Home Sweet Home!

We all arrived home safely and we will put some posts on the final few days shortly.

Team UK - Murray the bagpiping Genius

NZ has a long history of getting on well with the UK team. Its probably the fact that they can talk about our similar place names, foods, have a laugh and understand there accents. This the understanding the team has been 50:50 - with two lads from Scotland in the team Callum and Murray.

Murray though was a bag piping genius and we wanted to share his talents with you all. Hope you and your agents - Dave and Mark don't mind Murray.

Freedom

Hey, Andy here to fill you in on more of our busy day. With the closing ceremony finished, we had our first unplanned afternoon of the trip so far, and there were plenty of choices of activity on offer. While many teams headed to the nearest beach, we decided to commute into Taipei's CBD to find some markets and places to eat, and also just to experience downtown Taipei, which, surprisingly, we have had little opportunity to do thus far. We visited the 'Taipei centre for Promoting Taiwanese Handcrafts' which was essentially three storeys of relatively cheap, handmade goods typical of the region. After numerous purchases, we caught the MRT to the Shilin night Market, which we had briefly visited on our first day in Taipei. After dark, the market came alive and we made the most of it: attempted bartering, tasting some new foods and just soaking up the general atmosphere of Taipei's renowned nightlife. As I'm writing this it feels really late, despite being only 9 30, so to me this almost felt like our busiest day yet.

The Closing Ceremony

The 8th iGeo Olympiad came to a close this morning with another interesting and entertaining ceremony. We started it off by watching a very well-made film about the olympiad this year, made by one of the Taiwanese volunteers. As a testament to the dedication of the volunteers, she was up until 6.30 this morning working on the video! It was great to see a reflection of all that we've experienced the last week, becuase it's sometime a little hard to take everything in at once.
We then had some closing remarks from the President of the Chinese Geographical Society Located in Taipei. Then the founder of the Sacred Heart High School spoke to us. When she was the first principal of the school 50 years ago, there was nothing but a small fishing village with a tiny well and a dirt road. Since then, the city has grown so much around her, and she had a great sense of humour and excellent English.
Then came the medal presentation. As Anna already said, this year New Zealand performed the best they ever have, with 2 silver medals, a bronze, and a certificate. This just shows how much work Anna, Annete and Lex have put into the team, and how important geography is in New Zealand.
The final activity of the official olympiad was a Chinese buffet-style lunch about half an hour away from the school. We spent the meal sitting with our volunteer Fiona, and out new friends from the United Kingdom who we spent a bit of time with this week, and most of the meals. Unfortunately, they won't be joining us for the post-iGeo trip and headed back to Britain this afternoon. It was a nice way to say goodbye to them, promising to keep in touch on Facebook, along with all the other people we've met this week from all over the globe, united by our passion for understanding the world we live in, and how we interact with it.

Medal Tally - Best ever!

Just a quick note to let you know how proud I am of the team. The boys have done extremely well in the competitions.

Connor - Silver
Andy - Silver
Nat - Bronze
Callum - Certificate

We are just off to the city for a few hours and when we get back with update you with footage of the medal ceremony

Anna"very proud" Wilson

Connor's first post - Geo Park and Taipei 101

Yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing, we went to Yehliu Geopark in the morning and then Taipei 101 in the afternoon. Sadly on this of all days iI forgot my camera but the others have taken pictures and added them up here.

The geopark was really cool; we had to name a new rock formation and reach the lighthouse. We used GPS to prove we had been to the sites and we named our rocks 'grandfather's teeth'. We had lunch at a local restaurant and had sandwiches and muffins along with a million other random drinks and some nice asian dishes.

Taipei 101 wasd quite a distance away but well worth the trip. It definitely lived up to all the hype, with views of all of Taipei and great architecture both inside and out. In the evening we had the second part of the cultural presentations, that was fun and we spent a while hanging out with the other teams. Iwent to bed the earliest at about 3 am, some people were still up at 6.30.

Not very long left now which is a shame but we have all had a great time.

Watch the video below and see Lex eat a bug! The boys dared him $100 Taiwanese Dollars about $4 NZ

Last test done, time to relax

Callum blogging it up here, this morning we did the final marked part of the trip, the multimedia test. We were assigned a computer to work through the questions. All the native english speakers finished pretty fast, i dont think the others had the joy of quick understanding. After picking A B C or D for 40 questions we were done. That means an end to the competition and time to really enjoy Taiwan.

Day Trip to Central Taiwan - EQ Museum

Sunday: We started the day on the bus at 7am as we had a busy day ahead. We were treated to a tasty breakfast box - sushi, sandwich, banana, roll and juice. We travelled for 3 hours to the an Earthquake museum. This was an amazing place as it was build in a former school where a 7.3 earthquake had hit at about 1am on the 9th of Sept 1994. Over 2,400 people were injured. We all took some great photos and saw a 3D show about the earthquake.

Callum and I were impressed by the signage there - some was in Maori!

Wow wow wow - we have been busy

We have just arrived back from the center of Taipei and obviously have a few things to update you on. I will get the boys on to this when they have free time in the morning after they have their last test - Multimedia :)

Video of Ka Mate by the team

Cultural Performance

Last night we were entertained by 13 other countries. Callum was a contestant with Croatia's tie tying competition and the boys all participated in some cultural dances and quizes.

It was our chance to shine too and the boys did an excellent job performing Ka Mate and explaning the meanings behind the dance. Thanks to Haydon Huriwai who came and spent time with the kids teaching them.

Wetland here we come!

We had our briefing this afternoon about the Fieldwork session to be held early tomorrow morning. The students will be looking at the wetland area - Danshu Wetland and mapping the area in the morning. In the afternoon tomorrow they will have to answer four questions on issues to do with the wetland.

Cultural performance is being performed after dinner tonight.

First Test Done and Dusted

Hey guys, Callum rocking it up here. We've just sat the first test which was the 2.5 hour short answer Written Response Test. It had 6 different catergories with around 14 marks each. The total you could get was 80 so hopefully i didnt get too many wrong. Me and Nat finished around 11.30 whish was about a half hour before the english speakers finished (non native english speakers finished at 12.30). So all up the test was pretty good, some vague questions took a bit of time to work out. Fingers crossed for the results. Hoping for the best for the rest of the team. Godbye for now.

Taking a stroll and meeting the locals

yesterday afternoon we went for a walk with our team helpers. We have been assigned a team helpers who want to learn about our country and also want to learn english better. It is great as they help us to find where we need to go and can teach us about the local area. Sometimes though it takes a while for them to check if it is okay for us to be doing things. Are they asked their teachers we went for a walk to a dairy. They said we would need to talk a bus for 15 dollars and then we would find a 7/11. After waiting 10 minutes for the bus they showed us a dairy at the corner that we could walk to. They left us and we grabbed some iceblocks and drinks and headed to the river.

While at the river we meet a man who told us his story. He was 61 and had 5 daughters. Had been a fisherman with 11 boats when he was 33. Unfortunately 1o years ago a large scale development of apartments (Connor counted 27 storeys which is higher than anything in Christchurch) had been built where he lived. He now lives docked up on the mangroves on one of his old ships and he says he is very happy - his daughters ask him to live with them and their families but he loves where he lives. A great geo story and a interesting man for the students to meet!

Board Meeting and Testing begins!

Hi its Anna again: I attended the Board meeting last night and was interested in the discussions that were held. It seems we are one of only three countries where students have to actually contribute to the cost of their trips to Olympiad - all others are fully paid for by the governments. Its a shame that we don't have the full support that other nations do. Something maybe I can try to work on my return.

While the boys were in the test this morning some of us took a walk in tjhe 30 + degree heat down to a local town and then along the river. Here are some photos of our journey:

Opening Ceremony

Last night the IGeo was officially opened here at the Sacred Heart High School. We started with speeches from the Head of the Geography Union from Taipei, The Cardinal for Taipei and the people from the IGEO including our own Professor - Lex Chalmers.

After the speeches all teams were welcomed, stood and waved as their national flags came on screen. We also watched a short film on Taipei. It was great to learn more about the city we will be in for the next wee while. Taipei is a safe city which has a strong focus on enviornmental sustainability - they have a huge recycling program which was really good to hear about and they have set some high targets for reducing land waste.

We were entertained by the school choir who sang some traditional songs and then its a small world after all in 6 languages. We then all learnt this in chinese and sang and were then taught a dance which we all joined in.

While Anna and Lex attended the International Board Meeting Annette and the Boys went down to the social function where there were a lot of photos taken!

Getting Ready

Hey Guys!

Nat and Andy here, simmering in the 30+ degree heat (inside, that is). We've spent the morning preparing our presentations that we will be showcasing later in the week; the fearsome Ka Mate (sounds good by the way, if we do say so ourselves), and the presentaion of our poster describing the relationship between New Zealand's cultural and natural environments and its world-renowned tourism industry.

We've found that people we talk to know lots about New Zealand, and ask us plenty of questions about home. They are all very positive towards it, and it makes us aware of how lucky we are to live in New Zealand.

For breakfast this morning, we had our first communal meal, with about 13 of the teams joining us to share a buffet. An eclectic range of food items meant that even Andy with his discerning culinary palate ate his fill. Lettuce, waffles, yogurt, juice, ham and corn, fried eggs with butter, thick toast with butter and coconut, dragonfruit, and exotic cereals made up the menu, and thirds were had by all!

Signing off for now, it's lunch time!

We made it to Taipei

We have all arrived safe and happy in Taipei today. We had a great flight (all three of them) and we only delayed by 10 minutes coming out of Hong King due to the weather.

On arrival in Taipei we were met by our two host - Kevin Lin and Fiona Wang. They are both students from Taipei who are are going to show us around and be our first point of contacts.

The school where the Olympiad is being held is great - you can have a look at their website:



http://www.shgsh.tpc.edu.tw/editor_model/u_editor_v1.asp?id={CF6A6528-3FC1-4AFC-AC62-853081D8077E}

Team Selected

We have a team of four students to selected to represent us in Taipei

Callum Dudson
Connor McIver
Nat Christensen
Andy Dysart

We are looking forward to the competitions in Taiwan in July