Surprise lunchtime visitor in Rimu

A black, white and tan shadow flashed across the grass towards some unsuspecting students eating their lunch. It is a dangerous creature, filled with sharp teeth and a strong-smelling nose. It had smelt the food of the students and was wanting to devour their lunch. 

What were these students to do?

There was only one thing they could do ...

I'm not sure much lunch was actually eating today. Can you guess why?

A bionic hand

We had a very special guest on Tuesday afternoon. His name was Richard and he is actually Mrs Taylor's husband. 

He is special for another reason and that is because he is the first person to have this style of bionic hand in Christchurch. Isn't that incredible?! We had never met anyone with a bionic hand before.

Richard took time to explain to us how he had lost his hand in a horse feeder when he was 17 and since then has had a hook (His nickname is Hooky!). Some of us had seen that hand and we thought it was interesting but a bionic hand kinda blew our minds. He explained to us how it works, how it moves, the different settings, how it has bluetooth!, how it has to be charged at night and how he almost squashed Mrs Taylor's finger when he was first learning to use it. 

His thumb is like a joystick. He also showed us how it comes off from the arm part and we spent some time asking questions. We found out that it was designed by a New Zealander and it cost between $80,000 to $85,000 to make. This blew our minds. It is also waterproof so you can get it wet. And Richard is thrilled to be able to peel potatoes now. 

It was pretty cool. Everyone really wanted to have a go touching it (though some of us were a bit nervous and just watched). Check us out having a great time shaking Richard's hand. 

Caption this!

Thanks so much Richard for coming in. It was super awesome to check it out. 

Blogger world - We wonder what you would find the most difficult if you had a bionic hand?

One legged man - what?

Do you know who this guy is? He's pretty amazing. About 10 years ago, when he was climbing Mt Ruapehu it erupted causing 60 olympic sized swimming pools worth of rock and debris to come crashing down on the mountain and on the hut he was staying in crushing his leg.

Luckily for him and for us he survived (with one less leg), but that hasn't stopped him living life to the fullest and he has created the William Pike Challenge Award. Our senior leaders are involved in this award and they are all working hard to meet the requirements.

On Wednesday William popped in for half an hour. He shared a little of his story for the benefit of those that didn't know (Year 5/6 students). Base and Jacob shared some of what we have been doing and other students shared some of their projects and community service.

Right at the end we took a photo or two with William. It was so great to have him pop in and it has inspired us to keep working hard on our challenge.

Thanks William!

P.S. Prudence has blogged about this so you can go to her blog to get a student's voice on the experience.