Pukekohe+2006

In 2006 16 Pukekohe Intermediate students and 7 adults traveled to Haramura. All students and adults were homestayed for the week. The group had already spent a few days traveling to Hiroshima and Kyoto. Our visit coincided with the Mominoki-sai festival. This gave us a great chance to see lots of the Haramura students performing. As part of the festival we were invited to take part in a sports day. There were skipping competitions, 'chariot' races and relays. There was even an adult vs student relay-Miss Austin shocked everyone by cheating (200m is far too long to run!) The adults visited the nursery school, which was a definite highlight of the trip. The group visited the Elementary School. We performed our items and the elementary students perfomed an amazing demonstration of athletic ability. We were all highly impressed and did lots of ooohhhing and aahhhing. We all got to pay mallet golf and drive the cars at the Yatsugatake Cultural Park-a lot of fun!

When it came to farewells, there were speeches, hakas, songs and of course tears. It's very hard saying goodbye to people when you have been welcomed so warmly into their homes and families.

media type="custom" key="6100657"