Our Living History Museum Trip

Our Living History Museum Trip…

We stepped back in time to experience the lives of the people who settled in H.B. over 100 years ago.  We found out how things were done in the past by role playing chores, games and pastimes, all in old style clothes from that time.  Life was hard work!!!

 Gaynor was our teacher for the afternoon.  Look at her big underwear over the chair.  They were big, baggy button-up bloomers with a frill. 

 Gaynor told us a little history of NZ.  Early settlers travelled from across the world on big ships to settle in NZ.  Many settlers came to clear the land and farm. 

 The land was cleared by hand.  Bushmen used simple tools to cut down the forests that covered the land.

They built simple houses out of whatever materials were available – some even out of river rocks, mud, flax and raupo leaves.   

 We dressed up in the clothes that the early settler children wore.

Girls learned to curtsy. 

 Boys learned to bow.  These were formal ways to greet people.

 Gaynor showed us how they made candles.  Here she is pouring melted bees wax into a candle mould.  The wick is threaded through and knotted at end to hold it in place while the candles set.

 Stilts were a popular pastime.

 Clothes were scrubbed on a wash board like this.

 Dripping washing was put through a wringer to get most of the water out.  Washing took all day.

 Knuckle bones has been a favourite game hundreds of years.

 Ironing was a laborious job of heating the irons on a stove.

 This is a bath tub.  Water would be heated on the stove if you were lucky.

 A hand operated sewing machine was a real luxury.

 Old scales for weighing things.

 We practised writing in the old fashioned handwriting style.

 Spinning Tops and Cup and Ball .

Quoits using a horse shoe.

 Sucking dirt off the floor with hand vacuum was exhausting.

 Everyone took turns to whisk the cream into butter.  People would often sing to help pass the time while working.  We sang:

Come butter come,

Come butter come,

Peter stands at the gate

Waiting for his butter cake,

Come butter come.

 Marbles.

 More wringing of the wet washing!

 Here is the candle Gaynor made.  It smelled of buttery honey.

Abby wound up the gramophone and Gaynor played a very old record.  The music was very old fashioned.

Here we are dancing to the music.

At the end of our visit we waited to taste the butter we’d made.  Gaynor made some fresh sandwiches.   The butter was very creamy. 

We all enjoyed our trip back in time and we learned a lot about how early settlers lived in NZ.  We are pretty glad to be living in 2014!!

Puketapu in the Past

Our Inquiry this term is 'Puketapu in the Past'.

N.B.  The information below came from some notes Roger Alexander made nearly 10 years ago titled
'A Brief History of Puketapu.'  Thank you Roger!

Puketapu was the gateway to the inland Patea, Puketitiri and Patoka areas.  Puketapu played a very important part in the development of the back country of Hawke’s Bay and was settled very early.  It was also the head quarters for the Armed Constabulary during the Maori Wars.  Puketapu takes its name from a small hill about a mile downstream from the bridge which was once the scene of a bloody massacre and later used as a buriel site – Puke = hill and Tapu = sacred – Puketapu = sacred hill!

Look at these photos... 

 The original school building.  The school was started in 1864 by a Mr Hardies.  No records of the school were kept until 1886 when a Mrs Oliver took over and she remained sole teacher of the school for 12 years.  The school roll was 30  in 1890. The school was also used for public meetings, dances and church services.  1924 was eventful – in March flash storms flooded the Tutaekuri and Ngaruroro rivers and destroyed several homes in Puketapu and on April 30, at 5 o-clock in the morning, the school was burned down.  

 The Puketapu Village consisted of a two storey hotel, a two storey general store, a blacksmith shop, a saddlery, a flax mill and a wool scour which was in the Apley Stream a mile up Dartmoor Road.  The school house is to the far right of the photo.

 The Puketapu Hotel became the breakfast stop for coaches and wagons, and it was here that salt was washed from the under carriages following the many tidal crossings from Napier.  Fresh horses were often hitched ready for the long drag up the Tutaekuri riverbed with many crossings, then up River Road to Otamauri,then on to Kuripapanga.

Some writing samples - Holiday Recounts

WALT make our writing really interesting and easy for the reader to picture what’s happening in their mind.

Title – ‘The Best and Worst of My  Holidays’.

Focus – Create an interesting beginning and different sentence beginnings.

          - Use lots of descriptive words to describe things/people/feelings/events, etc.

I yelled to Dad, “arhhhhhh!  There’s a possum in the trap!”  The possum’s leg bled hard out.  The traps that we used were leg hole traps.  They were hard to find and really hard to set.  There was blood everywhere.  It was fun plucking their fur.

As I got up every morning Mum would say, “wash the floors, do the dishes, do the vacuuming.”  I hate doing the chores.  That was the worst part of my holidays.

Written by Sam

One big swing, 100 meters up.  Bradin pulled the cord!  “Ahhhh!”  I was so scared – the go-carting would be more for me and less scary!  “Oh no!”  I couldn't go on the go-carts.  ”Rats!” I whispered to Bradin.  The go-carts are for kids who are 12 and up. But I went to the Luge and to see a 4D movie.  I had jelly beans that tasted like peach.  It was nice.

Written by Joel

It was pouring and pouring.  It was a yucky, horrible day.  I was so bored.  There was hardly anything to do.  My dad was in bed of course.  My mum was doing the laundry obviously.  I was sitting by the window with the hot body of my warm dog by my side.  I yelled, “Mum, can we go down to the Four Square?”  Mum said no.  I sighed.

The next day it was back to school.  I was glad to see my mates again.

Written by Angus

“Aaaaaah!!!  Waaaaah!!!  Ow!!!”  I screamed as the injection went in.  It was a flu injection.  I hated it.  It hurt for two days.

Three days later… “Yaaaaay!!!”  Mum and I were going to Palmerston North.  We went shopping at the plaza.  I got a Rhino jacket.  Mum got some T.Shirts.  After the plaza we went to our friend’s house.  They have a dog called Jo Jo.  She was so cute!!!  My mum is usually cheerful, but she got sleepy.  She went to bed before I did!

Written by Ella

“Ah!”  Mum was screaming on all the rides that she went on and Annalise closed her eyes on all of the rides.  The Invader was my favourite because it went up and you could see a lot of Rainbows End.  The next ride we went on was called Fear Fall.  It went up and down and stopped half way.  The next ride I kept banging my head so we had to go.

Written by Timmy

I woke up thinking about school – another day of hard work.  As I opened the bold curtains I forgot about the school and thought about the fun holidays – the wonderful fun, the bright smiles.

I got ready for Sophie’s.  I scattered to my clothes.  First underwear, t-shirt, pants and shoes, breakfast.  30 minutes later Dad drove Hannah and I up the bumpy, rocky drive.  I felt magnificent, excellent.  When we got there, there was a monstrous amount of rain. That was my half good, half bad holiday.

Written by Molly

“Aaaaaaaah!”  I skied down the mountain.  I down the medium slope slowly the first time.  Next time I picked up some speed.  Later I nearly zoomed down the big steep mountain with no poles!  I did not even fall over.  While I followed Jack over top of his S’s I screamed as I thought I was going to crash into some garage wall, but I controlled my skiing.  Just as well Dad yelled out, “watch out!” to warn me.  I went down again but I fell over.  Dad fell over too, then he stood up , but he rolled over again!  It was really funny!  We timed ourselves going down and up on the chairlift.  I took 15 minutes.  On our last lap I went round some poles like Dad and Jack did.  I did one ‘Air”, that’s when you jump up in the air while skiing.

The worst thing was when I went on the ferry.  The waves were four to five meters high.  Me and Jack did not have a good time!!  Annika said she did not get a sore stomach like we did!  Humph!

Written by Greer

I ripped open my presents.  I got just what I wanted – a pink diamond holter for my beautiful grey pony Doe Vaangi, two sets of jeans, one top and some other pants.  I had some jeans on and my new top when Mum said we were off to the movies.  Zaymia came.  We had to pick her up from her house.  On the way we went to the supermarket.  We bought a Pick n Mix and a cold drink each.  We were off to the movies.

We walked in the door.  It smelled so good, like pop-corn.  We were going to see the Pirate Fairy.  Mum got us a medium cup of pop-corn and the usher told us we were in Cinema 1.  After the movie I said to Mum, “you spoiled us too much.”  Zaymia stayed the night.  We stayed up so late.

The miserable part of my holidays would have to be…just having one person for my birthday.  It was good and bad.  The good was we got lollies, pop-corn and a cold drink.  We wouldn’t have got all that stuff if I had two friends for my birthday!

Written by Makayla

    Wahoo!  I was zooming around the Superbowl in Hanmer Springs, breezing through the air.  Me and my cousins, my brother and sister were going down the fabulous, cruising water slides, except Pippa, she was hanging out with Dad in the boiling hot pools.  There was one slide that everyone could go down – the Tuatara.  That slide was awesome because when you hit the bottom you bounce up in the air like a kangaroo.

     I couldn’t stand it!  I was walking around at Motocross like a ‘loomy’.  I was so bored.  All I could do was watch Motocross, until I looked at the board.  Oscar’s race was cancelled, so I’d come here for nothing!!!  I needed to see Mum to tell her something, so I ran down the centre, but my Uncle Greg stopped me because the motocross riders were coming.  But he did say that I could cross at the starting line, so I did.  But when I was half way across the dirt went all muddy and my gumboot fell off.  So I was walking in the dirt with one foot bootless!  When I got to the other side my gumboot had been run over by the motocross riders.  I had to go back to pick it up.  I walked over to Mum and helped her pick up the riders that fell off their bikes!!

      Written by Amber

No!  Gardening!  Another day gardening!  Tom and I got up.  Eleven gigantic, smelly poo wheel barrows!  We got two spades and headed off to the enormous poo pile.                                                                                                     

Yes!  We were going to the Montana Horse Event.  We got our free drinks and sausages.  Finally it was my turn to ride Hori.  As I went into the first jump Hori started to go faster into the jump that was 50 centimetres and at the end I won a spot prize.  It was a Farmlands hat and a $20 gift voucher to spend at Farmlands too.  I spent the money on dog treats, 30 nails and a bucket.

Written by Annie

Grandad pushed me in the buggy as we chased Daniel all over the paddock on his motor bike.  I was doing donuts in the buggy and Grandad got horse poos splattered all over his jeans.  It was Jon Jon’s or Jaz’s poos.It was funny and I laughed at Grandad.  At the end of the holiday I was sad because Mum and dad went away with Uncle Stu and Aunty Bec.  Jane went too.  They went on a plane.  Gang Gang, Gloria and Emma all looked after us.  I miss my mum and dad.

Written by Jack M.

It was Friday of the second week of the holidays.  Only three more days of freedom.  We all lazily got up and had breakfast.  Mum said Hannah had invited Caitlin over and that Molly and Ella could come to our house.  It ended up all the Lawson girls came to our house.  We all played ‘Truth or Dare’.  One of Molly’s dares was to brush my teeth!  After that we all went up the hill to our house which is still being built.  We went inside.  I got to open up the front door of our house.  We went upstairs and onto the deck.  Back down at the caravans we played ‘Truth or Dare’ again.  Molly was ‘Cherry’, I was ‘Girraffe’, Ella was ‘Uni the Unicorn’, Lauryn was ‘Uni-kitty’, Caitlyn was ‘Perry’, Hannah was ‘Coconuts’ and Amy was ‘Harry’.  Amy chose ‘truth’ every time.  After that they went home.

Written by Sophie

I was excited when we got to Wellington but it was pouring and pouring.  We had Chinese for dinner.  The next day we got to pick up my aunty’s new car.  With my mum we played on the beach and I flew over a lake on a flying fox.

Written by Jack B.

When we paid at the counter of the zoo I smelled the air.  It smelt like bird poo!  William said the tuataras were over where he was but he was wrong.  We saw about 35 animals.  My favourite animal was the cheetah.  He wasn’t doing much, just walking around.  The meerkats scattered away when we approached.  They were like flying bullets.  When we had to go home to our house I hid in a box and my friends covered me up so I wouldn’t have to leave.  Mum suddenly found me.  We had t leave.

Written by Stanley

“We’re finally here!” I screamed.  Ther we were parked outside the amazing, the unbeatable Inflatable World.’  I was running, skipping, hopping and heading straight for the gigantic obstacle course.  I started climbing to slide down the slide, through the tunnels.  At the end of the slide I thought to myself, “that was super dooper amazing!”  My favourite part was the humongous slide.  “Hmmm, what should I go on next?”  I wondered to myself.  The giant slide.  Up the steps I went.  Down the slide I went.  “Weeeeeee!”  It was the happiest time of my life.                                                           I was lying in bed not wanting to get up.  I didn’t want to have to do the chores!  Such a terrible word!  I just pretended I was still asleep.  What a brilliant plan!  I couldn’t and would not do the chores!   

Written by Olivia

It was magnificent.  I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Hobbitville was amazing.  The characters were the Hobbit, the dwarves, the trolls and the houses.  Inside felt like the real thing.  They were flat, the windows were round and so were the doors.  Back home it was pouring with fierceness while watching Giggly T.V.

Written by Bayly

“Yes I got a spare!” I screamed excitedly.  We were at bowling.  I was coming last, of course.  Dad was winning.  He got three strikes!  I was up.  I was determined to win.  I picked up the ball.  It was too heavy for me, so I had to push it off the ground!  I got a… a… gutter ball!  But I kept on trying.  I got the ball, pushed it, then… I got a spare!  I spun round, did a little dance and ran to sit down.  It was the last round.  I was coming 3^rd.  Mum picked up her ball and got a… 7!  I was out of the game, but it was still a blast at bowling.  I enjoyed it so much.                                                           The worst part of my holiday… “Nooooo, I want to go!” I screamed.  My brother and my dad were going to the movies, but they weren’t taking me!  I was furious as I screamed and kicked.  But they went anyway and to make matters worse my pasta was all wrong, plus there wasn't any movie to watch at home.

Written by Abby

“It’s FREEZING Ruby,” my cousin Zack cried.  Half his body was under water, but I was swimming around with my whole body under water including my head!  We were at Ocean Spa in the cold pool which I think should be called… ‘THE FREEZING POOL OF DOOM, DOOM, DOOM.”  The hot pool was like the warmth of the West or something like that.  It tingled our skin and we soon ran back to the cold pool.              The worst part of my holidays was having to go to Mum’s meetings.  They were two hours long!

Written by Ruby

My journey had begun.  15 minutes in the car from Moteo to my mum and dad’s fascinating house.  I screamed as I slowly walked into the best house I’ve ever seen in the world.  After two minutes Papa went home.  We had to back home to get some ingredients.  We woke up at 3am.  We watched movies all day.  At the end of the day we played some games.  My favourite game was ‘Zombie.’                                         Oh no! The last day of the best holiday.

Written by Mariah

I was so excited to see my cousin run down to open their gate.  We had arrived.  I sprinted with excitement to see him.  I got punched in the tummy, then shot in the eye which throbbed for two days!  We stayed for an hour and then we left to find our motor camp.  That was a sad bit.  On Sunday it was time to go back to Napier, so we had to say goodbye!                                                                                              

The worst part about my holidays was not being able to go to Makayla’s birthday.  It was so exciting for her thinking I would be going, until Mum said that we were going away!  It was really disappointing.  We got her a present anyway.  I gave her a friendship bracelet.

Written by Simone

Oh no!  On Sunday my nanny died.  I was very, very sad.  My dad was at her house.  She was fast asleep and something happened.  Her heart just stopped and Dad was very, very sad.  Even Mum and Grandad.  When Mum got home she told us.  She started to cry.  Next thing I know Elliott’s crying.  Tomorrow I am going to her funeral.                                                                                                              Finally we were at the movies.  The movie was called ‘How to Train Your Dragon 2.’  Yippeeee!  The movie started.  It started.  It took a long, long time.  Wow!  The Alpha dragon struck down another huge dragon.  Finally the movie finished.  I was very hot and stunned.

Written by Bryn     

Wow!  It’s my favourite day, July 15^th, my birthday.  I am turning amazing nine!  I got some sweet as stuff, like an owl pad, page pals to mark my favourite page in a book and Nerf Rebell, it’s a type of gun but fake.  Then we went to Birdwoods.  There are so many lollies to choose from.  Birdwoods is a lolly shop.  It made my mouth water staring at all the lollies.  We went to look at Grammy’s and Poppa’s house.  It was so cold, but cool.  We went home and made my cake.  It was yum.                                                                                 The next day the worst thing happened!  “Zaymia,” my mum called.  “Clean your room!”

Written by Zaymia 

One wonderful afternoon travelling far on the road to Hamilton, I desperately moaned, “are we almost there?”    

At last we arrived at Lisa and Jeremy’s house.  “Phew”, I said as the Nelson’s marched through their door.  Surprisingly the Speir family were there too.  “Rock Walls tomorrow,” Mum said.  I snuggled in my cosy bed.

Trip home… I sat watching a boring movie – Madagasca 2.  Finally… home after the most boring trip ever.  I waited for Dad to unpack and bring the firewood upstairs.  Tomorrow it was back to school.

Written by Riley

R.r.r.r.r as I rolled the bowling ball down the bumpers.  I rolled again and I almost got a Strike.  A strike is when you bowl all of the pins over at once.  You will be close to winning if you get one or more than three pins.  You have more than one turn.  It was Mum’s turn.  She got a strike and so did Dad.  It was amazing.

We had to take Josh to his house.  It was pouring down with annoying rain.  We had to tidy our bedrooms.  It was borrrrrring.  I was bored to death with having to tidy my bedroom.

Written by Zac

On Monday the 7^th July it was my birthday and we went hunting.  Off, off, off and away we went – Dad, Poppy, the ponies and I, of for an adventure.  We arrived at the hunt and parked the float.  I was thrilled because our friends were there.  We tacked up our ponies and went and had something to eat.  Soon we were off up the hills.  It was so exhilarating!!!  I sighted when Dad said it was time to go in for breakfast, which is really dinner, so we went in and got our ponies ready to go home.  Poppy and I raced each other to the hay bales.  Dad called us to come and have something to eat, then to help load the ponies.  Oh!  I never wanted to leave.

Written by Lily 

HHHHH!  When can we go home?  Nana knew we were going to have a power cut, so I got in the bath and… ‘ZZZZZP’ – the lights went out!  They turned back on. 

“What day is it?” I wondered.  Nana said it was Sunday.  My mum was coming home from America.  She brought Me and Tamsyn presents.  Mum roared up the drive.  I jumped out like a rocket.  I got three t-shirts and seven boxes of lollies.

Written by Luke

On the highest mountain in Taupo, the ski field was filled with snow and people.  We got our skis, our poles and we all rushed to the snow.  Then Dad said that us kids had to have a lesson before we went up the hill.  So we had a two hour lesson, but the hard thing was when it was almost your turn you would slip down to the back of the line.  In no time we were up the hill and back in line for our next turn.  It was a little hard to get the hang of it, but in the end we all got it.  Nothing could stop Oscar now!  You would see him for two seconds then he would be back at the end of the line for his next turn.  The Fort Lift was to get people up the hill, then to catch the goat.  When we got to the top we had a nice warm Hot Chocolate.  We had the best time. 

The worst thing was the long ride home.

Written by Georgie  

  

Refuse Centre and Landfill Excursion

To conclude our Environment Inquiry we went to the Refuse Transfer Station on Henderson Road in Flaxmere and then on to the Landfill.

A refuse transfer station (RTS) is a place where the public, including businesses and industries, can get rid of their waste.  It is a station where rubbish is stored and sorted before to its transferred to the rural landfill.

Dominic was our teacher for the morning.  He knows everything about the Refuse Centre and the Landfill!  

Dominic started by showing us all the different sorts of plastics there are.  Most plastic containers can be recycled.  They are graded 1 -7 and marked with the recycling triangle symbol.  If the number is higher than 7 it can't be recycled, like the new Anchor milk bottle that you can't see through.  If there is no number it can't be recycled either.  Meat trays cannot be recycled because they are contaminated with animal blood.  Did you know you can recycle your yoghurt containers?  Did you also know that normal plastic milk bottles are recycled and made into polar fleece?!

We found out that if you live in the country and don't have your rubbish collected by a council rubbish truck you can get these orange bags from the council, fill them with your rubbish and drop them at the Refuse Station for free.  They are then taken to the landfill. 

The big sign on this bin tells people all the things Dominic was telling us about at the beginning - you can put in milk bottles, drink bottles, tin cans, aluminium cans and any containers with the recycle sign 1 -7.

This is a waste oil container.  They use it to make more plastic. 

The different coloured bottles are kept separate because they don't change colour when they are recycled.

Did you know that glass is made out of sand and that when they recycle it its just about turned back into sand before been made into another glass thing?!

These three pictures show things that have been separated from the rubbish so they can be reused.  They have set up a shop with things people don't want to keep any more but they think are too precious to throw out.  Dominic said, "one person's rubbish is another person's treasure."  The old bikes are sent to the prison where the prisoners fix them up and then they are sold to be used again.   

When a truck or vehicle comes into the station it is weighed, it dumps the rubbish and then it is weighed again as it leaves and the driver has to pay for the difference in weight at this little office.  We all stood on the monster scales.  29 students and 10 adults weighed 2015 kg!  It would cost about $400 to get rid of us!!!

 This lop-sided photo shows how they keep the different types of waste separate.  Green waste is recycled into compost and people use compost in their gardens.  Metals are sorted and some are melted down and made into other things, e.g. exhaust pipes.  

These leaves are being tipped into the green waste area - more compost! 

 Metals that can't be recycled go to the Landfill. 

 Here we are standing just above the pit where rubbish is being sorted.

 This loader was pushing the rubbish that can't be recycled or reused into a big hole at the end of the pit.  The hole is exactly the same size as the massive rubbish truck that drives in underneath the pit to fill up with rubbish.  It is then taken to the Landfill.

 This corner is where the loader pushes the rubbish that will end up in the landfill.  It was so smelly and we could actually see greenhouse gases oozing out of the rotting pile.  It looked like steam.

 Having the hole in the pit above makes it easy for the truck to be loaded.  Once the truck has all of the rubbish from the pit above in it, it drives straight to the landfill. 

 Dominic told us that we were going to landfill after we had had morning tea and that we would probably see that very truck dumping its load when we get there.

Back in the bus on the road to the Landfill. 

 It was quite spooky driving into the landfill.  The rough stones in the ditches on the side of the road help stop rubbish blowing away.  You can see the office building in front of us.  When the bus stopped Dominic was already there and he gave Mrs Anderson a big plastic container full of fluorescent green vis vests which we all had to put on.  The adults had to wear fluorescent orange ones.  This was so everyone could be seen at all times.

 Dominic was telling us that where we were standing was a man-made hill of about 30 years of rubbish!  The landfill is a humongous area and it is completely surrounded by very high wire fences.  These are to catch any loose rubbish flying around.  When it gets very, very windy they put up temporary fences made out of recycled fishing nets and put them in certain places depending on which way the wind is blowing.  Another funny thing we found out from Dominic was that all around the fences, about 10 metres apart, are air fresheners!  They are attached to the top of the high fences and every so often they squirt a burst of water mixed with eucalyptus to freshen the air and to keep the neighbours happy!!!  

Below where we were standing was the new pit.  Dominic said a landfill is like a rubbish pie - the crust is the bottom of the 'crater' which is like the crust of the pie made up of pipes, clay and lime.  The filling of the pie is all of the rubbish.  Trucks unload rubbish into the pit while a digger spreads it around evenly.  Every evening the machines work to cover all of the filling (rubbish) with dirt so it all stays in place.  Every morning the dirt is removed and off they go again, filling the pit with rubbish - about 62 trucks a week in Summer and about 25 trucks a week in Winter. 

 The big orange truck does the city street collections in Napier and Hastings and holds 20 tonnes of rubbish and the smaller blue truck collects rubbish from local businesses and holds 4 tonnes of rubbish.  After a truck has dumped a load the driver has to sweep down the whole truck before leaving the landfill. 

 This huge Cat 826H bulldozer works in the pit all day making the rubbish take up less space.  It roars up onto the rubbish with its heavy, spiky wheels grinding its way through and leaving a squashed, flattened dark trail behind it. 

 Rubbish and more rubbish!

 This is where we standing while we were watching the work been done in the pit below.

 This truck is off to refill and do it all over again.  The funny looking thing sitting on the edge of all the rubbish is connected to the pipes in the 'crust' of the 'rubbish pie' and it processes the greenhouse gases and releases cleaner gases into the air.  There are lots of them around the edges of the pit.

 Here they are building a power station that will power 1,000 houses oneday.  The gases that come from the landfill will be turned into power!

Here we are at the end of our fascinating trip.  Dominic told us he was very impressed with all of the questions we asked and how much we knew about our environment.  He said he's had high school kids come to visit that didn't know and ask about stuff as much as we did.  Guess what's underneath this sweet looking, grassy hill we are sitting on??!!