatau – to his sacred home in the highest of the twelve

heavens, Tikitiki-o-rangi. Io sent the guardians to earth to find which of

Ranginui and Papatūānuku’s sons could climb to Te Toi-o-ngā-rangi, the twelfth heaven, to fetch the baskets of knowledge and the sacred stones.

 

Rehua and Ruatau went to Tū-te-āniwaniwa, home of Whiro-te-tipua and Uru-te-nganganā. They asked Whiro how he would climb to Te Toi-o-ngā rangi. His answer did not satisfy Rehua and Ruatau, and he was told that he would fail and be overwhelmed by the winds.

 

Rehua and Ruatau then went to Wharekura and asked the same question of Tūmatauenga and others. None of their answers satisfied the two heavenly guardians either. 

When asked, Tāne answered that he would take heaven’s staircase and catch the clouds of Te Toi-huarewa. This answer pleased Rehua and Ruatau, and they carried Tāne to the spring at Maunganui. Here, he was anointed and named Tāne-nui-a-rangi (Great Tāne, offspring of Rangi). He was then told to begin his journey to get the baskets of knowledge.

 

Whiro was incredibly jealous of Tāne and tried to race ahead of him on the journey to Te Toi-o-ngā-rangi. Uru-te-nganganā told him that Tāne was the anointed one, but Whiro did not listen and set off through the heavens. Tāne climbed the heavens with Tāwhirimātea not far behind to help him.

 

Resentment and anger grew within Whiro.  Whiro had his militia of birds and insects, Te Tini-ā-poto, with him as he waited for Tāne at the entrance to Tikitiki-o-rangi. Twice, Whiro tried to stop Tāne by attacking him with Te Tini-ā-Poto,  including sandflies, spiders, wētā, and mosquitoes but the winds of Tāwhirimātea helped Tāne, and he made it to the entrance of Mātangireia. 

 

Here, he was met by Io-matua-kore and many whatukura and māreikura (the guardians of the heavens). Tāne was presented with three baskets of knowledge and two sacred stones.

 

Te Kete Aronui:

This is the basket of knowledge of aroha (love), peace and the arts

and crafts that benefit the Earth and all living things. It relates to

knowledge learned through careful observation of the environment and

has sometimes been called the basket of literature, philosophy and the

humanities. To some iwi, it is known as ‘te kete uruuru matua’.

 

Te Kete Tuauri:

This basket relates to the creation of the natural world and the realm

of the tohunga. It includes the knowledge of karakia. To some iwi, it is

known as ‘te kete uruuru rangi’.

 

Te Kete Tuatea:

This is the basket of ancestral knowledge of mākutu, whaiwhaiā and

evil, including war. It also includes agriculture, tree or woodwork,

stonework and earthworks. To some iwi, it is known as ‘te kete uruuru tau’.

 

Sacred Stones:

These stones were endowed with miraculous god-like powers. Their

names were Huka-tai and Rehu-tai. 

 

On his journey home, Tāne was again attacked by Whiro’s birds and insects. Tāwhirimātea came to his aid and blew the birds and insects back down to Earth, where they remain today. Tāne placed the baskets and stones in a house of knowledge known as ‘whare kura’.

 

Whiro still believed he should be the one to take care of them, but Tāne refused Whiro’s demands, and Whiro was eventually banished to the underworld. The baskets and stones allowed mankind to emerge into this world of enlightenment and understanding.

 

Since that time, Tāne has received many other names, such as Tāne-matua, Tāne-te-waiora, Tāne-te-torokaha, Tāne-tahurangi, Tāne-maiki-roa, and many other names.

 

Pātai:

  1. What are the names of the heavenly guardians summoned by Io-matua-kore? 
  • Rehua
  • Rehutai
  • Hukatai
  • Ruatau

✅✅

  1. Number the events from 1-4 to show the order in which they happened.
  • 4.Tāne received the three baskets of knowledge and two sacred stones at Te Toi-o-ngā-rangi.
  • 2.Whiro decided to beat Tāne even though he was not the chosen one.
  • 1.Rehua and Ruatau liked Tāne’s answers and carried him to the spring at Maunganui. 
  • 3.Tāwhirimātea blew Te Tini-ā-Poto back to Earth, where they remain.

 

  1. Fill in the missing word.

Tāne received the name Great Tane, offspring of Rang at the spring of Maunganui.✅✅

  1. Who is Io-matua-kore? 

Io-matua-kore is the supreme being who summoned Ruatau and Rehua to one of his Heavens.✅✅

  1. Who helped Tāne on his journey and protected him from Te Tini-ā-poto?

On his long journey Tāwhirimātea helped Tāne and made sure that the birds sent did not hurt him.✅✅

 

  1. Summarise the story in 50 words or less.

This pūrākau is all about the tale of how Tāne went on a journey to take the baskets of knowledge and two sacred stones to return them to Whare Kura. But Whiro kept on bugging him till he finally got them to the Whare Kura.✅✅

 

  1. Explain what each of the baskets of knowledge represents.

One basket represents love, peace and arts this one is called Te Kete Aronui✅✅

 , Te Kete Tuauri represents the creation of the natural world and the realm of tohunga. ✅✅

While the other one, Te Kete Tuatea is all about ancestral knowledge of mākutu and tree or woodwork.✅✅

 

  1. Why do you think Whiro wanted Tāne to fail? I think Whiro wanted Tāne to fail because he was mad that he wasn’t chosen and that Tāne was chosen instead.✅✅

 

  1. Why do you think Rehua and Ruatau asked the men how they would journey through the heavens because they wanted to know if they were choosing a person capable of something so extreme.✅✅

 

  1. Why do you think the pūrākau of Tāne and the baskets of knowledge is important? I think that it is important because it is a meaningful story that tells the tale of the three baskets of knowledge and how Tāne became Great Tāne.✅✅

 

  1. Somewhere in our kura exist elements of this pūrākau. Put on your thinking pōtae and locate that place and take a photograph of Huka-tai and Rehu-tai.  Add that image into your reading response, ka pai. 

 

Te Wiki o Te reo Maori

Mountain’s Life

 

To my right, te pae maunga standing tall

I look down, small pieces of greywake take a fall

As I think, some tāngata walk below

They turn and, look at my glamorous snow 

I stand teitei and whakakake

 

I hear a voice say that I look like a tremendous gemstone

They look like a stem

To my left, I see ngahere and beautiful birds

I hear someone yell out, “Nerds!”

I spin around, a splendid lake, Lake Tikitapu peers back at me

 

I am glad about my view from the top

I get bored so in my mind I come up with a bop

I hear birds singing their beautiful songs

They think they can do no wrong

Oh, how I love being a mountain! 

– Zara

 

 

Ski Trip 2025

2025 Ski Trip
One sunny Wednesday, Me and my class went skiing and while it was all really fun this was my favourite part.

My favourite part was when we went up the chair lift in a big group. This was the group: Lachie S, Lachy M, Me, Caleb, Chase, Lochlan, Cassidy and Millie. I think that this was a good group because all of us had been up at least once, but I think that only two had been on once or twice and the rest of us had been on it a couple times.

The run started off with people crashing after getting off the chair lift and finally making our way over to the edge of the run. Then some of them immediately regretted their decision to go this far up and thinking that they couldn’t make it all the way down.

We started by attempting to get everyone to be brave enough to attempt to go down and after a while and a lot of falls we were about 1/10 of the way down. We told the others that they could go down but they only went down a little bit and they waited just off to the side until Lachy fell again and his ski came off and started to charge down the mountain at incredible speed. Luckily we yelled out and Millie jumped out and grabbed the ski just in time. He then bum shuffled his way down to them and put his ski back on.

The others decided to leave so it was just Me, Cassidy, Lachy and Lisa. Me and Cassidy decided to wait for just a bit, after a few minutes Cassidy picked up some snow and threw it at me but luckily I caught it and I threw it right back to her and amazingly she caught it so we started to go back and forth throwing a snowball at each other. We didn’t always catch it though, sometimes when we missed it wouldn’t break and it would just fall to the ground while other times it completely fell apart. After a while lachy was getting the hang of it and so me and Cassidy thought that we would leave then so we said that we would see them at the bottom and off we went.

Cassidy was faster than me so I was skiing by myself which I kinda like because I don’t have to wait for anyone and I can just think, and focus on skiing rather than helping or waiting for anyone. I looked down about half way down the mountain and as I squinted my eyes I could see Cassidy way down the mountain. I was coming down to the Poma and then I started to go down the Poma. I looked to my left and waved at some of the other kids from our school as I started to turn to my right. I heard Jayla shout out my name. I waved and then went over the jump. I got to the end and came to a stop and then went over to the Poma line and went on that.

That was definitely my favourite part because it was just kinda fun and was a nice run and definitely recommend it for other people because it is just really fun!

– Zara

Extremism Article

Extremism

 

We strongly believe that the article NZSIS is not taking security threats seriously enough. We think that up till now the NZSIS has been protecting all of the vulnerable people in New Zealand enough but they let their guard down just recently which caused the security breach. Andrew Hampton who is the director-general of security said that the deteriorating environment had a massive impact on safety and security of New Zealand. We think that this is a great article because it raises awareness to the public about the vulnerability of different companies, children and schools.

 

Bike Recount

Bike Riding

A couple of weeks ago on the 30th of July my class went on a big bike ride called Mananui for a couple of hours. In this recount I will be talking about the journey to and from and the actual bike riding, down to every stop. 

 

On the day of the bike ride I woke up and remembered that we had the bike ride today, luckily I had already got my dad to check and fix my bike over the weekend so that it was spick and spam for wednesday. I jumped out of bed, walked into the living room, said hi to Bryny and continued walking into the kitchen where I put myself on some toast, grabbed my bag from behind the counter and put my lunch box and drink bottle into it whichI had packed and put in the fridge the night before. I then put butter and vegemite on my toast and walked back into my room to eat my toast and get changed into my clothes when a text popped up on my phone screen, I checked it and it turns out it was from Emily asking me if I wanted to bike to school together, I said sure and told her that I would leave and try to get to her house around 8:10. 

 

So I rushed to get ready and eat my toast just in time to leave at 8:05 and be at Emily’s at exactly 8:10. Just as I arrived she was bringing her bike to the gate and then we headed down the hill and to the crossing. From there we rode our bikes up the hill, well technically she did and I just pushed mine but we both made it up to school. 

 

When we got to school we went and asked where to put our bikes and we were told to go and put them in Cleve’s trailer so I pushed my bike over to cleve and he loaded it in his trailer. Soon enough more people were arriving and in no time we were leaving at 8:30. I was in Mienke’s mum’s car along with Mienke, Millie and Lydia, somehow I ended up in the middle which wasn’t actually as bad as I thought it would be. It was a long ride but didn’t feel as long as it actually was. 

 

While everyone else was talking I was thinking about what the bike ride would be like and how long it was actually going to take us to bike the entire thing. I was also thinking about how nice my sleep would be that night. Little did I know I would be absolutely covered in mud and saturated. 

 

All of a sudden we were pulling into the parking space of the walk. We all got out and I walked over to Cleve’s trailer to get my bike and then I realised that I had left my helmet in the car so I had to walk all the way back to the car just to grab my helmet.  I walked all the way back to the trailer and grabbed my bike up off the ground because they had been taking the bikes out and setting them down on the grass flat beside the trailer. I then walked over to Emily and Cassidy and we just kinda stayed there for a while and predicted how long it was going to take us and if anyone had been on that track before. 

 

Soon enough Jayla came over to join us and after about five minutes of talking together Ms Kemp told us to get into our groups. They were supposed to be groups of three but somewhere only two because people were sick. It was supposed to be Me, Millie and Kora, but Kora was away so it was only me and Millie. Then we started off down the track, it was completely straight for a while until we came around a corner and over a little bridge then we stopped and waited for everyone to catch up. We were then off and after just a little while we came to the water bridge thingy and it was narrow but not too narrow and even though I almost fell off once or twice I made it to the end completely dry so I guess that was a win. 

 

We stopped just after that at a tiny little bridge and again we were off down the track. Soon enough Jayla caught up to me and we just rode at our own pace and talked about what we had with us for lunch and what we thought the weather was going to do. We both thought it was going to rain. And after a while we stopped again and everyone put on their rain jackets because it had started to spit and was about to rain. We also grabbed a drink and a snack because we were at the front and it was gonna take everyone else a while to catch up. After what felt like years of waiting for everyone else we finally started to go again, I dropped back because I had to do up my jacket but then I was off. 

 

It was getting bumpier and it felt like there were just more and more turns but I kept on going. After ages we finally stopped again but it was barely a stop because after a couple of seconds we started to ride again. After what felt like five swimming pools worth of rain falling on me we finally made it to the end where we were allowed to eat but I chose not to because I didn’t want all my food to get soaked. After a break we started back which felt like it took five minutes compared to the ride there. I was just biking along when all of a sudden Jayla came up behind me and said to me “ Go Zara you can do it!” and my response was “ Yes I can do it!” so I zoomed up ahead of her and to the end of the track and as soon as I got back to where the cars were I hopped off my bike and took it over to Cleve where he again loaded it into his trailer. 

 

I then walked over to Emily, Aylah and Isla who were having a snack and joined them by also having a snack and talked about how it was clear so we were most likely going to do Hurunui Jacks. Then Jayla came over and said to me how I just left her and I said that I was sorry for leaving her. Soon enough everyone was back and sure enough we were off on our way to Hurunui Jacks and we were the second people there because we took a shortcut, after a while everyone was wandering around in the car park waiting for their bike and then we were lining up and heading off down the track. 

 

Then after a couple of minutes of straights we stopped at the dam and then started again. After a while we had to go through some water and then up a big long windy part until we got to the end then we just turned back around and headed back. When we got back to the cars we put our bikes back and headed back to school and then we went home.

 

Altogether I think that this bike ride was a very pleasant experience and has some great life lessons and I hope to do something like this again in the future.

 

-Zara