Today saw a herd of motorbikes progressively arriving at school. Why you may ask - because of a TT2000 Long Distance Motorbike Rally being held over the weekend. Every year the organisers choose a theme for the rally and this year they are celebrating small rural schools in the South Island. Leaving from Blenheim the riders mission is to take photos of their rally shirts and bikes in front of the signs of schools on the route. 

Lots of excitement here as the bikes started arriving and we can expect to see more over the next 48 hours.

It's not everyday you can get up close and personal with a NH90 Helicopter, but this week we got the chance. The New Zealand Air Force were helping DOC out by moving bags of gravel to Mt Robert for track maintenance and we were invited along to explore the NH90, watch it take off and learn a bit more about this mighty machine.

Some of the cool facts we learnt were:

• It takes 10 tonnes of downward force to lift the NH90 of the ground 
• The NH90 can lift around 2,600kgs
• It has a four man crew, two pilots and two loadmasters
• It can fly at around 285km/hr and stay in the air for approx 3 hours before needing to refuel
• And top question of the day was confirming that yes machine guns can be mounted on the side

It's great to have the kids back to school ready for another fun (maybe not quite so busy year). Unfortunately with the exodus of the year 8s last year we are left with a school roll of 14. While this does have some administrative impacts it also means we have smaller classes, with 4 juniors and 10 seniors.

So far this term we have been making the most of the pool, often swimming twice a day...while it was warmer at least. Nothing says Summer quite like snow on the hills in February.

While we haven't packed the term with activities (yet), we do have a trip planned up to Beeby's Hut and of course our school camp at Hanmer Springs during the last week of this term.

It's going to be a great year!