Last week Wednesday my school from year 5-8 students went to the Emirates Team NZ Headquarters. We went there to explore and learn about technology that they have. Read down below to see how our trip went!
On the 25th of November, our school from year 5-8 students went to the Emirates Team NZ Headquarters. First we had to wake up early because the bus had to leave at 8 ‘clock. That morning I woke up at 6 ’clock. I went to school and some people were there. While we were waiting we were put into two groups of 28. There was a Group A and Group B. I was put into Group B. Most of the seniors were put into Group B.
After minutes of waiting we went onto the bus. While we were on the bus we were singing songs. We arrived to the city around 9:30 because we had to walk across the bridge. I was so tired of walking. Finally after walking we made it. There were about four to five of the people walking there.
The was the main lady and her name was Jenny. Jenny told us the directions we were going to go in and, we had to be in a walking bus. At the end of the walking bus was a crew member and her name was Sara. Sara made sure that none of the people at the back were paying attention. We finally made it to the place. When we went up to the place we had to go up the stairs. My legs were completely dead after that.
After walking up a lot of stairs we were there. It was a cool place. It smelt brand new. There was a lady that told us what she was holding. She was holding a sphero bolt. A sphero bolt is shaped like a ball that you can control. There was an iPad that controlled the sphero bolt and we could change its color. We had to be in pairs. My partner was Monique. Monique and I each had a turn and it was so cool. I learnt how to
Then after practising we could have a race, but we had to switch partners. My new partner was Arvay. Arvay was a cool partner at times, but sometimes she’d just keep the ball to herself. Then after learning the map, we could race others. We raced Taniela and Aniseko, and Mele and Audrey. I learnt how to aim and drive.
First Taniela and Aniseko raced Mele and Audrey. There was four cones but there was five courses. Mele and Audrey was in the lead, but then Taniela and Aniseko caught up with them. The winners were Taniela and Aniseko. After that it was our turn. We had to verse Taniela and Aniseko. Arvay was going to verse Taniela. Then we counted down from three to one, they were off. Taniela was off on a good start, but then Arvay caught up with Taniela. The winner was Taniela. After racing everyone we had to pack up and go back. I learnt how to control the speed of the sphero bolt.l
While we were walking there was the back of the fish place. There was a lot of guys there and one of the guys said “When you finished, come back here and take some fish”. Then Mele and I said “ Yeah we’ll come back”. We all laughed. We walked back and Group B were having there lunch. While they were eating, we saw that the bridge was breaking apart for the boat to go through.
After that we went to the 5g spark. We were put into four groups of five. In my group there was Monique, Melie, Mele, Ana and myself. One of the member of the 5g Spark took us around the place. Her name was Sim. Sim told us that we had to make up a name for our group. We huddled together and made a group name. Our group name was called The Five Islanders. When we went inside we sanitized our hands. We had to wait for a few minutes because the other group was in there.
Our first activity was going through a wind tunnel. Where ever our hands went on the screen it would follow. Sim told us that the wind tunnel, is the wind when the people are racing.
After that we went to the next room of where there would race. There were five courses that they could race at. The first course is Course A, the next one is Course B, then Course C, after that Course D and Course E.
We would know where and when they will race. After that we went to a game, where you could control the boat but by technology. We all had a turn, but Sim said that I had the best speed and control of the boat. Then we went to the photo booth and took some photos. There was some photos that are photo shopped. One photo that I liked was with our reliever.
After taking photos we went and watched a movie about the boats. One fact that I learned about the boats was that with the boats every time, they race they always have two people that go across each side every 20 seconds to see if the sides of the boat is ok.
After the movie we went to another place, where there was a room full of tablets. Sim said that at home we have a lot of devices that use the wifi. Sim showed that the 5g Spark is fast and they can have as many devices, and their wifi won’t slow down. We took some photos and it would show up on one of the devices on the screen.
Then we went to the boat design. The Boat Design is where you have a iPad in front of you and you can design your own boat. I had the highest in my group. My score out of 100 was 96.
After that we looked at the fin of the boat from the boat of Team New Zealand. It felt really thin and it looked amazing. Sim said that that was the fin from when they raced in 2002 and won the America’s Cup.
After that we went outside because we were finished. We saw the other group so we went to them. They were showing some really cool mind tricks. Then we looked at some of the boats. After that we all came together and said bye to everyone. There were still some people in the place, so we couldn’t go. Finally we hopped on the bus and went back to school.
