My letter to Mrs Taaffe

To Mrs Taaffe

My name is Miles and I am your writing student.

I was born on the 21 October 2005, was eight weeks premature, weighed 4 pound 8 and was born not breathing. I grew up in the country in Ireland ☘ which is only about 29 hours and three plane rides away from  New Zealand where we moved to in September 2013. When we got here we had to stay at my Nana's while we were looking for a house. I have one younger sister and her name is Chloe. My dad is Irish and my mum is kiwi.

I started school in 2013 as a year 3 in Hi fives✋. My favourite subjects are Art and Reading📖. In my spare time I like to go swimming. For winter sport I like to do soccer⚽ and for summer sport I do athletics. I like playing games like Cluedo and Monopoly.

1

Last weekend I did the Weet-Bix Kids Tryathlon in Hamilton and there were about 2800 kids taking part. I  swam 100m, biked 4km and ran 1.5km. At one point in the cycle there was a big hill and I barely made it. The run was hard because I had a bad stitch but I just kept going.😰   

In the holidays I went down to my aunty`s batch and tried skiing. I tried and tried but I just couldn't stay standing. On Easter weekend I am going down there to try again. Also in the holidays we went to the south island. First we went to Kaikoura and stayed one night and the next day we went whale watching🐋. Then we drove to Hanmer springs. While we were in Hanmer we went to a water park with big water slides. Me and my dad went on a bike track that was kind of hard. While we were on the bikes my mum and sister went horse riding.

On the way to the airport we got lost and nearly missed our flight because we had to will up our rental car but we made it just in time for check in.

Also in the holidays I went to Waitawheta Cub Summer Camp. It started on Sunday 10th  and finished on Thursday 14th. On the way we had to pick up Noah. When we got there we had to sign in and find our tent. When we got to the tent we saw Tana and Rohan who are from my cub group setting up their stuff.  I unpacked my stretcher and my air mattress and started putting it together. Next I put my sleeping bag and campfire blanket on my stretcher and waited until opening circle. Opening circle is when everyone at camp comes together and the New Zealand flag is opened, this is called the flag break. This camp had cubs from Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Rotorua, Kawerau, Eastern Waikato and Manukau and there was about 200 kids.That night after dinner we had milo and then went to bed.

Monday:

Onsite

On Monday in the morning we had opening circle and then everyone went to there first base. On my first base Noah and I learned how to make a figure eight bandage on an ankle and wrist. After that I learned how to put a triangular sling on Tana. Then Rohan, Noah, Tana and I got in a group with kids named Mela, Cody and Zoey. We learned how to make a stretcher with a blanket and to wooden poles. Then we went on the obstacle course. That night we had spaghetti on toast.

Tuesday:

Waterbase

My first base was water scopes. Water scopes are tubes with plastic on the bottom. Next I did fort building and smashing. Then I did the amazing race. After that I did Kayaking. Then surf life saving, we learned about Slip, Slop, slap and wrap. Last of all I did compass bearings.

Wednesday:

Offsite

In the morning I got up before everyone in my tent and packed my stuff.We went to a huge mine. We had to walk around the hole thing answering lots of questions. After that we went to lake ohinemuri. We got on the bus again and then went back to camp. That night I was really tired and went to bed first.

Thursday

Pack up

In the morning when I got up I took apart my stretcher and let the air out of my mattress. After I packed that up I rolled up my sleeping bag and started packing my Bags and waited to get picked up. On the way home we had Mcdonalds.  

Yours sincerely,

Miles Sargent 👦