The Wreck of the Delaware

One day, many years ago, in a small pa, there sat Huria Matenga on her bed, woken from a storm. The wind blew and the rain poured. It couldn’t possibly get worse. But then she got a shock because all of a sudden some waves crashed against some rocks on the back next to their small house. Huria tried to get back to sleep. It was almost impossible so she looked out into the distance and she saw a small figure. She couldn’t work out what it was.

“It couldn’t be,” she mumbled out loud to herself. She quickly got Hemi and said, “I think there is a stranded boat out there.” As quickly as she could run she dashed outside. “It is,” Huria said, “Come on Hemi, we have to go help them.”

Huria stayed at the beach while Hemi got some rope. “What shall I do?” asked Huria. “It’s too dangerous to go down.” She called out, “Just wait, I’ll be over soon. It’s going to be hard. Can you help?”

“I might,” said a young person on the boat. His name was Henry Squirrell.

As soon as that, Hemi came back with some very strong rope. Huria tossed the rope over and Henry caught it. He volunteered to tie the rope around his chest and swim ashore. Just then he did a very wonky dive into the water and at once a big wave swept him over. He looked dead so the captain of the boat put him in his bunk. All the tribe and the crew wondered what to do next when Huria said, “I’ll have to go out. I don’t have any choice.”

Her husband was just about to stop her when she ran into the water. She was swimming and she made it successfully to the boat. She tied the rope on the boat. All the crew made it across. The captain went across last. He struggled getting across. The waves smashed across his face. Just then the rope snapped. Huria swam out and saved the poor guy.

Everyone got over safely. Hemi lit a fire and everyone sat around it. All of a sudden a person from the boat saw Henry standing on the boat, calling for help. The rope had snapped do they couldn’t go save him. (Imagine having your friend in a boat and you have to watch him die.) It was horrible.

The next day all the people from Nelson gave Huria a gold watch for her bravery. So that’s the story of Huria Matenga and how she became famous.

How the Kiwi lost its Wings

Long ago kiwi was walking in the bushes All the other birds were very sad that Kiwi couldn’t fly. Tui told him, “I’m sorry you can’t fly.” Kiwi said, “There was a time when us kiwi could fly and we lived up in the trees. We had coloured wings.” “Could you tell us about it?”Tui said.
“O.K,” said Kiwi.
Once upon a time Kiwi had bright coloured wings and lived up in the trees. Tana Mahuta, the God of the forest loved the birds almost as much as he loved himself. One day heaps of bugs found Tane Mahuta’s secret land and started eating the forest. The birds didn’t have anything to eat so Tane Mahuta called a meeting. He said, “Someone has to go and live on the floor of the forest and eat all of the bugs.”
So first Tane said to Pipiwharauroa the cuckoo, “Will you go and live on the forest floor?”
Cuckoo said, “Sorry I’m building a nest and I can’t leave it.”
So he said, “Ruru, my dear friend the morepork, will you go and live on the forest floor?”
“But I love the light and I can’t leave it. The forest floor is too dark,” said Morepork.
“Tui,” said Tane, “will you do it?”
“I might die if I go down there. I’m too afraid and I don’t know my enemies.”
“Pukeko, will you do it?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to get my feet dirty”
Finally Tane said to Kiwi, “Will you?”
“Yes I will do it. I love the forest.”
“You have saved the forest!” said Tane.
He waled over to Pipiwharauroa and said, “You are building a nest. From this day onwards you will never build a nest again. You will have to lay eggs in other birds’ nests.”
“Now Ruru, you love the light. From this day onwards you have to live in the deepest, darkest part of the woods.”
“Tui, you are sacred and you don’t know what your predators are. You will always wear the mark f the coward under your neck.”
“But Bellbird, oh how you touch my heart. You are still allowed to sing, but only in the morning when the sun just touches the trees.”
“Oh. And Kiwi, I am so pleased with you.”
So that’s how the Kiwi lost his wings and all of the other birds have stayed the same.

The weekends

In the weekend on Saturday Mum, Dad, Ali and I just stayed at home all day just chilling out. On Sunday I did a Tryathlon but it turned out to be a Duathlon because of the tsunami warning. So we did a run,bike,run instead.It was was fun and tiring.I saw Hannah and Zoe there.At the end we got a free drink bottle and magazine. It was awesome. After that I went to our friends' pool for a swim.Just before we went to bed we toasted marsh mallows. Mine caught on fire!