The Monster Fights

I woke up in the morning with a loud thud that hit the deck of my bed room floor. My whole family got woke up by it but they took it as an alarm and we all started packing our two cars and our boat. It took a long time to put all of our gear in to the cars and the boat. The only thing that was keeping me going was thought of catching a 30 pound snapper, so we all hop into the cars and he head off to Cable Bay in the Bay Of Islands.

Once we arrived at the boat ramp it was time to put the boat into the water. Dad had scrambled off to park the car and once he was done we all hoped into the boat. The direction the boat was heading was straight for Cable Bay on Urupukapuka Island. Once we arrived it took us around 2 hours to set up camp. When Dad and I had enough we headed out to catch some bait fish for our fishing trip tomorrow morning.

We were already prepared as dad and I had caught some bait fish the other day for our fishing trip. Dad and I raced out in our boat to Whale Rock. Hay Josh throw out the sea anchor said Dad. When we put our first live baits down we had to put up with some HUMUNGUS fights.

Dad and I arrived back at the bay and I showed off my 8.5kg Snapper to everyone on the beach. Dad had decided to do the same thing and he held up his 7kg Snapper. Mum and Katie got one big shock but in a happy way. Later that day Marcus, Mike and I went out to Bird Rock to catch some bigger fish we were planning to catch some Kingfish. The reason the rocks name is Bird Rock is because there have being so much birds that fly around there and they all poo all over the rock, the hole rock is completely white. That was the day when I caught my first Kingfish it was only 1cm under the legal limit. At the end of the day we arrived back to the bay with one Kingfish caught by Ethen only 3cm bigger than my one that put back.

Later that week everyone started to leave. My whole family had to help other family’s pack up. When the last lot had left it was just us and some other Campers.

After a long time off packing up we loaded our boats and after we had said good bye to our friends and this lovely island it was time to push off the boat and we jumped on. It took a long time to get to the boat ramp because we were going so slowly so I tried to occupy us all so we started to say what was the best thing that happened. I said “catching a big 8.5kg monster snapper. I can’t wait until next year’s monster fights.           

BY JOSH NILSION

when my friend Kieran came over by william

Yay. Today is the day when I go to pick up Kieran from Auckland. But it doesn’t come until 7:00 P.M So I played on my Xbox 360 with FILTION, XxPUINxX, JOE PINEAPPLES, and Cheese cake man.

6:30 time to pick up Kieran. Once we picked up Kieran we had Subway for dinner. Yum! By the time we got home it was bed time.

On Saturday Kieran and I basically played Halo: Reach on Xbox 360 on Xbox live all day with FILTION, XxPUINxX, JOE PINEAPPLES, and Cheese kake man.  Cheese kake man was the best

Sunday, time to wave Kieran Good Bye. But not until 5:30 P.M so we played on the kinect the games we played were kinect adventures, kinectamils, and kinect sports. 5:30 dinner then we waved good bye to Kieran

So I had fun as well as Kieran. He also made some online friends as well. I am also going to make him an online account.

paratahi floods-sarah

The rain was back. The rain had gone last night, but it was back. Dad asked if I wanted to go on the beach while the rain wasn’t hard.

The tide was right up by the top of the sand! My cousin must have seen us and came with us and brought my sister and my uncle, basically everyone.

My cousin found a purple jelly fish. We found another and another and another. We kept finding purple jelly fish everywhere!

We got to the bend at the part of the beach where it turns into road. The road was completely covered in water! So we waded through the ankle deep water. Then we walked to the other side of the beach and back. We couldn’t find any more jelly fish purple or not. Afterwards we went to my cousin’s house. It’s right by the beach. Because it was raining we made some Milo, but we added extra powder and sugar so it was like hot chocolate. We sat down and watched TV. for a bit.

“Hey, it stopped raining!” I said. “Let’s go on the beach again!”

 I asked if we could but mum said no. So I looked at it instead. When I got there, there was no sand, No place to walk, nothing! Just water. So I went to the others and told them to come with me. So they followed when we got there their eyes just about popped out of their heads! “WOW!” they said altogether.

We went up to have dinner, watched a movie then went to bed. Outside I heard the wind whispering away.

As I lay down I thought: would the water still be that high tomorrow? As I thought about it I fell asleep.

Nitro Circus Live By Daniel

“Food” I cheered as my Aunt Robyn and I squeezed our way through the crowd to the food stall, we got a hot dog and chips with a drink each, then we raced as fast as we could to find our seats, as soon as we sat down, there had been an announcement saying ‘Nitro Circus was about to begin.’

            ‘Munch, Munch, Bite, Munch, Slurp.’ As I ate I watched the introduction which was introducing everybody that was participating, including New Zealand’s own Levie Sherwood, First off was the wacky ideas; “what, a bogie board with wheels” I said surprised, as the guy that rode it climbed up the stairs to the top of the gigantic ramp, but as that happened, Godfrey’s daughter came down on a kids three wheel tricycle, she jumped about 6 metres in the air, and then Godfrey came down on another tricycle.

“Surf’s up guy’s” exclaimed the guy with the bogie board with wheel’s, (zoom) he raced down on his stomach on top of the bogie board, (whoosh) he flew right in the air with his legs dangling behind him, Down came another guy who was on skis and this is what he said “This is the closest thing to snow we’ve got so I figure I at least got to give it a try.” (Jump) “That looks like fun” I replied, as soon as he landed the announcer at the top of the gigantic ramp said to the hosts “uh, guy’s, I’ve got a shopping trolley up here” “a what?” one of the hosts asked “a hopping trolley” answered the announcer in a high pitched voice, the guy riding it was wearing roller skates so he didn’t have to sit in the trolley, he let go in mid air and the trolley crashed to the ground, the guy on the bogie board had an idea, so he raced down the gigantic ramp again and in mid-air stood on the top of it, just as he landed he fell off, it was funny to see the slow-motion version on the big screen. Up next was the Crazy Trick Trains, the first of them wasn’t very interesting, just a normal jump, secondly, the tail whip, each getting bigger and bigger until they were 135* turns, finally the back flip , all the same except the last one  which was a double back flip, the crowd went crazy, after the next stunt they went crazier; a bike jumping with a side cart.

            “They must be nuts to go down there on a skate board” I exclaimed, at the top of the girls jump, She did a nose grab (grab’s front of board), the second time around, She had don an Indy (grab’s right side of board) “are you kidding me?”I asked being oratorical, I saw that a guy was riding down the gigantic ramp on a chilli bin and landed the jump. During their 25 minute break, I got a shaved ice, the flavours that I chose were; Raspberry, Strawberry, Blue Bubblegum, Lemon and Lime, I also got hot dounuts, 5 of them to be exact, and they were delicious. As soon as the break had finished, the guy in the wheel chair attempted a forwards flip, but feel off as soon as he landed, to say as a joke he said “I think I’m going to be in a wheel chair for the rest of my life” so at the top of the gigantic ramp again, but instead of a forward flip, he did a back flip, and landed it without falling off. Up with the motorbikes again, (zoom, whoosh) up in the air, that was high, and while he was up there he did a perfect double back flip and landed successfully, I thought that was crazy, but the next stunt is completely nuts, he’s up in the air again only higher, the guy completely perfected the landing of a double forwards flip.

            At the end of the show my Aunt took me too her batch, luckily I had my camera, I recorded the second 10^th of the first half, “”Did you enjoy it, Daniel?” asked my aunt Robyn “Of course,” I answered “It was awesome.

Holiday on Amity

Yay! We finally found the right bay Enteco bay. I looked over and saw a familiar face on a boat that was just anchoring, it looked like Sara but I wasn’t sure, I told dad and we went over for a look. As we got closer I saw Jessie( Sara’s sister). We hopped aboard their boat and had a look around. It started getting late so we went back to our boat for dinner.

The next day we woke up bright and early. The sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the water was clear blue. Dad said “Why don’t we ask if the Taylors want to go biscuiting with us. There’s not so many boats in here”. “Yeah” we shouted. I grabbed my togs and got dressed into them. After 10mins of trying to find the pump. We opened the cupboard and there it was. Dad pumped it up then tied it on to the dinghy. Jared, dad and I hopped in and zoomed off to the Taylors boat. We asked Glen (Sara’s dad)  if they’d like to come biscuiting with us. Before Glen could say Yes or No Sara, Jessie and Kate came running out in their togs all ready to go. So they hopped into our dinghy and we zoomed to shore. We took turns, I was first. My heart was pounding I clinged to the biscuit. Dad started up the motor. All of a sudden I’m slipping and sliding everywhere my fingers were slowly peeling off but I was determined to stay on. “Ahh Ahh” It was coming up to the corner. I swooped out to the side. The water was flat until I zoomed over it, water was rushing from behind me. I was gripping on so tightly my hands were going red. I slowly started to let go when I then realised we had stopped. I jumped off and gave it to Sara she clambered on and away she went. She was so fast it almost looked like lighting. She soon arrived back to shore we all had a couple of turns then it started getting cold. So we hopped in the dinghy and went back to our boats. Then at about 7:30pm we heard a motor we looked outside, it was the Taylors. They had come to join us for dinner.

We all woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. The water looked warm so mum and I decided to go for a swim. I got out the ladder and hooked it in, I slowly put one foot in and shivered a bit, then I quickly put the other one in. SPLASH!!! I screamed. Dad had jumped off the top so I scrambled my way back onto the boat and onto the top. I leaped out into the middle of nothing I slowly fell splash I hit the water. I swam back to the ladder and did it all over again. When finally after two hours of nonstop swimming we decided to see what seafood we could get.

We started up the motor and in no time we were out by the black rocks. Dad baited up the lines once they were all baited up we let our lines out. After an hour we’d caught nothing and dad was starting to get annoyed so we headed back to the bay. Luckily at the Kerikeri supermarket mum had bought lots of seafood.

It was time we had to leave. I had a quick swim. The water was so nice I didn’t want to hop out but sadly I had no choice. I had a warm shower. And we carefully potted back to the mooring. Once we arrived mum and dad loaded up the dinghy we clambered in and zoomed to shore. We packed the car with all our stuff and had along ride back. Not that I noticed because I slept the whole way back.

yeeha rainbows end

Yee ha rainbows end. It was gangster, mean as at first. I went to the scorpion carts first. It was slow, but good.

Next I went to the Fear fall. I got on the Fear Fall. We went up, up, up, up! It was freaky! Bang! It was fast, woow, I was so scared. I went white it was like jumping out of a airplane.

After that, I went to the family carts. It was my favourite. I went fast.

Bro, lollies. I went to get some lollies. I got the munchies and went to the rollercoaster. I got in and I was off. Man it is cool. I saw my brother Adam and                          He told me we were going home. I got off the rollercoaster and went home.

Rainbow end was awesome. I would like to go again. Next time i will go on the log ride because I missed out this time.

dylans birthday by travis

“Mum, Dad hurry up we’re going to be late”. I was going to Dylan’s birthday party today. “C’mon we’re going to be late”, I said as soon as they appeared in the door way.  We’re coming, we’re coming”, they said as they grabbed the keys to the car “We’re we going again, to that paint ball place Maungapi, or are we going to drop you off at Dylan’s?”                                                                     “Oh my gosh I’ve told you already, Dylan’s”. I couldn’t wait to get shot at by snipers as I wove and dodged and -. “-Travis is this Dylan’s house?” “Yes mum.”          

 “So what are your strategies for today Trav?”                                                                                

“Um run I guess, I dunno do I,”

  “Well you should otherwise you’re going to get Hammered quite literally”

“Yeah thanks that is really quite unsettling,” “Ok, I’ll see you later unless you want to get shot down or as you say hammered”.

“Ok those who are in my team come and stand here,”   

“Raise your hand if you’ve never played paint ball before,”  

Jessie you go with me come on”.   

“COCK YOUR WEAPONS, AND GO” 

“Jessie follow me, Evan stay and guard the base”.  

“Yo Travis can I tell you something?”

Jessie let me guess, you don’t want to get shot?”  

“How do you know?”

“I was the exact same as you are now on my first time, quick get down and get ready to shoot” I hissed.  

“Come on let’s get going and shoot something” said Sam who is on the other team and gets very impatient.    

“Hold your fire you raving lunatic remember they have Travis and Evan on their team” yells Liam. 

“And fire” I whisper, BANG, BANG, BANG.

“Yikes ha ha, you got wasted, you got smashed you got -.”

“-Jessie” 

“Yes”

“Let’s go”. 

“Shoot him shoot him”, said Jessie yelling in my ears yanking my arm pointing, “shut up he has not seen us but he will if you keep yelling your head off,” 

“Come on slowly and lets get a barrel Jessie come on playing with a frog jeez you’re going to get shot to bits rate your going”. 

“run boy run almost there, yes great that makes two more barrels, come on let’s get going to get some mo”-. 

BOOM  

“-re, never mind lets go change sides”. We started walking over to the enemies side which would shortly be ours, “GET READY GO”, This time Evan and I started patrolling on a hill, Evan being Evan started dancing out in the open in the middle of the hill, suddenly he got open fired on, he turned on the spot and ran for cover, I on the other hand saw Sam trying to steal a barrel, I was more than ten metres away but one thing was for sure i was not going to let him steal that barrel. I started firing at him , I fired 28 shots, Sam spun around and ran straight into a iron sheet and knocked himself out. “YOU IMCAPACITATED SAM YOU KILLED HIM ha ha”.

I stood there shocked while Evan roared with laughter “TIME”.

“Come on lets go see Sam”. Later on we found out Sam lost a tooth as well, when Dad picked me up I had a lot to tell him, it was the best birthday party ever.  

My Birthday at Kai iwi lakes

I woke up in the morning and I said to myself, in my head, it’s my birthday, it’s my birthday! I was born at 8:00am in the morning so I went to look at the clock and it was 8:20am, ‘DAMN!’ I’ll just try and wake up 20mins earlier next time.

 Ok now it’s time prezzie time. From my nana I got 2 tops and a pair of shorts. From my mum I got a dress, 2 pairs of earrings, and pjs. And from my friend Greyah I got bracelets and Vaseline. From my sister I got a book that I wanted (The Narnia series). And last but not least I got $50 from my grandma.

 Next I got dressed and off Carol, Leon, Mum, Dad, Matthew, Mia, Alicia, Dominic, Olivia, Xavier and of course me. So we set off to Kai Iwi Lakes. There were way too many people to fit in one truck so we took both, and I got to pick what truck the girls wanted to go in. I picked mum and dad’s truck. Then off we went on the 1 and a half hour drive.

When we arrived we went on the boat to a lovely little sandy spot just for us. Then I got to go first with Olivia on the biscuit it was zoomy, fun and umm... awesome! Then it was Matthew’s and Dominic’s turn and they had a blast Dominic fell off quite a lot and I think Matthew fell off once or twice. After a while it was Mia and Alicia’s turn but they didn’t last long because Alicia got a sore neck so Xavier went on instead. And of course they fell off a lot.

 After that it was time for skiing and I yelled, ‘can I go first’? And I did, I had a blast. It’s so awesome going over the wake. While the others were having a turn I went for a swim and it was so nice and refreshing.

After everybody had a turn we had lunch YES! I was so hungry. I had a marmite and cheese sandwich as always and a drink of juice.

Then we had another biscuit ride but I didn’t want to go on so I read my new book instead. Man it’s so interesting it’s called the Magicians Nephew. Most of you should know that story.

After a while I got bored so I went on the biscuit and I didn’t fall off but Olivia did and it was quite funny.

Sadly it was time to go home because it was getting late. Then just as we were leaving Olivia got me a present and it was a $30 gift voucher for the Warehouse. More money I said in my head.

While we were driving home we got fish n chips, yeah! Fish n chips, yeah! Want to make me lick my lips. Anyway I got a hot dog and chips and it was yummy!

After a while we were home and our friends had to go back to Te Aroha. I was sad but what an awesome day. By Maddie

Shoot Em Up-By Evan

I stumbled out of bed, I still felt drowsy, as I always do in the morning. Today was my friend Dylan’s birthday. We were going paintballing then going to the Ruakaka beach. It was a few hours away so I watched some TV to kill the time. At around 12:00 I got in the car. It took ten minutes to get down to his house; I was the last person to arrive. I can’t remember everyone who was there but I can remember some people. Some of the ones that were there were Sam, Travis, Chris.M and Liam.                                                                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                                                                        Firstly, we all went up to the flying fox, it started high up and stretched out to a broken tractor across the field. I was the third person to go across. I climbed onto the branch and sat on the plank that was tied to the rope. I jumped off the branch and went flying down the field, when I got close to the ground I noticed a large brown dog started catching up to me. The dog grabbed the rope and started to tow me along the field. When it slowed down I got off the plank and pulled the rope back up to the next person, then waited for another turn. Around ten minutes after that, we got in the car and drove down to the Mangapai paintball course.

                                                                                                                                                                                    We split into two teams; I was on the green team. In the first round we started in the left base, with the broken cars. The right base had tall towers and more hiding places. For the first half of the first round I stayed back and defended the barrels. That part of the round was very uneventful. The rest of round one was a little more interesting, the enemy forces (the black team) invaded our territory a few times, the first time they came I was crouching in front of a building, then, BAM!!! The sound wasn’t that loud but you exaggerate a bit when you get shot in the top of the head, where the visor doesn’t protect you. I looked up; it was Liam who had shot me. “I’m gonna kill you Liam!” I shouted at him. I put my hands up and walked over to the rebel’s base. I put a tick next my name on the sheet of paper that had the team lists. That was the end of the first round.

                                                                                                                                                                               The whistle blew for the start of the second round. We started in the other base this time and Travis and I went to capture the middle section. We sniped a few people from there but no-one shot us. After a while I got bored of the lack of action, I stood in the middle of the field, I let my gun dangle from my neck, and then I started dancing. A hail of bullets flew at me. They slammed into the ground, kicking up dirt. Using my mad skills, I sprinted out of the way, unharmed. Travis and I starting laughing hard out. During the end of the game, Sam (who was on the opposing team) crept up, trying to steal a barrel. But, we had seen him from where we crouched. Travis stood he fired 17 bullets. Every single one made contact with Sam; he flew off his feet and hit a wall. He didn’t have time to squeal in pain. “OH MY GOSH!!!” I shouted at Travis. “YOU JUST INCAPACITATED SAM!!!” Travis just stared at Sam like a possum caught in headlights. “I just killed Sam” he eventually said. We sprinted over to see if he was OK. Sam staggered to his feet. Travis kept apologizing as he slowly stood up. Everyone crowded around as he got up. “I’m good.” Sam said. “But I think I lost a tooth!” After we found out Sam was fine, we continued the game as normal.

                                                                                                                                                            After the game ended and we accepted our defeat, we got in the car again and headed down to Ruakaka beach to go boogie-boarding. The waves were fairly big; a few of them were gigantic, causing me to do massive wipe-outs. Eventually, my board got totalled; another wave would have snapped it in half. I put it back in the car and headed back to the beach. I spent the rest of the time body-boarding and jumping through the waves. By the end of the day I was sick of the taste of saltwater, we were leaving anyway. We drove back to Dylan’s house for dinner. We hung around the table until dinner was ready. For dinner we had sausages and we had cake for dessert. I had a fun time but it was time to go.

My Mum came to pick me up. Before we went home we had to pick up my 17 year-old sister Kadi from her job at Burger King. When we arrived I walked in to get her. She said she would be in the car soon as she was buying her dinner, I managed to nag her for a milkshake and then I walked back to the car. As I slowly drank I looked out the window and went over what I did that day in my head. I laughed to myself remembering  what happened to Sam, I knew everyone (including Sam) would be laughing about that when we go back to school.

My Trip to NELSON!

“Go to sleep please, Leihana your flight is tomorrow.” My Mum said.

“Ok” I replied “I’m just really, really excited!”

I hopped into bed and went to sleep.

“Wake up” Mum said “You have to get ready for your flight.”  

“No I’m tired.” I said with one eye open, but I ended up having to get out of bed. After having a shower and putting on my clothes, I got ready for my flight. I finished packing my bag and brushed my teeth.

“Hop in the car.” Mum shouted. My Mum, Dad and Aunty were going to drop me off at the airport. We stopped at McDonalds while we drove and had our lunch before we got to the airport.

As we drove through the car park, we finally found a park. “Yeah, I’m almost on the plane!” I screamed in excitement.

My Mum signed me off and we waited for them to call my plane “84NZ to Nelson UMR’s” they said.

“Oh that’s your plane” My Dad said. “See ya, text us when you get there ok?” “I will,” I replied rushing.

While I boarded the plane I felt so excited, “Welcome to Air NZ I’ll be your host for today, please turn any mobile phones off and enjoy your flight.”

“Hello, what’s your name? My name is Paige,” “My name is Leihana, are you a UMR?” I asked “Yeah, my Dad lives in Nelson but my Mum lives in Whangarei,” “OK that’s cool” I said.

As we chatted, the host came, she asked if I wanted to hand out the lollies I said “Yes!” passenger to passenger, handing out the lollies. When I got back I got to have a lollipop for when we land, I didn’t want my ears to pop.

After we got off, the plane I had to wait until the end, to walk out, so a lady could take me in.

“Aunty and Uncle!” I yelled. “Hello, did you have a nice flight?” they asked as I walked out the door “We’re having KFC, for tea tonight.” Aunty said “Yum, Aunty can I get an all stars box and a Krusher.” “Yes, you can get whatever you like”

As we drove to KFC, Aunty said “They rebuilt it because too many people were having problems”

We walked in and ordered, but we had to wait for a long time before we got our order.

“Yeah were finally home” I said putting our KFC on the table. There’s your Christmas present under the tree somewhere.” My aunty said. I got a cool skirt and a top to match. “Your brothers presents are under there to.”

Aunty had to go to work that morning so I stayed home with my Uncle. First we had McDonald’s hot cakes and a hot chocolate, then we went to Nature land and mini golf. Nature land had a new animal a porcupine it had very long spikes. After that at mini golf my Uncle won by two points which I think is a lot. We went to McDonald’s for lunch, I thought I was getting fat for having too much McDonalds!

“Hello, how was your day?” my Aunty asked politely as she came through the door. “It was so much fun! I played mini golf and we went to Nature land!” I replied. “Sounds like an awesome day trip.” Aunty said putting down her bag.

My Uncle had to go to work that morning after our fun day, so I went to work with my Aunty. We started at 7.00am and went to the orchard and started picking off the small, eye rot, and russet apples. This was very hard, because we had to be very, very precise, we had to make sure not to pull off any big apples.

Two weeks later I returned back home, I had used one of my Aunties really big bags, because I had shopped for a lot of clothes. I had so much fun in Nelson and I can’t wait to go back! BY: LEIHANA

The Island By Gabby

After 2 hours in the car and a half an hour on the boat, finally we got to the island called urapukapuka we got to our cabin. So I unpacked because we were staying for 3 days. I got my hair straighter out and plugged it in so I could straighten my hair the next morning. Then I went over to the bar to get a drink and gave Adam a big hug. I said “I missed you Adam”. And asked Deno if I could have an orange juice. By then it was 11pm so I went straight to bed.

The next morning I got up and straightened my hair. After that I went to find Adam in the restaurant I said “morning” and gave Adam a Huge hug and told him I was going to get a hot chocolate. I helped cook breakfast in the restaurant. We had hash browns, sausages, bacon and eggs, with mayo. It was yummy.

After breakfast I went jetty jumping and also jumped from the pole of death. It was cool. The reason we call it the pole of death is because when you jump and go through the water you go really deep and you feel like you are going to die. Later that day the cruise ship came in, it was the big one, 3 stories high. I was the only one that jumped from the very top of the boat it wasn’t even scary.  After a short time the boat left. We went back to the pole of death then we went back to have some lunch. We had chips with a sausage a sandwich, a magnum and an orange juice too. It was delightful. After that we went fishing. We also went kayaking. The fishing was great we caught snapper and I even caught a king fish. The problem was that we had to let it go, even though it was legal. We let it go because we had on where to put it. Once we had enough we went back to the island.                      

the amazing holiday, by Kaleb

On a nice sunny morning me my brother and sister got up and walked into mums room and said, get up mum lets go to the hot pools. She got up and got breakfast. Mum said, get ready we are going to the hot pools.

 Me my brother and sister run up to go to the hydro slides. One by one we went after each other. As we go at the end of our time we have races and bombing competitions.

We arrived at my auntie’s house her boyfriend Darren cooked our dinner. Me and my brother went on the motor bikes. After an hour of riding motorbikes we went in and started eating crayfish, smoked fish, and scallops.

The next day was also sunny our family went to the beach. I went for a quick swim Then I went for a swing on the park then after that I had yummy sandwich and biscuits.

The day after that I went shopping and I bought some new clothes. We bought some new toy cars and trucks and mum bought me a new phone. Then we went to lunch and had some chocolate.

I felt really, really, really, happy

I was sad to go home

Camping At The Beach- By Tim

We were at One Tree Point in the summer and what I am about to tell you are some of the things we did.

We had decided to go kayaking; the tide was right so we dragged our strange variety of kayaks to the shore. I had a flimsy little one that I hated. (It was partly underwater because I was too big) Seth, my (7 year old cousin) had the biggest kayak. I was annoyed, Seth couldn’t even use that huge kayak! So I came up with an idea. Hayden was on the shore wanting to have a ride. So I convinced Seth to swap kayaks adding the part about Hayden in. I’m pretty good at convincing my cousins. So Seth agreed. We paddled to shore, got out, and swapped kayaks. With his new kayak Seth paddled off. I got Hayden in my kayak and paddled after Seth. I could’ve had two kids with me since there were two specially designed seats at the front and back. But the weight of Hayden was already enough. There was a thick plate of plastic in the middle that acted as a magnifying glass.  I could see the bottom of the sea! It was awesome even though I could only see sea snails and shells.  We decided to paddle out to the mangroves.

Our progress there was alright but we had to keep waiting for the little kids to catch up. Bo was an exception. He only had one oar and an inflatable boat. Daniel had a very aqua-dynamic kayak and could go fast. The only problem was that it couldn’t turn well; he kept on paddling in circles. Gareth had the same type as Daniel but he didn’t end up turning in circles. I was near the front since I wasn’t having any problems except having Hayden with me.

So with many problems we finally reached the mangroves. The best way to describe it is to imagine a mini forest in water waist deep. It was a tiny bit like a maze since the mangroves were identical. I pretended to back up and park while making beeping sounds. We eventually got to a clearing and we all went to shore to rest. After we had had a rest we got back in our kayaks and paddled out to the furthest mangrove tree in the water. Hayden and I did some awesome parallel parking. Mum would want us back now. So we all then decided to head back.

I noticed some sparkling water and started following it, knowing I’d never catch it. Yehudi, Seth and Daniel joined me on my quest.  We kept following it until it went under a mangrove tree. So we restarted on our long and even slower journey back.

Everyone was very slow and Seth had to be towed by Gareth. By the time we got back my shoulders felt like they were on fire. We got out and dragged the heavy kayaks up the beach and leant them against the house with their paddles. I went to rest in the tent, ready for a fun packed day the next day. That day was one of the best days in my life. I felt truly happy at that time.

wet and wild

“Come on Mum it opens in 5 minutes” I shouted out the door. “I’m coming hold your horses” she smartly replied back to me. We (My family and I) rushed out to the car and drove crazily out the gate. “I spy with my cat’s eye something beginning with WAW!!!!” I told them “Um... wet and wild!!” My Aunty said with enjoyment “Yes!” I said.

“Come on come on lets go” I said as I was about to go mad. “Welcome to wet and wild. We hope you have fun day.” The lady said. We put all our things down and ran up the stairs. The long wait finally paid off as someone said ‘can you step into the boat, please.’ We all sat in it. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...” as we were off sliding down , going up and down and all around all the way to the end of the slide “ ya ho! That was so much fun” I gasped with excitement.

The next thing we did was a race down the slip sop slide. “On three push off the wall” The man said “If I win you have to buy me a big teddy bear!” I said in a cheeky voice to my friend “Deal” she replied back to me. “3, 2, 1 GO!!” the man yelled out to us. I zoomed off down the slide going around sharp corners and down bumps. I zoomed past other people that I was racing finally I came neck to neck my friend Amy. She was in front and then I was as we came around the last corner. I saw the black and white flag going up and down like crazy as Amy was in the lead and all of a sudden I put all my speed that I was keeping back and went flying through the finish line “Yes!” I yelled out with joy.

“Right Aunty it’s your turn to choose the next slide.” Mum said “Ok I choose The Black whole!!” “Kay but I get to go first.” “OK Allie” My Aunty said to me.  I ran up to the top of the stairs and got into the line. After a long wait I was allowed to go in the slide and start sliding down “Yahoo” I was screaming my head off. It was pitch black and the water splashing in my face didn’t help. As I came out of the slide the sun hit my face like a rock that thrown at you.  “Did you have fun” Mum asked me “YES! It was so cool” I said to her. “After all that screaming you must be hungry” my Granddad said. “I’m so hungry I could eat a elephant” my Mum said aloud.

We made our way over to the food place. I had some yummy hot chips and Mum had the same. As we all sat around a table we talked about the day and what we liked about it.

By Alle

Our FIRST Holiday on MAUI

I’ll never forget BOXING day, 2010. I woke up, got dressed, then mum; dad, Jessie, Kate and I were off. When we finally arrived at Matauwhi Bay, Russell, I was already fed up with my sisters, Jessie (9) and Kate (6). But once we were out on our new launch, Maui I was too excited to care. Once we were set up aboard her, we set out for a fish off Roberton Island. Little did we know that that was where our trouble would begin?

 We got to our secret fishing spot, and decided to go for a drift fish. There was not too much wind and the ground was quite rocky (plus the anchor winch was still a bit faulty). Dad turned off the motor, then we baited up and dropped our lines down. We had a successful fish with 5 snapper and a couple of kawhai.

 Once the bites had stopped, dad tried to start the motor. BUT GUESS WHAT!!! It wouldn’t start. Dad was starting to freak out, because the wind had picked up and we were starting to drift towards the rocks. But he could not put the anchor down because the anchor is powered by the winch, which is powered by the motor!! So with ropes and chains flying, dad and mum got out the spare anchor which was under the seat. Dad desperately chucked it over the stern. Phew! At least we weren’t drifting towards the rocks anymore. Then hoping for good luck dad turned the key and by some miracle the motor started. But instead of going into Roberton for a swim, he turned the boat right around and headed back in the direction of the mooring. Mum fried up the fish and we had fish, tomato sauce, bread and butter for lunch.

 Once we were all full, Dad called up a guy about getting a new starter motor (dad thought it was broken). So once it was sorted, we all had to drive back to Kawakawa to pick it up from the petrol station. Thank goodness it was couriered up from Dargaville. We drove back to the boat once again and dad put it in place, turned the key and it worked. By this time it was 6:00pm, too late to head back out. So we had some dinner and settled down for our first night on Maui. Not exactly the way we imagined.

The next morning I woke up in Indaco bay. “Wow” I exclaimed, dad must of got up early. I quickly got changed. Then Jessie, Kate and I ran up to the top of the boat and waved out to the Alison’s on their boat, Amity. Carli and her dad saw us, then motored over on their dingy. We then decided to go for a swim. So we got changed into our togs and jumped off the top of our boat. Almost as soon as we got out, we all asked the same question “can we go biscuiting”? And guess what! The answer was YES! So we jumped in the dingy and went biscuiting. We had a blast. I stood up, then fell off strait away. We got back to he boat dripping and happy. But now it was time to collect some seafood!! YUM!

We went fishing first. We caught three snapper and four kawhai. Next it was onto scalloping. Mums the diver in our family and she got 19 scallops. I got one pathetic under size one. Then we got about 50 mussels off the rocks out of Indaco bay. We went back into the bay and anchored up. Man, lunch was yum that day!

So, our holiday on Maui turned out to be a screaming success! We had motor trouble (a bit on the down side), we got seafood and we went swimming and biscuiting. Summer 2010 could not have been better. But January 2011 was just! By SARA

David's recount

“All riders to the bottom of the ramp.” Came a voice from the starting gate. Everyone went round to the ramp. “I’d like to welcome you all to Camp Cools, where Ken Cools, who has trained Sarah Walker before and will be teaching you what he has learnt”. Said Stu Carter-Bell (The President of the Whangarei BMX Club) Trains you for the whole day. “Now if Ken would like to speak”

“H i, now today we’ll be learning how to manual jump and most importantly pump, which we’ll be working on at the pumping section of the track”. “Okay let’s get started” said Ken.

Shortly after that we all went over to the pumping section of the track. It was time for me to learn a new jump. It was the 2m double. A double is a jump with a gap in the middle of it, so if I got this wrong I would crash into the front of the jump and crash. I was really nervous.

“Okay everyone do five practice straights, just pumping then go full wiggly jingly”. (This is Kens way of saying do whatever you want). We all went as slow as possible then came of the straight going 30kph without pedalling. After 5 runs I played a game called “BMX” Which is where you copy the other person’s trick on the straight that you choose. I went with Nathan Hooker and Logan Atkinson. Nathan went first and jumped the double that I was going to jump. Logan went next and did the same. Then I went and glided through the air and landed on the other side “Yes I did it”. I screamed to the air.

 Suddenly it started to rain. We all raced over to the shelter. We decided to play Foot down. This is where you have to stay on your bike versing other people but, you’re not allowed to put your foot down. Ryan Lewis (NZ 4) was doing all these cool tricks like, stopping his bike, going onto his front wheel and flicking his bike around then landing back on his bike. The ages for the game were 10 and under, 11-13, and 14 and over. The younger group went first. Rico Beerman won he’s the world N.o 1 in his age group .We went next. In the corner of my eye I saw Logan Atkinson racing towards me. I drifted away from him. He skidded out of control and went out of the boundaries. Yes I had won.

The Trip To Auckland - Chris

“C’mon Chris lets goooo!” shouted my mum as Uncle Davie’s Shelby GT500 drove up our driveway. It was Monday morning and we were packing our self into Uncle Davie’s car. There was only two seats at first but that was because the front seats were blocking our view of the back seats, even though there wasn’t much room we still fitted in. But at least we were off on our journey to Auckland (And Uncle Harold’s House).

It wasn’t long before we were forced to make a detour. “An extra 30 minutes!” grumped Uncle Davie. But I didn’t mind, somehow I even managed to fall asleep.      

I woke to us stopping at a petrol station. My dad was out the door in a flash, as soon as he had given petrol money to Uncle Davie. I followed behind. We had some lunch and I bought myself a drink. Uncle Davie swore angrily, at the traffic gathering outside the station. But we were on our way again. Just then I noticed a green light that was on the floor of the Shelby. At least the time we spent there wasn’t just on buying food.

It was my first time going to Uncle Harold’s house. We exited the highway. Then we took a right turn, a left than two more rights. One the of we house’s we passed looked abandoned and haunted. It had boarded up windows, but I forgot as soon as we arrived at Uncle Harold’s. The house was made entirely of brick which was the first thing I noticed. The main thing Uncle Harold did all day was show Dad and Uncle Davie his motorbike. While mum went to go talk with Uncle Harold’s wife (I didn’t know her name so I just called her Auntie) soon me and my mum got bored of listening to business talk, so we decided to take a walk and investigate the valley.

It wasn’t long before we were lost. We had been walking for almost quarter of an hour. The highway was close by, we nearly walked onto it but as soon as we came even close to walking on it, a large truck warned us that we were on the highway. So we walked back looking for signs that we could identify and lead us back to Uncle Harold’s place. Eventually we walked past the four stoplights that marked we were on the right road. Now all we had to do was find the right street. We were supposed to go right than right but instead mum just went straight ahead. About 2 minutes passed before mum realised her mistake and turned back, she took my directions, and therefore mum started looking for my Uncle’s Shelby in one of the driveways.

 An hour past and we were back on the road heading home. As we the car turned into Otaika road, Uncle Davies Shelby broke into a steady speed of 200km. A car was heading our way as we overtook a truck. Me and my mum thought we would crash. My dad swore as the car swerved back into the left lane. I thought that would be the only speed burst, but the car broke into another burst of speed. But at least we were only a few minutes from home.

My Boat Kohine- By Matthew

Finally after an hour and a half we had made it to the Bay of Islands.  We loaded our luggage onto our boat, Kohine.  Kohine is white with a dark blue stripe down the side. A black mast sticks up through the middle of her.  Once we were on board we started the motor and Kohine smoothly glided out into the bay.

Firstly we went to meet up with our friends. There were four of our friend’s boats in total.  Jakamy, Furlo, Andante and Tenderlion.  We stayed the night in Indigo Bay.  The next day we went to the beach.  On board Jakamy were my friends Justin (11) Kyle (10) and Andrew (15).  Justin and Kyle came to the beach too.  We decided to dig two forts and have a sand ball fight.  The teams were Justin and I against Kyle.  After an hour or so we got bored so we went on a paddle board.  A paddle board is a board like a surf board but you stand up and paddle.  We play lots of games on the paddle board like ‘last man standing’ and ‘hand paddling’. After another hour we went back to our boats. The time was about 12:00 so we decided to go for a snorkel.

Justin, Andrew and Kyle came with us.  We looked around the rocks it was crystal clear water and really refreshing. Then Andrew yelled “Octopus!”  He dived under and grabbed it.  He chucked it at me. I swam away.  The octopus went to the bottom and squirted ink.  It camouflaged it’s self on the bottom.  I was just about to show Justin when it swam away. Then we decided to go spear fishing and to get some mussels.  Andrew swam around the rocks and we went in the dinghy.  We got in the water and swam around the rocks for the mussels.  We had to dive down two metres to get them.  They were really hard to pull off the rocks. After we had about 50 mussels we watched Andrew spear a moki.   It was a gigantic moki about 60cm long.  We put it in our dinghy and drove back to our boat.  We had a delicious dinner of mussels. YUM!  Then we went to bed.

The Next morning I set the net with my Grandad. My Grandads boat is called Andante.  We left the net out and went to the beach.  When we were on the beach we saw some mullet swimming round 2 metres off shore.  Without scaring them away Grandad and I whizzed to pick up the net.  We brought it back to shore.  We put the net around the mullet and slowly pulled it in.  We caught 4 mullet.  We smoked them and everyone came into the beach and we had a lunch of fresh, delicious smoked fish.  After another week of fun and adventure on the boat we had to go home. We packed up the boat, locked the door and drove home. I was sad about going home but relived to get back onto dry land.

The Best Holiday Ever by Kieran

Screech went the huge tires as the plane landed at Christchurch Airport. My Dad, Mum, my two brothers Elliott and Oscar and I all went down to the South Island for a holiday. First we went to pick up our rental car. We hopped on a mini bus taking us to Omega Rentals. Our car was a Subaru Legacy 4WD with plenty of scratches. We found a map and drove to my Uncles and Aunties place we were staying there for two nights until we left to Mount Cook. As we pulled into my Uncles drive way. WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! As my Uncles dog Saphie raced out to meet us. We parked in a little gap next to their garage. After we had taken our stuff inside we had sausages and barbecued veggies for dinner.

The next day we went into Christchurch city centre. We went up the Cathedral Tower. It was a spiral stair case right to the top. I saw the doors leading to the viewing platforms I went out first. It was a very long way down! Afterwards we went and saw a Busker. He was on a unicycle while getting out of strait jacket.

The next day we left for Mount Cook. We drove to Ashburton first and went to the supermarket and bought some lunch. About 4 hours later we arrived at Glenntanner Park. It was overcast so we could not see Mount Cook. As we drove to our camping site we looked at the spots we could stay. We finally found a camp site and started pitching our tent. Then we went and had a look at the other parts of the camp ground. We found the kitchen and the toilets. Over the other side of the drive way there was an outdoor patio with one side open. It had picnic tables, 5 barbecues, also a sink and a huge extractor fan over top. My mum and dad made dinner and after we had finished eating we went back and got ready to go to bed.

The next morning we set off to the Mount Cook Village. We had a look at the information centre. There was old climbing gear, journals, big woolly jumpers. There was also a rocks, a replica of a hut and a movie about a man who died on Mount Cook playing on a projector. Then we went outside and started a walk. We started down the track, it was gravel and pretty thin. After about 15 minutes we came to a huge swing bridge it was hanging across a big river that was flowing really fast. We started going over it, it was very windy so we had to hold onto our hats or else they would blow away. After we had gone over the bridge the track turned into a stream with stepping stones going over it until the path started again. About 30 minutes later we came to a second swing bridge. The path after that was a wooden board walk until we came to our destination a lake. It had small ice bergs compared to the ones in Antarctica. My Dad and I had a competition to see who could hit the iceberg first, I WON! Then we had lunch next to a big rock to shelter the wind. Then we started to go back. When we got back to Glentanner Park we bought an ice block, then we went back to our camp site and got dinner ready. The next day we packed up and went home.

By Kieran R

The Long Holiday - Rebekah R

I sighed as the alarm on my phone went off. I rolled over and reached out for it. I hit the snooze button a tried to get back to sleep. Five minutes later it went off again. I lazily turned it off and headed down for breakfast. With my eyes half open and my tummy rumbling, I opened the pantry and grabbed the cornflakes. I had just poured the cereal into my bowl when I looked over at the counter to see that there was no milk. This was going to be a long holiday.

A few days later, near the end of January, we all got up and dressed because mum told as that she had a surprise for us. We jumped in the car and headed into to town when mum was hit with questions. “Where are we going?”, “Can we get sushi?”, “Tell us mum!” My younger sister Heather just smiled. I knew she had something to do with it. She had seemed to be able to keep her secret, whatever it was. As we got closer I realised what our surprise was. Mum was taking us to see Tangled! Even better it was in 3-D! It was an awesome new version of Rapunzel. After we had enjoyed watching our movie, we thanked mum with lots of  hugs and headed home for a tasty, fresh lunch.

About a week after, dad got some time off work. He decided that we should all go to the beach. We stopped at Woolworths for some things for lunch and went on our way. We pulled up at Wellingtons Bay, opened the back of dad’s Ute and ate our delicious picnic. We got into our togs and jumped into the slightly, rippling water. My sisters and I had an awesome time floating on our backs and splashing each other with water. I tried snorkelling in the shallow waters, but I found it difficult for the small, murky waves kept pushing me around gently. After 2 or 3 hours, we packed up and relaxed on our peaceful drive home.

So after a lot of fun events in the holidays, I was more than happy to get my first bit of homework and to catch up with my friends. Also to tell them about all the cool times in my holidays that you have just read about.