"WHAT ARE THEY LIKE?"

St Peter's & Opotiki

St Peter's School Derry Dia daoibh, a chairde, (Hello, friends) [pronounced: Gee-ah deeve, a car-ja] You will have a good laugh at our guesses, but this is what we imagine life to be like with you in New Zealand. We will be glad to read what you say about our guesses. You have lots of rivers and you have sea all around you, so it rains a lot just sometimes, like here in Ireland, except we get rain all the time, nearly. Our names are Michael Harkin, Mark Doherty, Peter Nash We know you have a very good national rugby team, who are black, we think. At nights you can light fires on the beaches and the young people gather there to sing and have good fun on special nights of the year. Even if we are totally wrong, we hope you enjoyed reading this. Slán libh (Goodbye!) [pronounced: Slan liv] Michael S, Michael H, and James D We think fruit picking would be a big industry in your country because the weather is so good. We also think that wine making would be big in New Zealand because there are so many fruits that grow there. Thank you for your letter Karl, Eamon and Kevin I think that there are lots of fruit trees, especially apples, plums, oranges and bananas. You probably can see these growing everywhere and they are growing wild out in the country. Best wishes Liam and Sean I think the most popular sport in New Zealand is rugby. I think this because they are always faster than their opposition and a lot fitter than them. Brendan,Gavin,Gary

Opotiki College Opotiki Kia ora guys. Here are our impressions of Ireland: We think that people in Ireland are very pale with red or blonde hair. Most of the Irish go to either a Catholic, Protestant or Anglican church. For a night out on the town, you go to the pub or night-clubbing. From what we've seen in movies, you are very musical people. We think that Irish people tell alot of (Irish) jokes. Kylie, Maree and Sophie We suspect that your weather conditions are very cold in the winter around 0 degrees, continual rain and knee deep snow. But in summer it's a different scene, blue sky and green grass, with temperature around 25 degrees celsius and up. Kelly, Roma and Luke This is our perspective on how we think your country looks like. We think your country has heaps of hills, lots of hedges, a few fruit trees-mainly apples and maybe oranges. There might be a couple of swamps and marshes and lots of ponds/lakes. This is what we think you have on your farmland. Sheep, dairycows, horses, goats. In the winter the soil will be all wet and soggy when its raining. In the summer the soil will be dry and hard and clayey because of the hot sun. Amanda, Christina, Douglas We think the main economic activity in your country is mostly farming sheep and cattle. We also think that vineyards and wine making is a big industry in North Ireland. The other good industries in North Ireland we think are coal mining, fishing and making Irish whiskey. That is all we could come up with. We hope you liked reading about our interpretation of your country. You probably had some good laughs about our interpretation, but we think it is similar. Good-bye till next, so laters from us here. Hayley, Shakeeb and Jennie We think that your country is very religious and have to attend church. You are Catholic, Protestant, Anglican. This sometimes causes religious conflict. The English army becomes involved when things get out of hand between the Protestants and Catholics. Kendyl, Gemma and Niwha The people in our class think that people in your country go to the pub and go nightclubbing. They play all sorts of sports, like to travel and go sailing. We also think that you love to sing and dance, play music and have plenty of comedians to make everybody laugh. We also think that you go hunting with hounds and go duck shooting and pheasant shooting. Jed, Jarrod and Vivienne We think that people in Ireland are very sports minded and that you do enjoy the following sports: soccer, rugby, league, cricket, swimming, gymnastics, hunting, horse-riding, golf, croquet, sailing, polo and shooting. We know we are good at rugby for a little country and we conquer EVERYBODY, including Ireland. Ka kite - see ya later Tannia, Jarrod, Claire and 3G1 Now have a look at St Peter's responses to Opotiki's first impressions! This is the REAL Northern Ireland!