Totara Village hosts regional students

In the last week of term three, there was an Intensives Camp for students who are from the Waikato Bay of Plenty region.  There were three students from Tauranga ;Heremia, Hinemoa and Brandy, three from Hamilton; Monique, Felicity and Shania, as well as one student from Tokoroa.  They all attend High Schools in their area. 

We stayed at Totara Village in Matai and Lynwood Cottages with the other students.  That was neat, meeting other deaf students, having a big room and the food was yummy.  Three students made a special effort for us; Kahurangi made the girls feel welcome, Chelsea changed rooms for us and Henare gave us a great karakia before our dinner on Tuesday night.

We had a great time. We visited Auckland Museum, Waiheke Island, had a look around the central city and went up the SkyTower.  It was great to see and do new things, like Claybird shooting and Archery on Waiheke Island.

On the Wednesday night we came back early and cooked dinner for everyone at the Village and some other students from Auckland. It had to be an early meal because we were lucky to be in Auckland for the KDEC Speech Competitions.  The Speech Competition had two students from the Village in it.  Some of the speeches were in Sign Language and there was even a speech with dancing.  The dancing was cool, and we thought all the students who gave speeches were very brave.

The next day we had to go back home. The people who looked after us were so nice that some of the kids wanted to stay longer.

Thank you Totara Village we had a great Camp and we look forward to coming back for another Camp.