School News

HBHS Year 13 students Brent Coleman and Scott Cameron have been selected into the New Zealand Geography Olympiad team to compete in Cologne, Germany in August 2012.  As winners of the 2010 Maatangi Whenua National Geography Competition, they were invited down to Wellington in December for a selection camp of the best geography students in the country to select a team of four.  The selection camp simulated the Olympiad competition, including mapwork, essay writing, short answer questions, and multimedia test and field work.  Brent and Scott are looking forward to representing New Zealand, meeting like-minded people and broadening their geographic skills.

The boys are now seeking sponsorship for the $4,500 cost per person to attend the event.  For further enquiries, please contact Sue Shephard (sshephard@hbhs.school.nz).

I would like to thank you for the help which you provided for me to attend the recent International Geography Olympiad, or IGeo. The competition involved 124 competitors from 32 countries and was a great opportunity for me to represent New Zealand on the world stage. It enabled me to meet people with similar geographical interests from right around the world and to share ideas about issues concerning geography.

The trip started for us with a 24 hour stopover in Hong Kong. Although we did not have much time in such a wonderful city, it was great that another member of the team has an aunt that lives in Hong Kong. This meant that right from the word go we were immersed in the culture and able to experience everything that Hong Kong had to offer. After a traditional lunch of Yum Cha, we rode the subway system, went to an ancient Chinese temple, visited one of Hong Kong’s local shopping districts, watched the Symphony of Lights from the harbour and looked over the city at night from “The Peak”. The whole experience was incredible and enabled me to look at things in ways that I never had before. It was interesting to look at the problems associated with a development of a city with nearly two times New Zealand’s population through the eyes of a geographer. Seeing the issues around transportation, housing and the environment that I had studied in class was very beneficial.

Khalid Gilbert (Year 11) has been selected into the Under-16 National Baseball Team that will be competing against top Australian competition in Queensland in September.  He is one of the top 16 players in his age group in one of the fastest growing sports in the nation.   Khalid will be training extensively with professional coaches in Auckland for the next four weeks until the team’s departure to Queensland on 21 September. The team will return to New Zealand September 26.   We congratulate Khalid on his achievement, look forward to reporting back his successes.

Gillette Cup - Day One

Our Under 15 Eight crew have won HBHS's third gold medal today, courtesy of Cameron Gribbon, John Clout, Eli Mossop, Quinn Tupaea, Matthew Kemp, James Keeling, Lee Oldfield, Joshua Hill and cox Jamie Hepworth.  Congratulations to these boys and to coaches Glenn Ross and Jack Donaldson on this outstanding result.

The weekend of the 9^th and 10^th of March was an exceptionally good one for HBHS sports teams with victories in touch rugby and volleyball, a nail-biting last over win in cricket, and a strong performance with nine gold medal-winning crews at the North Island Secondary School rowing championships.   With two weeks to go before the Maadi Cup Regatta, which will also be held at Lake Karapiro, this is certainly a sign that HBHS rowing is finding form at the right time in the season.