On the
first of May Room five and Room seven went on an overnight camp at
marae. We all travelled in parents cars. I travelled in Donna's car.
When we were there we practised the waiata. Then the two women did the
karanga. When we went into the wharenui the heke/roof lights were
shining down on the carvings. After we said our mihi we had our Kai.
We went to
the Arahura river after Kai to look for pounamu. When we got to the
river Jerry told us not to look for green. It seemed a bit strange at
first but when he explained the stone had whitish crust it made sense.
So we all set of up the river looking for white. I found what I thought
was greenstone but when I got to Jerry the pounamu had faded five shades
lighter green. Jerry said it was serpentine. Later I saw Cameron. He
was digging up a hole as he was talking to me. He had found an under
ground spring. I went over to join him. Within the next five minutes he
complained that I was not doing anything so I ran testing for pounamu. I
started to try to break the stones open. If they did not break then I
would hold it up to the sun to see if the light shone through, then it
had passed the test. We finished the day with a sculpture from mud sand
and sticks.
After we
had the sculpture contest we went back up to the marae and had tea. The
worst part of it was the vegetables. Later we did our evening rotations.
For the first half I did soap carvings with tooth picks. I particularly
made a fish hook, its a sign of good luck and wellbeing. For the second
half I did flax weaving. We used four strips of flax. We went under over
under. Within the last two minutes it turned into helping make the
smores. After we did our evening rotation we were sent to brush our
teeth. We went to bed. Now came the hardest part getting to sleep.
In the
morning my bones felt stiff as a tree trunk. When I tried to get out
of my sleeping bag my back made 12 clicks.
Once we
had finished packing our bags we got into our car groups to set of to
lake Mahinapua. By the time we had got there we all had to stretch. Then
Miss Ireland gave us our wild life sheet to try to find the trees on the
list. Me Flynn, Charlie and Aden were in a team . We got on are way
and to pass the time we made rock people with a marker and a rock. Me
Flynn and Charlie sped up ahead and then we decided to stop for a brake
so we flipped over stones on the side of the trail. We wanted to find
fresh water koura. When we got to the look out it was beautiful with
the reflection from the sky on the lake. On the way back I got stuck in
the mud twice and got stalked by two fantails and two bush robins. Near
the end of the walk me and my team hid in the ditch and waited for the
next team to come and gave them a surprise. We only managed to give them
a small fright. By the time we got to the car park we were all puffed we
got into our car groups and we started to make are way back to the
school.
I found
the marae trip very interesting with the carvings and the legends. I
just ask to put gum-boots on the list next time. I am glad I went
because it was a good experience.
