☃️My Icy Adventure to Austria☃️

Where we off too now... Today was my last day being a year 10 student at Hauraki Plains College and let me tell you, it was sad.  I have made so many friends and memories with so many people in the past two years being a junior, next year some of us will be split due to our subjects we chose in October. Level 1 will mean set subjects for Semester A and Semester B.  I know what I want to do and because Music is my strength I have chosen Music and Performing Arts as a focus point for 2020.  English and History is also a strength and I have to take them so that should be fine. Chill time with the cousins. I'll be a "senior" next year as well with even more opportunities to challenge myself with.  This trip is hopefully going to help with developing specific skills and unique ideas to my learning for 2020, for example my yodelling, I want to use that for level one music next year!  In the weekend I learned how to play dueling banjo's with my coach. That was pr

Kaifofo & Sisimata Tuhega.   17 days and I leave for Austria and as I am about to leave I discover my ancestral roots to Germany.  I have known from my Nena that her grandfather had German roots however I have never been told to great detail about this.  Apparently very few family members were told the story.  So here goes the version I have stumbled upon. My Nena Evo's biological mother is Kelenamata also known as Pisa . Her parents were Kaifofo Tuhega of Tuapa and Sisimata Ikitogia of Makefu.  Very recently I have discovered that Great Great Grandad Kaifofo Tuhega's father was either a Missionary or a German sailor by the name of Keeling.  There were two stories of how he came into contact with our Nena Fakatohesifa.  This piece of the puzzle was said to have been written by the late Afele Paea who married one of Kaifofo's daughters and we thank him for doing that with Kaifofo because that is how I have stumbled across this piece of precious taoga. Below is a

Nanna trying to pick my nose 😂😂😂 What do you think about my nan's blanket.  I was arguing with mum about it because I think it's a quilt and mum said its a crochet blanket.  So we agreed to compromise with crochet quilt lol.  About 3 weeks ago, my nena Evo offered to make me a small blankie to take for when my feet gets cold.  I think its my nans way of saying don't forget her cos she's cute like that 😉.   Nan's been working on it for a wee while now even Nana is excited she's literally dropped all her other projects she's making to work on my one.  Nan has a thing about knitting blankets for all her grandchildren and my cousins would know what I am talking about because some of us have been given them too.  Nan knows I am going to Europe and thinks I leave next week every time we talk about it.  She always asks me "how much longer"  and  I tell her exactly how long then she does the little "oooooo" sound.  Today when I t

Vaila, Alofi Tokelau, Niue. My countdown calendar reminded me today that I am exactly 1 month away from leaving. That means I have four weeks and I leave home. If you want to follow my blog please subscribe or leave a message below. I am excited but also petrified because I've never been away from home for that long let alone away from my mum for more than a month.We managed to buy my winter gears for half the price and a pair of Timberland boots during labour weekend. Thanks to mum she organised everything. I have always wanted a pair of Timberlands because my godfather/ cousin I look up too has a collection. Now I feel and look very manly. I know I will need them for the snow and the cold. The first weekend of December I am travelling to Hitzendorf via Dubai from Auckland New Zealand. I arrive in Austria and straight to school. The journey will be for three months and I will be attending a Catholic School in Graz. Hitzendorf is approximately twenty minutes from Graz. I

Hi everyone. So I've been encouraged to capture my journey to Europe for the next three months so here goes my first attempt at blogging. What is blogging some say, let me tell you, blogging is a form of journalling or writing a story about an event. Because I will be experiencing many different things in the next three months I want to make sure I capture everything. Mum tells me I have to take heaps of photos. Which I do not do much off so maybe if I write it would remind me to take photos. Austria was my mum's brain child it came after a conversation we had about experiencing a different culture by going abroad. Mum has always said I have to be open to trying new things and to challenge myself. So we took the leap and applied to STS NZ. We asked Mr Google to find us an exchange program and then narrowed it down to the Waikato and found there was a STS local branch in the Waikato. We arranged a time and met with Trish. Funny enough we were sitting under th