HAMILTON

Hamilton is my favorite city in New Zealand. I have lived here all my life! Even though those lying Reds said that Hamilton is boring, I disagree. Hamilton is great for the reason that Hamilton is ON!

Events
Hamilton is NZ's premier events city with local, national and international events staged throughout the year - from the V8 street race and world rally car champs, balloons festival, theatre festival through to an ethnic soccer festival, craft & quilt fair and summer arts festival.

Hamilton Gardens
The most popular tourist destination in the Waikato with over a million visitors a year, Hamilton Gardens' unique experience offers the chance to experience gardens from around the world.
Waikato Museum
Visit the city's acclaimed Waikato Museum which showcases arts and culture from the region - also take the time to visit the cafe, restuarant, ArtsPost galleries and museum shop.

Visit Riff Raff
Located at the south end of Hamilton's main Victoria Street is a statue of the iconic Riff Raff character from the cult status movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The statue commemorates the development of the idea and the writing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show by Richard O'Brien - who lived in Hamilton and worked next door to the site of the now demolished Embassy Theatre where the statue is.

Hamilton Zoo
Visit Hamilton Zoo - home to 450 exotic and endangered animals and birds from around the world. Cheeky chimps, white rhino, tigers and the largest walk in free flight aviary in the southern hemisphere are all there - and more. Unique education programmes are also on offer.

Waterworld
Hamilton's premier swimming pool complex located in the north of the city boasts multiple pools – one multi-laned, Olympic sized pool with stadium seating, another large, multi-laned pool for youngsters and even a large paddling pool for the wee ones. For parents who need to put in some serious swim time, a licenced crèche is available. Special events are continually on offer for visitors of all ages.

Sporting action
Take your seat at Hamilton's world class sporting venues - or take part yourself. The city hosts international, national and local sporting events at its premier facilities and sports fever is a big part of Hamilton life.

Visit the city's libraries
Hamilton city is well supplied with libraries with one in the centre of the city in Garden Place and 5 community libraries. They offer free membership to people living in the city and provide access to books, DVDs, CDs, archives, magazines, and more.
Cruise the Waikato River
Enjoy a cruise on the mighty Waikato River aboard Hamilton's paddle steamer the M V Waipa Delta.

Lake Rotoroa (Hamilton Lake)
A popular Hamilton walk is to circle Hamilton's Lake Rotoroa. At around 4km, the off-road walkway with nothing between you and the lake takes you around its edge on boardwalks and paths, through stands of bush and past myriads of wading and free flight birds.
A cafe and extensive children's playground lie at the eastern end of the lake, while many types of boating from yachting to waka paddlers enjoy being on the lake.
Waikato River Walkways
A recently completed 11km walkway along both banks of the Waikato River which runs through the centre of Hamilton offers endless oppurtunitiesto walk, ride bikes and watch boats on the river. Whether you want to relax and unwind, or burn off some energy with a run or walk, this is the perfent place for that.

SKYCITY
The fun comes indoors at SKYCITY Hamilton with its casino, Laserstrike game, ten pin bowling and sports bar - and more.

So there, Hamilton is such a great place (minus some of the names we've been called: Hamilton, more than you expect, the fountain city, hamiltron!!!) so don't call us boring!!

Roald Dahl!

Most of you have heard of Roald Dahl. He is one of my my favourite authors. I have done my speech and project on him, and my project is now in my old schools library! Roald’s life was anything but ordinary! i hope I have included some stuff you didnt know!!!! =o)

Roald was born in 1916. His father died when Roald was only three, so Roald was brought up by his mother in a village called Llandaff in Wales.

Roald had an unhappy time in school. From when he was 10 he boarded at St. Peters prep school. With teachers such as the twitching Captain Hardcastle, and a headmaster with a dreaded cane, it’s no wonder Roald was home sick!

There must be something strange about Roald’s nose. He almost lost it twice! When Roald was 9 years old, he and his family were driving in their car, when the car crashed! No one except Roald was injured and his nose had nearly been sliced off! Luckily he had it stitched back on!

Soon after Roald left school, World War II broke out and Roald joined the Air Force. He was a very tall man and struggled to fit into the cockpit!

On one of his flights, he was running low on fuel, and with night approaching, he was forced to attempt a landing in the desert. Unfortunately the plane crashed, fracturing his skull and smashing his nose again!!

He married actress Patricia Neal and they had five children. They divorced in 1983. He then married Felicity Crosland.
Roald some of the best-loved children's stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and the BFG.

In Roald’s home in England there was an old garden shed. He used it for writing. In it he put a comfy chair and a table. The table had all sorts of weird things on it including; a ball of chocolate wrappers, bits of Roald’s spine (from when he had surgery) and even a piece of meteorite from out of space!

Roald once had a phone call from Buckingham Palace, asking if he wanted an OBE. But Roald declined, saying that he deserved to be knighted Sir Roald Dahl!

Roald died of leukemia in 1990, at his home, at the age of 74. In the graveyard, there are Big Friendly Giant footprints leading to his grave.

Hope fully you have learnt some really interesting facts! Feel free to comment!!!

E learning

E-learning is a great way to learn, whether your looking something up on a computer, or speaking to someone on the other side of the world. At my old school we did not do a lot of it but at Peachgrove it has been great. I love it when Mr woody conects his laptop to the data projector and we can look up the blog and dicover stuff we would have never new if we had been writing things in our book. But is E-learning a good thing for schools? Please tell if you disagree with me or not!
Also, can we use the mobile in class to improve our learning?
=o/ =o) =oD

Room5ians rule!

Hello my fabulous friends!
I am really enjoying this awesome class and our wonderful teacher: (Mr Woody, you rock). I cant wait for next week, and I am all geared up for our trip to Mt Kakepuku. It is going to be so great, learning some interesting facts and dicovering how beautiful Kakepuku really is!