The regional track and field athletics day took place in Paeroa, which took us about an hour an a half to get to there. There were probably about 6 or 7 schools participating and each having at least 25 students per school so Manaia school was a little out numbered. When we got there Holly and I were asking if they trained all year for this and we were told that some of the schools did but because of the lack of resources, Manaia school relied on their students raw, natural talent. Last year they had a student who had never even picked up a javelin before he competed in the junior javelin competition and he ended up breaking the record on his first throw, they believed throwing rocks in the water was his training. He went to the next level of competition and won that and then went to the North Island Championships and his nerves seemed to get the best of him so he “only” placed fourth. Pretty good for a guy who had never threw a javelin before in our opinion! Martin was telling us a story about how they helped him train for the North Island Championships, the have a cow field next to the school so they went over there with a javelin they had borrowed and they had one of the kids keep the cows back while the student threw the javelin. Apparently they had a few close calls with the cows.
We can’t get down close to watch the shot-put competition but the other boys came back to tell us that one of our students won the junior competition, the guy who won was so nonchalant about the whole thing he didn’t even tell us. The same student went to compete in the junior javelin competition and ended up beating the student who won last year’s record! Needless to say, he also won that event, you almost felt bad for the other competitors because there was no competition.
The student who had won the junior competition the year before was now in the intermediate level. It was a lot closer competition... Until the end. On his last throw, the student from our school threw it so long, the crowd got quiet and you could just hear a ooooh from the spectators. You knew from the minute it landed, he also won his division. All in all, it was a great day for Manaia school and their lack of resources and natural talent.
Just before the end of the day, we see this truck drive into the athletics area and start setting up tents. Turns out they had the Rugby World Cup with them, of course we venture over and get pictures. I didn’t even know what it was and had to ask if it was actually the world cup that I was getting my picture with. Apparently it was a pretty big deal because one of the chaperones freaked out when it found out with was there and borrowed Holly’s camera to get pictures with it. Then to be sure he was the only one to have pictures, he wouldn’t let the students go see it before we left! He was still bragging about it today! As we were leaving, we also got to see the New Zealand Silver Ferns Netball (not to be confused with nipple) coach doing drills with a team in the Netball court. It was a big day for us seeing New Zealand’s big sports stuff!
We all piled back in the bus and the G-Roll and made our way back home. It was late and we had a feeling we had a bit of sun stroke as we were ready to pass out. That night we found out just how badly and weirdly Holly got burnt, to this day it looks like her ankle is completely bruised but it’s just the pattern in which she was burnt with what looks like second degree burns. Don’t worry though, she took some aloe straight from the aloe plant in a deserted house by the place we were staying, it seemed to do the trick. Right now, it’s sitting in the fridge just in case. The sun here is nothing you’ve ever experienced, you burn so quickly and easily, even with sunscreen on, forget moisturizer in the morning, we’ve switched straight to sunscreen.
Friday started like a normal day, nothing too crazy, we got to spend the afternoon taking pictures of the school and the new buildings that are going up. Some of the staff invited us to the local pub to see a band from Auckland that night and we thought about going, that is until we got back to the cottage only to realize Holly had forgotten her jacket at school which wouldn’t be so bad except that it had the only key to the cottage we had in it. We should have taken that as a sign that it was going to be an interesting weekend. We hiked it back in town to hopefully reach the real estate lady to see if she had a spare and thankfully she did. We were getting super tired so we got some supper in town and made our way back to the cottage to put our stuff away. Once we got back we were too tired to hike it back in town again to see the band so we settled in for the night. This is when we turn on the TV to see the devastation in Japan. We were stunned at the images we were seeing and felt completely horrible for everyone there, little did we know at the time, we should also be worried. All of a sudden, flashing across the TV, it reads, Tsunami Warning for New Zealand. Holly and I just look at each other wondering if we are really seeing what we are seeing. That is when panic starts to set it, it doesn’t get any better when we see the trajectory patterns and it’s headed straight for the Northern part of the North Island. WE PRACTICALLY LIVE ON THE BEACH!! Once we realize this is really real, we decide we should figure out what to do. We wonder if this kind of thing is normal, no one seems to be panicking but as we found out, everyone is at the pub watching rugby and listening to the band so no one is home on a Friday night! We figure Rose, our neighbor, might be home and maybe she would know what to do so maybe we should go ask her. It’s pitch black outside and we don’t even have a light on our deck. We look everywhere for flashlights and of course there aren’t any. We get to the tip of Rose’s driveway and it’s so dark neither of us can bring ourselves to venture down. We then decide to see in Ellen, the neighbor up the hill is home and as we get to her long, dark and twisty driveway that we also can’t bring ourselves to venture up, the water pump on the road beside us makes this weird noise freaking us out and sending us running back to the other side of the road. I get in our gate when Holly yells, “What’s that?!?” and locks me in the yard with whatever it was, thankfully for me, it was only the tire of the boat trailer. We get back inside and start pacing back and forth, all of a sudden Holly says, “I know this might sound crazy, but if this thing is coming, I’m getting in the boat (in our yard).” I look at her and say, “Yeah, you are crazy but I’ll go with you.” She figures it will float so it was probably our best option. Needless to say we don’t get much sleep that night. We kind of sleep in shifts, we’re constantly checking the TV and Civil Defense internet updates. Finally somewhere between 5-6am, they say that it will only be minor land threats and to stay out of the water, off the beaches and no sightseeing. The worst of it will hit the most Northern tip of the North Island and it will only bring in waves about a meter high. We start breathing sighs of relief although we’re still pretty tense, it wasn’t until the finally canceled the Tsunami watch at 5 that evening that we finally start to relax.
We survived our first Tsunami warning and never want to experience anything like that ever again... Ever.
Saturday we went to see a rugby game, my first ever, which some of the teachers and students from the school were playing in. It was pretty neat and we also seen a lot of kids from school while there. As we were walking back we could get these kids yelling something and when they finally got close enough it turns out they were yelling Canada! They wanted to say Hi but could remember our names! We were pretty tired from our crazy night so we the rest of the weekend was spent doing laundry and relaxing. Now hopefully we’ve seen the worst although with Holly and I you just never know!
To Be Continued...
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