Lots of things I haven't already said...

We have been back for a week now and during that time people have been looking at the blog from various locations around the world - I find this really exciting! But also it has prompted me to add an extra post because during this last week I've realise that I didn't blog about many other activities we participated in during our time in New Zealand which were as much part of the week as the other events.

I've been looking at Bristol Grammar's blog and realised that because I, as an adult, am writing most of this, the points of view of our team have not been as important as if they'd written it themselves. Comments about the boarding house, the dormitories, the meals we enjoyed, the library where we all congregated, the great relationships our teams forged in the short time they were together - all details which 'made' our trip for our students but these have been missed out, not because they weren't important but because, to my regret, I didn't have time to record every detail!

So here are a few more highlights from our week:

On Sunday: travelling by bus to enjoy shopping at Westfield Mall in Hamilton prior to watching Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows part 2 (in 3D which was great!)

On Monday morning: visiting our buddy school, Peachgrove Intermediate, and putting faces to names! Some of their students had made contact with ours in the lead-up to our trip and it was great for our team to finally meet these people. We were treated to a presentation where we were introduced to some of their favourite NZ authors and ended up with lots of recommended reads to look out for. Thanks to Peachgrove, we now have some of these books to add to our school library - titles we can't get in the UK but which look really promising. I have them at home with me for the summer and hope to get through most of them before September so I can recommend them to our students.

Teams from Cockermouth & Peachgrove in their library

In the afternoon we were joined by the other teams and their buddies from Southwell School, Morrinsville Intermediate and Fairfield Intermediate for a scavenger hunt around the school which was designed to introduce us all to some of the traditions of New Zealand storytelling. It was begun by the Assistant Principal from Peachgrove, Wayne 'Mr B' Brommell, reading a traditional Maori tale and then we split into teams to explore some of the stories which make NZ children's literature unique.

'Mr B' telling us a Maori tale

Some photos taken during the Scavenger Hunt:

The lads were singularly unimpressed by the dressing up they were asked to take part in -

but threw themselves into an impromptu 'haka' with enthusiasm!

Alistair's face says it all!

Hearing that they were going to have to perform their National Anthem...

... singing with more enthusiasm than we could muster for ours...

... and finding out the winners of the Scavenger Hunt.

During the evening on Monday the team representing New Zealand, Tahuna Intermediate School from Dunedin, arrived and gifts were exchanged with buddy schools and members of the Waikato Children's Literature Association who had worked so hard to organise the whole week for us. This was followed by a 'Welcome' dinner with Wayne who had arrived for the Quiz final the next day.

Tuesday's highlight, the Quiz final has been described elsewhere but when I blogged about it, we hadn't had the Gala Dinner that evening. This took place in Southwell School's flat floor theatre and was a resounding success, being MCd by Gerri Judkins and introducing us to several NZ authors and their writing. I was sitting next to David Hill (whom I had heard of so he must be pretty famous!). Others were Jenny Hessell, Tessa Duder and Brian Falkner.

We were greatly entertained by Brian Falkner, an internationally known NZ author now living in Australia but who came to Hamilton for the Dinner. He introduced us to some of his thoughts about how and why he gets his ideas for writing Sci Fi and read some of his work to us, as did the other authors whose writing represents the best of NZ literature for teens (and younger readers). It was revealing that many of the teenage waiters and waitresses were past members of Kids' Lit Quiz teams who had volunteered for the job in order to meet some of their favourite authors.

Another highlight from our week was the excellent meals we were served by the catering team at Southwell School. During the week I overheard many comments along the lines of, "School meals weren't like this in my day...!" so very many thanks to them all. The staff were invariably cheerful and chatty, always interested in hearing what we'd been doing and where we came from, and the food was great.

Spellbound Glowworm Caves and Otorohanga Kiwi House

An early start found us on the road by 8.30am heading for the famous caves at Waitomo which are lit by glowworms, and others where there are spectacular rock formations which are thousands of years old. The kids were particularly interested in the fact that the fossilised remains of a moa - a flightless bird similar to the emu but much, much bigger which became extinct over 100 years ago - had been discovered in the caves.

Our team with the South African team deep underground

The glowworm caves have appeared in David Attenborough's BBC Planet Earth series and I know why. They were amazing; we went in a dinghy with no lights so our eyes could become accustomed to the dark and it was like being under a very starry night sky. We got onto an inflatable dinghy and after the lights on our head torches were extinguished,a loud shot was fired. This was to cause a disturbance in the air to fool the glowworms into thinking food was around and consequently they glowed extra brightly for us. it was magical and my photography can't do justice to them so I didn't even try to take photos!

After the caves we were taken to Michal Were's dairy farm for lunch and then went to see their week-old calves. A reporter from the local newspaper, the Waitomo News, spoke to some of the students; her report can be found here:

http://www.waitomonews.co.nz/i​ssues/2011.08/2011.08.02.WN.pd​f

Daniel being sucked by a hungry calf

Local reporter interviewing Alistair

The afternoon was spent at the Otorohanga Kiwi House where they are working successfully to protect and breed the endangered national bird of New Zealand. Kiwis are nocturnal so we saw them in dim light, running around and foraging for food - but photography is forbidden. There were plenty of other birds and reptiles indigenous to New Zealand as well as the kiwis.

Tuataras well camouflaged (there are 3 here)

A Kea or Alpine Parrot

I don't know what this is but it was so noisy that I filmed it!

Quick update

I have around 8 minutes to add this so it won't be lengthy.

Yesterday we visited a traditional Maori village, the name of which I'm not even going to attempt to reproduce here.

I told you it was a long name...

The whole village was wreathed in steam from the geysers

Traditional carvings on the village meeting house

This is where you can leave your dinner to cook while you're at work (it acts like a slow cooker)

It was fascinating; geysers spout up all over the place and one house had recently been abandoned because one had erupted into the kitchen. There were hot pools of varying temperatures, all steaming quietly (and some not so quietly) and we were treated to a traditional dance and song presentation by some of the inhabitants, who kindly posed for photos afterwards.

The protruding eyes and tongue are meant to be intimidating to enemies

This guy really seemed to enjoy pulling faces!

All the teams with some of the dancers

From there we went to the Polynesian Spa in Rotorua and staff, parents and kids alike spent an hour luxuriating in the naturally warm water. It was wonderfully relaxing although the kids seemed to get their second wind from it and talked non-stop all the way back to Hamilton, telling gory stories in the back of the bus.

Today (in around 10 mins) we go to the glow worm caves at Waitomo where we will spend about 3 hours in inky black caves underground, followed by lunch on a sheep farm and then a visit to a bird reserve where kiwis and other indigenous birds are protected.

Back at home apparently we have a mention on the BBC News website at
http://bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cumbria-14135392

And the result is...

...we came a very excellent third! A brilliant, nail-bitingly tense quiz has just ended with Manor Gardens Primary School from Durban, South Africa, coming first with 51 points by a huge margin, followed by the youngest team in the competition, Summit Heights Public School from Toronto, Canada (35 points). Cockermouth School came third with 27 points (I think, I was too busy taking photos to remember!) which was brilliant, as we lost a few points through being too excited in the first half but regained them with some fast answers after that.

The winning team were very knowledgeable and were ahead from the start; they fully deserved to win but the team from Summit Heights were also awesome as they were the youngest, some only 10 years old, and had never taken part before. They are Canada's first winners as this is that country's first year of entering the Kids' Lit Quiz.

Congratulations to all the teams but especially to our own team of course for doing so well.

Alistair says: Brilliant competition, best people won. It says a lot that even after the competiton, lots of us are still buried in a book.

Last minute stuff

I realise it's the middle of the night at home but the SA team parents have set up a live audio link to the quiz which, if you're mad enough to be up at that time of night, will be available on www.ustream.tv/channel/litquizfinals

It will begin at 2pm here (which is 1am in the UK) until 4pm approx.

If you have any difficulty finding it, search for lit quiz finals under 'channel'. I don't know how long it will be available or whether perhaps a recording will be available later on YouTube or anything but I will post it here when I know.

It's almost midday here and we just had a last minute rehearsal, making sure everyone knows where to sit, how hard to press the buzzers, how many questions there will be (70) and other important details; all that remains now is for us to have lunch, change into school uniform and go for it! Not sure much lunch will be eaten by some participants...

Our team ready to take the challenge

All the teams just before the quiz started

There are some great prizes for the top 3 teams including cash prizes and an amazing award consisting of a beautiful green glass spiral which apparently has some significance here in NZ. I need to find out what it means!

The spiral is a koru, a traditional Maori shape which is indicative of new life, vitality, growth, strength and peace.

The shape is derived from the unfurling frond of the silver fern but is found in nature all over the world.

It's Quiz day at last!

Immy says: "Today is Quiz day and we are all really excited - and nervous too! Hopefully we've read enough so wish us good luck!"

Sol says: "Everyone else has done nothing but read since they got here so we are a bit worried but I'm in New Zealand so I don't really care!"

Daniel says: "I am really really really really really really... (OK I think you get the point!) nervous! But I am also really looking forward to the Quiz and am trying to rack my brains to remember all the authors I know and all the books I have read."

Alistair says: "WOW! This is really awesome but a bit scary. My brain is bursting!"

So, do you get the impression that we're raring to go? Because we are! This time tomorrow it will all be over but whatever the outcome we are going to give it our best shot and, as they say, may the best team win (and let's hope that's us!).

Go Cockermouth!

Here we are in NZ!

Our mascot Chimp at Penrith station

Just time for a quick post from Hamilton where we arrived at lunchtime yesterday, apparently, although our body clocks were all over the place so they could have been fobbing us off.

Waiting for our first flight from Manchester to Dubai - we did plenty of waiting!

This was our first plane of many

Our flight was thankfully uneventful but so long that even the huge selection of films, music and games on offer began to lose its fascination towards the end. We stopped at Dubai (where the range of Duty Free shops boggled our minds) and Melbourne briefly, so we can say we touched (metaphorical) Australian soil. The overnight flight between Dubai and Melbourne was mostly over sea and according to the flight information (which I found fascinating), we flew at altitudes of almost 37,000ft at over 500mph and the temperature outside was -49 degrees!

Taking off from Dubai where it was 34 degrees at 7am

Dawn probably somewhere over the Indian Ocean... or it might be over Australia!

The last leg of the flight, from Melbourne to Auckland, seemed the longest. I was under the misapprehension that New Zealand and Australia were quite close together (well, look at them on the atlas, nestling down there in the middle of all that ocean - they do look close together!) but in fact 1500 miles separates them which equates to 3 hours flying time. However, we arrived 15 mins late which is incredible considering how far we'd come. Everyone was remarkably alert and we drove down to Hamilton, getting our first glimpse of the New Zealand countryside. I can see why Brits love it so much - it's quite like home from home. It isn't very mountainous here but is volcanic on the South Island (we aren't going there).

We're staying in a boarding school so the boys are in one dormitory and the girls in another with the members of the other teams - Canada, South Africa and Bristol at the moment and we'll be joined on Monday by the NZ team.

The boarding house where we're sleeping, with the dining room on the right

The view from the boarding house towards the chapel

The chapel with a magnificent magnolia tree in flower beside it

I couldn't resist this photo of the magnolia

We all went to bed really early (lights out at 9pm) to try & catch up on some sleep. NZ is 11 hours ahead of the UK so when you in the UK are starting school at 8.40am it is 7.40pm of the same day over here. Quite a time difference for us and a big change for sleeping patterns and our stomachs (we get hungry at inappropriate times such as the middle of the night - 1pm lunch time for you is midnight here - time for a midnight feast, perhaps!).

This building houses the school library - more photos inside it later

Soon we're off to catch the bus into Hamilton to shop, lunch & see the new Harry Potter film in 3D so I need to go & make sure everyone is ready to go.

Media rush - glad I'm not a celebrity!

Today, our last full day in school before departure, has been full of the media. We began bright & early with Radio Cumbria journalist Will Tillotson who interviewed us for the breakfast programme and confessed before we began that he had connections with another team: Bristol Grammar School, who are the England winners of the Kids' Lit Quiz and whom we beat by the narrowest of margins in November (half a point, to be exact - can't get much narrower than that!). He attended the Junior School of Bristol Grammar many moons ago so was interested to hear that we would be meeting up with them on the other side of the world very soon.

I'm hoping to include here an audio file of the interview but for the next 7 days you can listen at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001hjzn
Click on Ian Timms' show for 13/7/11 to listen; it starts just before 2hrs 10mins.

After this I had an email from someone wanting information for the BBC Cumbria website and then a request for an article, with a photo which hasn't been used in any other publication, from our local magazine/newsletter/information publication, The Cockermouth Post. They had a quarter page free and could I fill it? Could I! I had to cut an existing article almost in half to give them the required number of words and, if you've read this far on the blog, you'll know I don't 'do' concise writing. I feel as if I've turned into a journalist myself as I've spent a lot of time writing articles for various audiences, including this blog.

Anyway, it got written and sent with a new photo, then I did lots of last minute things such as checking passport numbers, emergency contact details for everyone, picking up tickets and money, ensuring as far as possible that things are going to run smoothly up to the end of term, making sure I'd anticipated things for September and lots of other odd jobs which easily took up the rest of the day.

Many of people in school asked when we're off - I think they can't wait to get rid of us! But we were wished good luck by everyone and several people offered to carry our luggage if they could come too...

At last I'm off to complete my packing. Or maybe I should say, to start my packing. Hope I don't forget anything and I really hope that everyone turns up at Penrith Station tomorrow at the right time.

Technology is great when it works...

Befoe we leave for distant shores I thought i would experiment with posting from my Kindle which I have never done successfully before. Nothing is as frustrating as typing out a message than sending it off into the ether and having it disappear, so here goes...

In one week from now...

...we'll be on the plane. Last night (Thursday evening at 9pm) I looked at my watch and thought, 'A week from now we'll be taking off!'

This morning I arrived at work (8.20am) and thought, 'We'll be on the second plane now!' and as I type this at 6.30pm, I realise that a week from now we'll STILL be on the plane...

However, we'll be too excited to mind, I'm sure!

We've received some encouraging messages on our blog (if you've tried to post and it hasn't showed up, please try again - I think I've sorted the problem) and have had photos taken for the local newspaper, wearing team hoodies (but I forgot to put mine on - it's a lovely shade of lavender, in case you're wondering).

Imogen, Sol, Mrs Farrar, Daniel with Chimp, and Alistair

Part seven: thank yous

Many people, businesses and organisations have been very generous in their support for our team and I'd like to say a huge 'thank you' to them all for helping us to raise the not-inconsiderable amount we needed for five flights to Auckland.

At risk of missing someone out (and if I do then please accept my apologies) thanks are due to Cockermouth School and our ever-supportive parents in the form of Cockermouth School Association, Cockermouth Travel for the inaugural use of their travel bursary, Cockermouth Round Table, Cockermouth Rotary Club, Nuclear Management Partnership, pupils and staff of Cockermouth School and their friends and families who swam, read, stopped speaking, baked cakes, thought up jobs they were willing to pay someone to do, packed shopping bags, joined in competitions, donated sums of money both large and small, bought teas, guessed numbers of sweets, lost weight... I could go on but you get the picture. We have been overwhelmed by offers of support and for that we are very, very grateful.

The other group of people who deserve huge thanks are the Waikato Children's Literature Association who have organised this whole event and have worked tirelessly to get financial support for our visit. When we arrive in New Zealand our whole visit will be sponsored by businesses who appreciate the importance of reading and want to support the Kids' Lit Quiz. There will be teams from South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and two from the UK and we will all be guests of our wonderful hosts. In particular Gerri Judkins, Librarian of Southwell School, Hamilton, must have put her personal life on hold for the past 10 months and has been a superlative facilitator for those of us in various far-flung locations who will all meet up soon, due mainly to her organisational skills.

Last, but not least, thanks to the parents of our team members who will accompany and support us, leaving family members behind while we go off around the world. I hope you realise how grateful we are to you as well.

Part six: members of Team Cockermouth

Time at last to introduce you to our team: the four students without whom we wouldn't be undertaking this epic event!

Back to front: Imogen, Sol, Daniel, Alistair

And also to Chimp, our small but perfectly formed mascot, now sporting his school polo shirt all ready for his trip to New Zealand. His fans may want to sign up here to support him (and the team, of course).

Courtesy of the Waikato Children's Literature Association, a link to a feature on NZ TV about the Kids' Lit Quiz national final held on 15th June 2011, showing just a glimpse of the enthusiasm the quiz generates:

"Hitting the Books" http://tvnz.co.nz/close-up/hitting-books-5-40-video-4271217

Part five: Getting back to everyday life

After a similarly traumatic journey home to Cumbria during which we were unsure until the last hour whether trains would be running further north than Preston, we had lots of time waiting for connecting trains in which to consider the enormity of our win.

We also had a huge wonderful cake to carry which had been made for the competition but became something of a liability in its large protective box; I was determined, however, that selling slices of it would become the first step in our fundraising activities!

Our trusty Chimp guarding the celebratory cake

We arrived back at Penrith very late that night, still on a high from the day. The next couple of weeks were a flurry of related activities - telephone and email interviews with journalists, requests for comments and book reviews from the team, a photo shoot when Imogen and Sol dragged themselves from their sickbeds to appear and, of course, discussion in school about the whole event and the consequences of it.

All too soon Christmas was upon us and in the holiday I spent some time researching the cost of flights and racking my brains for ideas which would translate into raising a whole lot of money. When term started again we met with the parents of our team members to discuss whether participation in the trip around the globe was feasible and if so, how we would finance it.

To cut short a very long story, we had 100% support from everyone who mattered to the trip but it all seemed so unreal until I began to receive emails from New Zealand and from Bristol Grammar School, the other team who had won an invitation to the world final. In school our wonderful Development Manager, who knows all the right people, set to work on our behalf letting people know that we were looking for financial support for our trip and we were given our first donation from a cake sale held by one of the Year 8 forms. More form activities followed and sponsored silences, reading and swimming all contributed to the funds.

'Cluedo' on World Book Day raised money in school...

...as did a 'Where's The Monkey?' competition

As the weeks passed we received financial support from several local businesses and other organisations whilst various other fundraising activities took place, both in school and undertaken by individual team members. Many grateful thanks must go to these donors, both corporate and individual, whose support has been extremely generous and enabled us to reach our target remarkably early on. Thankfully the price of the flights hadn't increased too much by the time we were able to purchase our tickets. After that we really felt as if we were on our way!

Part four: What Cockermouth did next

After the interval Wayne made an important announcement about the prize, telling us that in honour of the 20th anniversary of the Kids' Lit Quiz not one, but two teams would be invited to compete in the World Final in New Zealand in July 2011. Each team then faced the second half with renewed hope that they would be the lucky winners.

The second half of the quiz passed much as the first - me attempting to take photos due to a subconscious urge to record the proceedings, listening to the questions and thinking, 'They won't know the answer to that!' But they did and the points mounted up. Suddenly the questions ended and the markers were checking their maths. Charlie Higson was talking, then Wayne told everyone again about the amazing prize awaiting the winners and the two Mums with me were telling each other that actually, we might have won. Or nearly. I didn't want to know about what might happen, I needed definites.

Eventually the waiting was over. The screen showed the results and... we were joint first with Bristol Grammar School! We had to undergo the torture of a best-out-of-three sudden death play-off!! More tension I have not experienced for many years.

If you have good eyesight you can just see the school names -

we're 5th down just after Bristol Grammar, with exactly the same number of points

Wayne asked the first of three questions, which our team answered correctly. The second question was answered by Bristol Grammar. My hands were clammy and shaking as I tried to focus my camera on the team's faces, just in case they won. I wanted to record that moment! The third question came and our team answered again - correctly. We'd won: we were the UK Champions by half a point!

I wanted to shout and clap but instead I took photos. 'Where are these momentous pictures?' I hear you ask. They were rubbish. My hands were shaking so much that everything is blurred. See:

Imogen's face expresses what we all felt (sorry, Immy!)

We received our prizes from Charlie Higson and had photos taken, after which I expect Bristol Grammar, as England champions, received theirs - but I have no memory of it at all.

Next thing I knew the team were having photos taken with Wayne and Charlie Higson, and I was on the phone to our Educational Visits Co-Ordinator at school who'd phoned to see how we'd got on. I probably nearly deafened him when I told him we'd won; I know I lost a favourite earring at this point.

Official photo of our team with Wayne and Charlie Higson - and our mascot (in the cup)

Photo courtesy of K T Bruce

Speaking with Wayne a little later I knew I should try to absorb everything he was telling me about what would happen next: emails from New Zealand, fund raising for our flights, visits to wondrous places when we arrived there, accommodation in a boarding school. What I remember best was that we should not forget our swimming costumes for a visit to Rotorua's geysers and hot springs.

I think it was at this point that the reality of our win began to pierce the ecstatic bubble I was in. Fund raising! All that money to find from somewhere to get us to the World Final in July, only 7 months hence! I had no idea how much a ticket to New Zealand cost but I was pretty sure it wouldn't be covered by a cake sale at school.

So began the next phase of our next adventure: raising the cost of five flights to New Zealand.

Part three: Cockermouth vs. the Weather!

We planned to travel to the UK Final in Oxford in the school minibus but the elements seem to have something against us going to these finals.

In 2009, the week before we were due to travel to the KLQ Final, Cockermouth was flooded to a depth of up to 8' in the town centre causing devastating damage and disruption in the area. Despite this we managed to get to the competition and were greeted with cheers and applause, indicating the national awareness the disaster had caused.

In November 2010 winter arrived in a rush the week before we were due to go to Oxford. I hurriedly abandoned our plans to use the minibus and looked up train times instead. With a couple of changes at Manchester and Birmingham I reckoned that we could just make it with an hour to spare to get across the city to Oxford Town Hall and collect our thoughts before the quiz began. However, the best laid plans often go awry and ours certainly did. The extra snow which had continued to fall didn't help and, after a start so early it felt as if we had left home the night before, we reached Penrith station to be met with re-directed trains, cancellations, trains terminating before their destination - and more falling snow.

What do you do when your train is delayed? Read, of course! This was approx 7.20am...

At this point it would be an excellent idea to thank publicly the two parents, Alistair's and Sol's Mums, who ensured that we reached the station, accompanied us on our cross country expedition, worried with me whether we'd ever get there (never mind home again), supported me and the team and shared our exciting day. Without them it's possible that we wouldn't have made the journey at all (and at the time I think we all wondered why we were even attempting it!) and wouldn't now be on our way to New Zealand.

View from the train as dawn appeared

The journey, and indeed the whole day, passed in a haze, the details of which I don't want to recall but I do remember it was almost surreal. We caught connecting trains with seconds to spare and dashed across platforms when trains arrived unexpectedly in the wrong place. I sent frantic texts to Jacky Atkinson, organiser of the event, letting her know our progress and when we finally arrived in Oxford we frog-marched the team across the city and arrived with literally a minute to spare. No time to be nervous - the show had begun!

Off with coats, sit down, take a deep breath... our team right of centre in blue polo shirts

The weather had got the better of a couple of teams but all the same there were 13 schools represented who all, in my opinion, deserved a medal for battling the elements. Also present were local dignitaries and a cluster (series? shelf-full? what's the collective noun for writers?) of well-known authors who had turned out to support the teams. It was exciting enough for the book lovers in the teams to meet such names as Charlie Higson, Gillian Cross, Marie-Louise Jensen, Fiona Dunbar and many others - but equally exciting for the adults. Their encouragement was appreciated and reciprocated: after all, these were some of the authors' best critics and supporters.

Imogen with one of her favourite authors, Fiona Dunbar

The quiz itself passed in a blur of questions, buzzers and answers to some pretty hard questions but every team gave of its best and the tension mounted as time passed. Much needed refreshments were enjoyed at half time and the students were able to meet and talk to the authors about their favourite things: books!