Winiata’s Blog

Te Awamutu Intermediate kapahaka roopu went to Rarotonga on the 14^th of June this year. We left on a Saturday and we returned on Sunday the 22^nd of June. We stayed for 8 days at The Edgewater Resort.

We arrived at school on Saturday at noon and we all got into the van and one other car. There were four adults going, Mr McCabe, Tracey Paekau, and two of the mums, Aunty Mel (Kataroa’s mum) and Aunty Linda (Anahera’s mum).

We got to Auckland airport at 4pm and we did a final repack of the luggage. We had to weigh our bags and get then to the check-in. Everyone had the maximum limit on weight because we were also carrying most of the food we would eat while we were there.

After check-in, we went upstairs and spent almost an hour, eating dinner – McDonalds – and looking around at the expensive shops. My brother Etere put his wallet down while he played in the arcade, and that disappeared so already he had no wallet and we weren’t even on the plane yet!

Then we said goodbye to the families that were there, then we finally boarded the plane. I sat with Etere and Pania, and we played cards and listened to music on the headphones.

We finally got there at 1 am in the morning. My first impression when I looked out the window was of how small the island was, judging by the lights I could see. When we landed they put on the brakes straight away because the runaway was so short so it was a fast stop.

We got out luggage from the conveyer belt and we got it stamped and checked. There was a man in the corner with a guitar and he was sing a welcome song, and wearing traditional lavalava and a lei around his neck. We got a lei each from some big cook island local, then we loaded the bags and were off! We could just see the beach as we were driving past to Edgewater resort.

On that first morning we just went into the villas and crashed out in our room. It was so hot that the boys all took their shirts off, even to sleep. It was so strange because it’s winter in NZ and it was hotter than a NZ summer over here, even though it was their winter too.

We were also having another Saturday all over again, because we had crossed the international dateline on our flight. So on Saturday morning we ate a tropical breakfast of all sorts of fruits as well as normal cereal.

Then went to the markets and had a look around at all the local crafts. I bought a slingshot and some food. I loaned $20 to Etere seeing as he had no cash, and he bought the same as me.

After lunch we went on an island hopper, a tour of Rarotonga. We saw all the main attractions like historical sites, the hospital, town, and schools, and some other smaller islands that were part of Rarotonga.

On Sunday we ate another delicious breakfast and then at 9am my aunty Turama came to get my brother and I. My aunty is from Wairoa and she grew up with my mum. In Rarotonga she is a lawyer for an American company. Mum had arranged for her to get us and take us out for the day.  First she took us to the Mormon church in Rarotonga, and everyone else in our group went to another church. Then she took us back to her house and we had lunch there with her and her husband. After that we rode on her scooter around the lawn, and watch a DVD. The best thing about her house was her BIG TV. Later on she took us on a tour of all the back roads and we asked all these questions about living in Rarotonga and about everything else she showed us. That was awesome.

Back at the resort that evening we had dinner with everyone else, then we went for a walk on the beach. The adults were talking and making plans for the rest of the week and aunty Turama was helping them with some ‘inside info’ on what to do and see.

On Monday we went on the highland paradise tour, where we saw the sites like the old marae. The tour guide pointed out all these other places where the Cook Island gods had made sacrifices on a big rock. A lot of their gods were the same as our maori gods, like Tangaroa. We saw the rock that pointed the way to Aotearoa New Zealand. We were told about their early life on the island and other historical information about their tribes.

 Then we had a big lunch with taro and coconut and more fruit. In the afternoon we went snorkelling, and I saw lots of tiny fish.

On Tuesday we were supposed to hire pushbikes and ride around the island but that got cut off the itinerary. So instead we went to the shops all day. That night we had island night at Edgewater Resort. It was held in the restaurant on their stage. There was exotic dancing and drums and performances from the locals. We had a big dinner of roast meats and seafood and curries and lots of salads. There were loads of desserts and cakes and pavlova and chocolate so we ate a lot that night.

This is part one and part two will follow!

On Sunday, the 13th of July my mum, my cousin Bronte and I packed a bag each and left home for Mt Ruapehu. We drove for two hours to Pukawa, to the chalet where we were going to stay for the next two nights. Pukawa is near Turangi, and my dad helped to build the house that we stay in  over there.

When we finally arrived, we went inside and were greeted by some of my dad’s uncles and aunties. Mum started talking to them, while my cousin Bronte and I sat on the couch and ate biscuits. Then we saw another car arrive outside. We rushed outside to see who it was, and it was my cousins Maurice and Clint from Wairoa. They had finally arrived, and they were spending the next two days with us.

While they were talking, my cousins and I caught up. I was buzzing with joy because I love being around all my cousins. When they come, mum usually gives us money, and we go places and have fun. The last time they came, my older cousin Eden had a baby, and a lot of people came to stay our house, which was really fun. 

After mum had finished talking, we went upstairs, unpacked all our gear, and started cooking dinner. I was really excited about being with my cousins because I thought one of two things would happen. Either mum would give us lots of money, or we would go somewhere fun and exciting. We chatted for a long time that night and discussed what we were going to do the next day.

We were going up to Whakapapa to go skiing, but we couldn’t decide if we should do skiing or snowboarding. I am the only one of all my cousins who has ever skied before. We couldn’t make up our minds, and we went to sleep that night still uncertain about what we were going to choose.

The next day I was awoken by a light right above my eyes. It was 6 o’clock in the morning, and we were having a very early breakfast. We were in a rush, even though it was really early. We got changed quickly and loaded the car with our supplies and hit the road.

We travelled for about half an hour, then we pulled in at a rental shop. We all got out and raced inside. I looked around for the coolest gear, and I found lots of snow gear, but I couldn’t get it because that wasn’t what we had come for. 

I had all my own gear, but my three cousins had no proper clothing because it was their first time on the mountain. One of the staff showed them where to find the right gear, and then they tried it all on for size. After the fittings, we went to the counter where we were going to hire them. While we were there, mum also bought us the lift passes that we would need on the ski slopes, so we wouldn’t have to worry about lining up again when we got up there. By now we were 30 minutes behind schedule!

We drove the rest of the way and we parked at the top of the Bruce road. There was snow on the ground alongside where the cars were parked. We leapt out of the car and began playing with it right away. Mum told us to hurry up because we still had to get snowboards and boots at the rental place in Happy Valley.

By the time we got everything, it was 9am. We had a snowboarding lesson at 9.30am, so we had to whip through rentals. I was really excited when I was given my gear because I felt like a professional using a snowboard. After we had geared up we were sent to the flag, where a group of other snowboarders were waiting. After joining the group we were given an instructor, and then we were off. In the lesson we were taught how to turn and all the basic moves. It was really fun because I was excelling and getting better and faster, while my cousins were falling behind. 

After 1 1/2 hours of being taught, we just wanted to get down those slopes and try out what we had just learned. I was powering down the hill, and I had to wait for ages down the bottom while my cousins came down. We spent the whole morning having races, trying some new tricks, or just sliding down on our butts just for the fun of it. 

After lunch we met our other 3 cousins and an uncle from Pirongia who were also skiing. They were staying the night with us at Pukawa, so we were even happier to see them. We spent part of the afternoon with them, then we tried going down really fast, and going backwards on the boards. 

By the end of the day, my cousins and I were soaking wet, and really tired. We couldn’t wait to get changed. On the way to our accommodation, we grabbed snowballs and bombed my uncle’s car. That was a great laugh, my uncle didn’t look too happy, but we didn’t care.

When we arrived home, we stripped out of our snow gear and sat in front of the heater. We talked about our day and if we were going to snowboard the next day. My calf muscles were aching, so we decided to go to the hot pools. We packed all our togs in the car and left.

When we arrived at the hot pools, we looked into a nearby river for some fish, but it was too dark to see. So we went in and got changed into our togs. We could see the steam rising up, even though we were outside. I tested the pool water by sticking my foot in first, and the water was so hot that it felt the opposite, it felt freezing cold. The temperature was so diverse that at first my body couldn’t tell whether the water was hot or cold! 

After a while, I slowly lowered myself into the pool, and the pain seemed to go away. It was really relieving, and I wanted to stay in it for a long time. We stayed in the pools until we got tired, then we got dressed and drove back to the chalet. 

The next morning, we knew what we were supposed to do, so we got straight to it. After packing the car, we zoomed off towards the mountain. We had decided to snowboard, but we also wanted to toboggan, so we thought about doing half a day of each, but we couldn’t make up our minds.

After rentals, we went down to happy valley, and we snowboarded for a while, until I started to think about going higher. I asked my cousins, but they wanted to stay in happy valley. After going down a few times, I just gave up on my cousins and went up to the rock garden on my own. It was the next trail up, and it was steeper and more challenging than happy valley. 

As I rode up on the chairlift I studied the trail, so I knew where I would be going. The Rock Garden was awesome for the first time down because of all the steep parts, so it wasn’t boring. When I got to the bottom, I was reunited with my cousins, who had finally come up.

We spent most of the day in the rock garden, learning some new tricks and getting better at snowboarding. We went over bumps, and sometimes we tried doing some jumps. One time, we even went off the track and onto another track which lead straight down to the car park. 

After lunch I wanted to go tobogganing, so we got the gear, but we had to walk all the way down to the car park, then walk all the way back up, then we had to walk even further up to get to the tobogganing area. 

The place was just a hill with a marked out area where people were sliding down. Once we saw how fast they were going, we raced up that hill, got on our sledges, and zoomed down the hill. One time, my cousins and I rammed in to the side, and crashed! We were laughing our heads off, because we had both set each other up to crash. 

We went down that hill several times, until we finally got tired, and slid back down to happy valley. We spent the rest of the afternoon snowboarding again. I did my best jump that day, and landed without falling over. I was so rapt that I kept falling over the rest of the way.  

That was the best day of my holidays, and I sure made the most of it. A great day spent up on the mountain left us so tired that we couldn’t even be bothered putting our clothes away, we just dropped them in the hallway, which didn’t please mum very much. 

That night was long and relaxing, but we were too tired to go to the hot pools, so we just rested on the couch and watched TV. As we ate dinner we thought about all the wonderful things we had done that day. I was really keen to do it again, but I knew we weren’t going up again tomorrow.

The next day we slept in so long that my uncle had been fishing for over an hour before we actually got up! But apart from the moaning the morning was pretty good….NOT! We had to clean the whole place up, which meant sorting clothes and packing our bags, vacuuming the house, sweeping the deck, doing the dishes and loading the car. We just couldn’t be bothered, but we still did it.

As we got into the car, I was really sad because I knew I wouldn’t be seeing my cousins again for a long time, and we had had such great fun together. But we had to say our goodbyes and leave. My cousins were going back to Wairoa and I was going back to Te Awamutu with mum. I was hoping that I would be able to do this again this season, and I can’t wait for the day when I will be able to go all the way to the top of Mt Ruapehu on my snowboard. 

My uncle Winiata Hamlin is a policeman in Wairoa. He has been involved in a CACTUS training programme for at-risk youth in Wairoa. CACTUS stands for Combined Adolescent Challenge Training Unit & Support.

It has already been tried in Picton – a boot camp for young people has lowered youth crime in the area by 82%. Mike McRoberts comes from Wairoa, so 60 Minutes travelled there to see exactly how the initiative works, and whether it could make a difference to a town where a quarter of all crime is committed by under 17 year olds.

With relentless physical training, very early starts, and group punishments for individual slip ups, boot camp is hard work.  Twenty-five young people started the training with varying degrees of motivation. The group were aged between 13yrs and 16yrs old. Some were volunteers and some were recommended for the training.

CACTUS is a programme of physical training developed from the Armed Forces programme. It is designed to extend a young person’s mind and physical capability. The CACTUS course runs for eight weeks, with three one hour training sessions per week of progressively harder physical routines.The programme also includes career education, motivational speakers and mentoring with a view to having youth reach their full potential. CACTUS aims to grow and develop the skills and attitudes young people need to take part in society, now and in the future.Source – developmentwairoa.co.nz, 60 Minutes  (02-06-08)

My dad works as a yardman at Timmos ITM. He drives a forklift, loads trucks with packets of wood, he sells timber, and he prepares order requirements for builders.

On the 16^th of May just before the bell rang for home time, I noticed dad’s car in the car park of our school, waiting for me to come out. We were going to a graduation ceremony in Rotorua that at the time seemed so important to him.

The graduation was for my Dad because he did a training course and was getting a certificate for wood product manufacturing Level 2. Because my dad had taken part in one of these courses, we were all invited to a party where we would see him receive his certificate for completing his course.

This year the FITEC training organisation held their graduation for all participants at the Blue Baths in Rotorua, a small city located in the central north island of New Zealand.

As I hopped into the car, he checked that I had my seatbelt on, and then he zoomed out of the school’s driveway. On the way to Hamilton (a city where my mum works), dad picked up my two brothers, then left town in a cloud of dust!

Once we arrived in Hamilton, we parked dad’s car at mum’s school and got into mum’s car. Then we continued our journey onwards to Rotorua. On the way, I got a little bored and decided to annoy my brother, which resulted in arguing and fighting in the back seat. After an outburst from an angry mother and an upset baby, we agreed that I had learnt my lesson.

When we arrived at our destination, I was given the instruction to look out for our hotel. Luckily, I spotted it just as we were almost reaching the edge of Rotorua. The hotel was about five storeys high, but we only had a room on the ground floor. We quickly unloaded our bags and got changed, getting prepared for the celebration.

As we travelled along the main road towards our venue, we had a lot of problems. We couldn’t find the right street, time was ticking on, and Dad was starting to get a little desperate. We went up and down the same street several times just to find that the street we were on wasn’t the right one! By then we were running about half an hour late!

Once we found the right street, we didn’t know which building we needed. So we searched up and down the street, sometimes driving all the way around buildings. After a while mum finally gave up and stopped to ask directions at one of the hotels. To our great surprise, our correct destination was just across the street! All that searching for nothing!

Anyway, after we had found a car park and parked the car, we proceeded through the doors of the ‘Blue Baths’. As we walked in we were assured that we weren’t too late, because they were running late themselves.

While dad went to register at the registration desk, we settled down and found a spot to wait until the hosts were ready. Nearby us was a table loaded with hot and cold drinks and cups. My brother and I guzzled coke, one glass after another, as we were thirsty from the long trip.

Finally we were allowed into the venue. We had a seat near the front and we waited patiently while the formalities were carried out. Then each graduate had their name called out. They had to go up onto the stage and get their certificate. Each certificate was framed and wrapped in a ribbon. Everyone clapped after each group was done.

Eventually my dad’s name was called out. He went up and mum took a photo but it didn’t come out because the lighting wasn’t right. At the end of all that, we just had to wait while the waitresses brought out big trays of food. There was salmon on pancakes, chicken kebabs, meatballs, and other stuff. I really enjoyed that part.

After a while, we decided to go back home. On the way we asked if we could get McDonalds, but there was another problem. The McDonalds was on a corner and we couldn’t find the entrance into this strange place.

It was a repeat of earlier, driving all the way around the building to enter, and still finding ourselves in the wrong place! Frustrated, we searched around but couldn’t find an entrance so we decided to enter through the exit, and go in the wrong way. Then we got our food.

Once dinner was over we returned to our hotel room. We got changed and settled down to watch sky TV. I was thinking about what fun we had just had, then mum came up with an idea. She wanted to go outside and have a late night swim in the heated pools. As we stepped outside, I noticed the temperature had dropped and it felt very cold at this time of night.

Anyway, we had a look around and managed to find the biggest pool first. We dipped our feet in but it was only a little bit warm. Then we came to the smaller pool, and we were surprised because it was really warm, so we jumped right in. Then we saw that it was a Jacuzzi. We sat in there for a while, and turned on the air jets, that was pretty cool. We had the whole place to ourselves.

After some time, we chose to get out and change for the night. Once we got back to our own room, we settled in bed and turned on sky TV. We watched it until midnight, and then mum told us to turn the TV off because we had to go to sleep.

First thing in the morning, we got up and decided to search for the gymnasium. As we were getting ready to leave the rooms, mum noticed a short-cut down the stairs, so my brother and I agreed to go and check it out. Luckily for us, the short-cut led straight to the gym. Mum and dad said they wanted a sleep-in and that breakfast would be at 9.00am. So we took our brother Jordan with us and went to try out all of the workout equipment. Then we wandered around the motel grounds some more.

When we went into the restaurant for breakfast, the sight we saw was amazing. There were about ten tables spread out, covered with all sorts of food. The first table had hot drinks, and then another table had all sorts of cold drinks and juices. One table had all kinds of cereal, another table had fresh fruit, tinned fruit and dried fruit. Next to that was another table with toast and spreads, split english muffins, blueberry muffins and a range of pastries.

Then came the hot food, every kind of breakfast food that you can imagine. Bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, hash browns, kumara, mushrooms, baked beans, pancakes with maple syrup….the choice was endless! There was even a table full of oriental foods like noodles, rice curries and wonton soup. This was traditional breakfast for Asian people. My brother and I tried almost everything, we just ate till we were stuffed full.

At about ten o’clock, we went down to the motel pool, and stayed there swimming till noon. Then we got dressed, packed our bags and loaded the car. We couldn’t wait to go on the luge, a tourist attraction on a hill where you ride down in these little go-carts. I think it’s really fun. We had some discussions about what we should do for the rest of the day.

First mum wanted to go to a market which was on in a nearby park. While mum and dad were having a look in the bookstore and the market, my brothers and I played on the rope structure. We were supposed to stay there for about half an hour, but ended up playing for an hour. When we finally decided to leave, our car battery was dead. Now we’re stuck there for another hour, waiting for the AA man to come and start our car.

After that we were able to leave, and mum and dad decided to cancel all other activities and just go straight home. By then it was 4.00pm and we had to get back home. That’s when my brother Etere and I started complaining, because we really wanted to go on the luge. As usual, mum was not going to change her mind, and kept reminding us that we were late and had to leave Rotorua.

All of us fell asleep from our swim and our big breakfast. I really enjoyed the weekend away and my favourite part was definitely the breakfast because we got to eat as much as we wanted. Dad was happy that we all got to go away together as a family. Mum was just happy to get home.

On Monday May 12^th, I packed my bags and headed out my front door, on the way to school for our 2008 Totora Springs camp. Most of the students in the symphonic band and choir were attending this camp which was held at Totora Springs.  After I arrived at school, I watched as everyone else filed into the ALC. Quickly, I put down my bags and followed. We settled down on the floor and waited for instructions. Once our music teacher had finished speaking, we grabbed our bags and boarded the bus. The trip there was noisy and loud because lots of people were singing in the back of the bus. I spent much of the travelling time texting my friends.  When we arrived, we unloaded our bags and prepared our cabins by unpacking and laying out sleeping bags, etc.  Then we had our first practise. We set out all the chairs and got out our instruments. We stocked our folders with the music we needed for the camp. The tunes we were given were really great, and I had fun as we learnt how to play them all.  As the day went on, we practised for many hours, and before I realised it, the day was all over. After dinner I lay down and thought of what a fun day I had had, and I couldn’t wait until tomorrow.  The next morning, after breakfast, we commenced our practising. That day we practised for about 6 hours, and at the end I was really tired. But the time had come for the big concert, for which we had prepared many hours. We were going to have an evening show with an audience of hundreds.  We lined up in another room, and tuned our instruments ready for the night. I was starting to get a little nervous. The teacher told us to head for the big room where we were going to perform. But on the way there, the fire alarm went off. Everyone had to evacuate the building, which made a lot of visitors angry. Once the alarm had been switched off, the word was given to go back inside. We sat down quietly in our seats and waited for everyone else to settle down. The teacher lifted her arm. It was time for us to play. I lifted my instrument slowly, and as I did, the beat was given, and we played. I looked at the music as I played my Tenor Saxophone. I watched closely as the audience stared back at us. We played about five songs before the bracket was finally finished. I rested my saxophone on my lap with relief, and watched all the others perform.  The concert carried on for about 1 hour. By the end I was tired and wanted to get out. At the very end, we all stood up and took a bow. We all filed out of the big room with happiness and relief that it was all over. All that practising had certainly paid off. I am proud and happy that I performed that night at Totara Springs camp, and I look forward to the next time I’ll be able to play in the T.A. Intermediate senior band.

In the weekend, my family and I packed the car, ready to depart on our journey up north just past Whangarei. We were attending the wedding of my cousin and her fiancé. Once in the car I knew it would be an uncomfortable ride, and I wasn’t wrong! I was stuffed up in the back with all these groceries around me. They were annoying me, especially the bread because I had to take extra care with it or else it would have been squashed.   After driving all the way through Auckland, we arrived in Whangarei after dark, and just couldn’t wait to get out and stretch! But the trip wasn’t over then. We still had another 40 minutes to bear until we arrived at our true destination. As we were travelling we went through a long and winding road. As we turned one of the corners, I looked out the window and I just caught a glimpse of a poster with a dark mask on it, like Phantom of the Opera. That sure gave me the creeps, especially when I couldn’t see anything else. Finally the trip was over, and we unloaded the car, dumping our gear anywhere we could. We were staying at my nana’s place for a couple of nights. Straight away I lay on the couch and drank my Milo. About ten minutes later, more people arrived but I didn’t have a clue who they were, whereas mum seemed to know them all, so I didn’t have to worry. That night my nana was in pain and mum had to take her to the hospital at ten o’clock at night, but she didn’t get back till five in the morning! This made the baby really upset. He had been crying for about half an hour when we finally gave up and let the baby out of the room where we were trying to put him to sleep. We stayed up with the baby for a long time, until finally he fell asleep. Next morning I woke up with major bags under my eyes. That morning we got dressed into our good clothes and went out for breakfast to find the bride in her white dress, with her hair all straightened out and all her make-up and stuff, ready for her big day. And next to her were the bridal party. I couldn’t believe that we spent the whole night with the bridal party and I didn’t even know.That was a surprise! After a while, we packed up our beds, and got into the car. Mum was really tired, and she was having second thoughts about driving. But we got there anyway. The wedding was being held in a field in my auntie’s paddock. As we arrived we saw a big marquee pitched in the middle with all these cars parked in rows in the front. Once we had parked the car, we noticed that it was raining down, so we got the umbrella out and went around, greeting all of our extended whanau. We got to the entrance and stood, with a crowd of people, under a shelter. There were some boys emptying puddles off of our shelter, so my brother and I decided to join in. We gathered all this water in a big puddle on the roof of the marquee and moved it to the edge. Once everyone had stepped back, we pushed the water over the edge and we watched it splash all over the ground. We found it so amusing that we repeated it several times, each time making it bigger and bigger. Suddenly, the crowd were silenced, then I heard them talking about a pink Cadillac. I was wondering what it was about, then I peeked around the corner and saw the answer. A pink Cadillac had just driven through the mud on the driveway and stopped beside a walkway (which I had only just noticed). A moment later, the bridal party got out of the car. The bride was wearing her white dress with a long train out the back, which was held up by the maid of honour – her sister. She was leading with the bridesmaid by her side. The path they were walking was decorated with plants and flowers. There were three people standing at the end of the path, waiting for them. Then they proceeded to the big totara tree that was between the path and the entrance to the marquee. There was a man standing under the totara tree. He was the bishop of a church. He was going to marry them. As the bride arrived at the tree, she was joined by her fiancé. They smiled, and the bishop started to talk. Everyone came in closer to try and listen to what he was saying. He was pronouncing the vows. Everyone was happy as they watched them get married. When it was finished they were all cheering. People started proceeding to the big marquee. As I walked in, I could see all these tables lined up nicely, with all these chairs placed around them. There was a long row of seats with people standing around them. The Master of Ceremonies announced that it was time to take photos. One by one, group by group, people started to come up and either take a photo or have their photo taken. About half an hour later, everyone had settled down, and the MC stated that it was time for the speakers. People from the bridal party stood up to express their feelings for the new couple. Other people talked about the bride and groom when they were kids, how they had met, and how happy they looked. Mum had a speech and talked about our great grandfather who has been dead for 16 years. He was the Patriarch of our family. After that we just stood beside her when she sang her song. Finally it was my favourite part – time to eat! There was a long table in the middle of the marquee and it was covered in food. Seafood was crayfish, kinas, pauas, raw fish, smoked snapper-heads, mussels, and really big oysters, as big as fried eggs. In the hangi there were huge trays of mutton, chicken, pork, kumara, pumpkin, stuffing and spuds. For dessert we had ice-cream, steam pudding, fruit salad, and chocolate logs. The wedding cake was a german chocolate cake. When all the eating was over they had a huge party and the DJ played music which was loud as. Everyone had beers but by this time it had been raining so hard that the ground was really churned up with mud and people had to go home to get changed and put gumboots on. After we went home they said that the paddock flooded and all the cars got stuck trying to leave! We stayed there for two more days. Then at 3 am on Monday morning my brother Etere got a bug from the other kids in the house. He was vomiting and felt sick. So then mum decided it was time to leave and go back home, if everyone was going to end up vomiting. On the trip home we only got as far as Whangarei and I puked all over my uncle’s lawn! I was just as sick as Etere. We drove to Auckland and just as we were leaving there, my little brother Jordan vomited all inside the car. Now he had the bug. The smell was unbearable, and we all felt like throwing up again. Mum was the only one who didn’t get sick. We arrived home safe and sound later that night. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the trip even though it rained most of the time and everything was either soaking wet, or covered in mud or vomit! The good part was being at the wedding and seeing all the whanau again.

On the 8th of April, rooms 3 & 7 arrived at school with all their bags packed and ready to depart. We were going to Ohope for this year’s camp. Ohope is a nice little town right next to the beach. Once the bell rang to start school, we all assembled outside the classroom, but we had to wait for another hour because one of the drivers had not yet arrived. Just before we left, the teacher put us into the groups that we were travelling in. I had the best car because our driver gave us chocolate bars to eat. 

On our way to Ohope we took a detour and stopped at Lake Okataina, and boy was it windy! We went onto the lakeshore and immediately noticed two waka that were beached, half on the shore and half in the water. We played touch on the sand and I got hurt. I was running fast and I fell forward and grazed my knee badly. 

After eating lunch we took a walk along a track into the bush. I was misbehaving and tossing sticks onto the track. Eventually the track led to an even windier clearing by the lake. The force of the wind was so strong that when I tossed a stick straight up into the air it landed 5 metres behind me. After a while we returned back to where the cars were parked. 

On the way back we drove through some very winding roads, and our car came very close to scraping against the steep cliffs on the left hand side. After that, the rest of the trip was ordinary, until we arrived in Whakatane and got lost for a while.

When we finally arrived at Ohope we discovered we were the first car to get there. We couldn’t unpack because the cabins were still locked so we played cricket while we waited for everyone else to get there. My friend accidentally hit the ball across the road and we weren’t allowed to cross over to get it so that ball was history until later on in the day when we recovered it from a bush. Once the others got there, we all grabbed our bags and put everything in the cabins. 

Later that afternoon we went to the beach to play a game of touch. My knee was still hurting and I tripped over again and got sand in it so that didn’t help. So I abandoned the touch game and decided that throwing handfuls of wet sand at the girls would be more entertaining. That night we had meatballs and spaghetti for dinner. I stuffed myself full.  Then I went to bed and slept like a log. That’s the first day done.  

Walking through a house which has been destroyed by fire is really weird. The public tours went from 10 o’clock until 2o’clock. At 3 o’clock, all the fire-fighters in town gathered for the next event. They were going to burn down the remainder of the building. All the fire trucks were parked along the road (which, by the way, was closed), and they tested the hoses. There were cones and barrier tape marking where the public boundaries.

There was a big crowd of people sitting across the road from the house. We all had our cameras out ready to see the action.  Shortly after, a fire-fighter went inside to the owner’s bedroom. About a minute later, we could see flames leaping up, through the bedroom window. Two minutes later, the window exploded. Soon part of the roof was on fire. I looked in the hollow gap where the window had once been, and the room was completely full of flames. That was when my camera and I went crazy.  

Ten minutes later I heard from the crowd a gasp of shock as the bedroom roof collapsed. The bedroom door had incinerated, letting the fire spread into the rest of the house. Suddenly, big clouds of strange yellow smoke appeared above the house. It was the insulation in the roof which made the yellow smoke (Bradford gold batts). What really amazed me was how hot it was. The corrugated iron up the roof was melting so fast that I could feel the heat from across the road, and it felt hotter than the sun.  There was a big tree at the front of the house. At the beginning it was all green and growing ok. While the house was burning, all the leaves were turning brown and shrivelling.  The firemen were hosing the neighbour’s houses, and also the lawn and the tree. Luckily the tree was saved from catching fire, but I don’t know if it is still alive. 

My favourite part was probably the chimney collapsing. While the house was crumbling room by room, the chimney was still standing. Eventually, it finally began to give way. But this was different because it was falling just a little at a time. The excitement of the crowd was growing every time it fell because we all wanted to see what would happen when it finally flopped.Another highlight was the smoke which was billowing out into the sky. Sometimes it was white, black, yellow and grey. When the roof had fully collapsed, there was a big burst of black and yellow smoke. When I got home afterwards, I could still see the smoke from my house.  I can’t wait to go back and see what it looks like now.

This is my third weekly diary (which is the latest you could get). Yesterday, after we had picked up our Makuhari student, we went to view a house which was in the newspaper. A man called Grant lost his house in a fire 6 months ago, but the house didn’t burn all the way down. It had happened at 2 o’clock in the morning (the day it was damaged of course!). Grant was the only person in the house at the time, and if his dog hadn’t woken him up, he wouldn’t have survived.  There were some firemen waiting outside the house, and they took us in for a tour. They told us that the fire started when a laptop was left on the carpet. It was over-heating and it ignited. It travelled along the carpet and burned the couch, which just happened to contain the equivalent of 30 litres of fuel. On the wall was what remained of a flat screen plasma TV. IT was just a piece of rusted metal hanging on the wall. The fire-fighters showed us how dangerous it is to leave electronics plugged into the wall at night. The kitchen was a mess and the fridge freezer had melted and shrunk. There was a tap going in the sink but the tap handle had burned so bad it was melted and couldn’t be turned off. I went into a room where the door had been shut, and the room had suffered hardly any damage. As I walked around inside, I looked up at the roof. It was completely hollow and I could see all the wires that used to power the lights. I could see what was inside the walls, and in some places, you could just make out the wallpaper which was surrounded by flame marks. There were signs on the walls which stated the things that happened there, for example: one said ‘this room reached up to 400 degrees Celsius’, and another said ‘the smoke level was down to here’, which was about 30cm above the floor.  It must have been really sad for the owner to stand helplessly outside and watch all his belongings explode into flames.

TVNZ News Report, Apr 23, 2007A man who survived being mauled by dogs six years ago says the death of a 56-year-old Rotorua woman at the weekend is good enough reason to ban vicious breeds.Virginia Ohlsen was out walking in Murupara when she was attacked by a Staffordshire cross and a pitbull terrier, both dogs unregistered.Despite the efforts of others at the scene to keep her warm and try to stem the blood flow, she died of shock and trauma as an ambulance took her to hospital.Howard Martin, who was attacked by three pitbulls when he went to a house in the Auckland suburb of Papakura, says the latest tragedy brought back horrific memories and he recalls the way the dogs just would not give up. His scars have never healed.Martin says the pitbull breed is harder to deal with than the likes of Alsatians because the pitbull latches on and has every intention of killing.Martin says Ohlsen’s death is a tragedy which could have been prevented.The two dogs involved in the attack have been destroyed and their owner will know on Friday if charges will be laid against him. Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Loper says police will talk to the Crown solicitor on Friday.Whakatane District Council chief executive Diane Turner says the council is leaving it up to police to prosecute the owner. She says the dogs were never registered with the council and there is no record of them on their database.It is the third fatal dog attack in the last 10 years.The pitbull terrier is the same breed that left Auckland school girl Carolina Anderson badly disfigured and partially blind.In my opinion the police and the government should ban the dogs because they are killing and hurting innocent people. The dogs are dangerous because the owners let them roam around on the streets. This means the streets are unsafe for ordinary people. This woman got killed but it would have been much worse if it was a child, like my little brother who is three.If my little brother was even bitten by a dog then I would report it to the police. If my brother was killed by a dog then the dog should be put down and the owners of the dog should go to jail.Vicious dogs should be removed the country, or not allowed to come here in the first place.