TE PURONGO - August 2006

Te Arawa Mangai Nui
Upoko Takitahi
Tihewa hei Mauri ora!!
Tena koutou katoa

Long time now see!! These winter months have kept us all at bay, looking forward to the warmer months ahead.

Thank you for the feedback from some of our readers, your comments are much appreciated.

Do you have a family reunion coming up?
Anyone having a birthday?
Are there any new additions to our tribe?

We would be more than happy to advertise your up and coming events in our newsletter.

If you have any feedback or would like an article to be considered for the newsletter please feel free to contact us.

EXCELLENCE IN WORKPLACE TRAINING AWARD
The Aviation, Tourism & Travel Training Organisation Board Chairman Murray Strong presented the ATTTO 2006 Tourism Achievement Award for Excellence in Workplace Training to winner, Whakarewarewa Thermal Village Tours, during the Tourism Industry Conference this week.

During an ATTTO sponsored session at the conference, Murray Strong spoke about the difficulty in deciding the final winner and said all three companies had shown an outstanding commitment to developing their staff on the job and to enabling their people to gain formal qualifications to recognize their skills.

All three finalists (Whakarewarewa Thermal Village Tours, Tourmasters South Pacific Magic Bus and Christchurch Casino) were presented with an achievement certificate. Chief Executive Officer Vanessa Eparaima accepted the ATTTO 2006 Tourism Achievement Award for Excellence in Workplace Training on behalf of Whakarewarewa Thermal Village Tours.

Extract from “T Mail” – Tourism Industry Association, 25th August 2006

TE ARAWA REGIONALS
The 27 August saw the Te Arawa Regionals with five competing groups who were Te Tini o Tanerore, Taiwere, Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao, Te Rau Aroha and Rongomai from Tuwharetoa.

Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao went away with the top prize of 1st placing with Rongomai from Tuwharetoa taking 2nd place. These 2 teams will represent Te Arawa at TE MATATINI NATIONAL FESTIVAL. (Formally known as Aotearoa Traditional Maori Performing Arts Festival).

A big “KIA ORA” to Te Rau Aroha who came into the competition to support Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao, there were many new performers who had never been on a regional stage before who did our hapu proud.

Please support our Kapa Haka teams in their fundraisers leading up to the National Festival in February, remember they are representing us all within Te Arawa.

Te Matatini National Festival 2007 will be held at Arena Manawatu in Palmerston North from the 22-25 February 2007

MAORI QUIZ NIGHT
At the beginning of this month (August) we had 2 teams from Whakarewarewa Village Tours who attended a Maori quiz night at Te Puni Kokiri.

This Maori quiz night was held to help people speak and learn Te Reo.

There were 6 teams who competed in the quiz. Our team, was named Tiri and the Putiputis, who were Akatu, Tiri, Nanny Chris and I (Waikare). The other team was named Mildred and the Magic Mushrooms, the team members were Mildred, Ronnie, Paora Tamati and Shay.

There were 5 wahangas or categories to this quiz. Each team had to chose an animals and in order to answer a question you had to make this animals sound. Our animal was a cat and Mildred’s team were chickens. There were pigs, ducks, lambs and dogs so as you can imagine it was a laugh.

All the questions were asked in Te Reo and unfortunately Akatu and Tiri couldn’t understand and were waiting for Nanny Chris and I to translate for them. At times I couldn’t understand either. As a result of this, we finished with no points. Luckily for us, Karen Warmsley who was keeping the score gave us 5 complimentary points. Mildred’s team done quite well and kept up with the other groups.

In the end, the GREMLINS (Aneta Mihinui, Nikki Mihinui, Manu Tini and Cessley) won the quiz.

At the end of the night we relaxed to dinner in the conference room sharing each other’s company over a delicious meal, conversation lead us to planning another quiz night.—Waikaremoana White

TUI RIDGE CAMP 2006
Earlier in the year 23 tamariki and 5 of our staff members packed up bags along with our sleeping bags and headed to Tui Ridge Park for 2 days of fun and excitement. We received warnings 2 days earlier of an appending storm which howled the night before camp, but that was not going to deter our camp as we were all looking forward to it.

We were to camp the old fashion way with tents, but because of the rain we stayed in the dormitory. The 1st day saw the tamariki doing orienteering which no-one successfully completed as some were distracted by obstacle courses they decided to play on, while others had no idea where they were going at all. Of course everyone came back wet, so it was off to the dorms to get into something dry and down to the conference room for a game of dodge ball.

Our original schedule did not go as planned due to the rain. As part of the activities for the evening was a bonfire and a night activity called the Burma Track which is an obstacle course in the forest. After dinner we ended up grabbing our sleeping bags & pillows and headed down to the big conference room where we laid down to watch a DVD on the big screen. Of course being children from Whakarewarewa they are very active like the geothermal activity and were bored 20mins into the movie, all they wanted to do was play dodge ball so away they went. The first night saw us all heading for bed around 10.45pm.

The next day was full on with activities on the Flying Fox which is 200 metres in length and a climb to the top which goes up, up, up. We also hired the BMX bikes and were also offered the 30 meter waterslide free of charge which was the highlight for tamariki. (as we are known as water rats).

We ended our day with a sausage sizzle and a game of tee ball before we headed back to reality.

Tui Ridge Park is a 20min drive from Rotorua City just past the township of Ngongotaha and onto Oturoa Rd. It is nestled in 170 hectares of beautiful NZ forests where a variety of animal & birdlife linger, particularly the Tui. They offer a variety of activities and facilities. For more information visit their website at http://www.tuiridgepark.co.nz/.

To read more, please download August Newsletter from the archive link above.