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.
Wonderful story. We loved reading it Maddy and will forward it on to Taua and Bill to read. We loved hearing your voice come through as we read it. Mum and Dad
ReplyDeleteI loved your story Madison. What a sad tale about the The Delawere. You have written the story very interestingly and I learnt a lot. Thank you for sharing it with us. Lyn. Nelson
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