MidP Mar. 3 - Southpointe Academy

New Zealand
This year some of the Grade 9’s traveled to New Zealand, and I was one of them. New Zealand
was a great experience! First thing we did when we got there was meet our homestay. In the
beginning I found it kind of boring and that first day I just wanted to go home, but then I
realized is wasn’t that bad. My homestay was really nice; she cooked food that I liked and took
me to a mall in Christchurch. After the weekend, we were off to camp for three days.
At camp we played challenge games, helped out the environment by pulling out wilding pines,
some of us went caving, then we camped overnight in tents. The next day we explored Castle
Hill Rocks and some of us tried rock climbing. That afternoon we had to raft to where we were
going to stay for the second night. It took 4 hours to raft there, and 3 hours again the next
morning. One thing I learned while rafting was that it really makes a difference if one person is
not rowing. We had to work together and we had to work hard. This was a once in a lifetime
experience. I really enjoyed staying there. Good luck to the Grade 9’s next year.
- Pooja Cheema