Matahiwi recount writing:

We waited about a hour for a spare bus to pick up the rest of the classes which were room1, 7 and a bit of room 5.

The ride there was that of any normal bus ride. I sat with my friends from room 1. I was sick that day so i wore a jersy the whole day. I brought my own jersy but it was black and it wasn’t a school one so i had to wear a school jersy. It got hot pretty quickly but later on it cooled down.

First was the powhiri

We walked in a line and there were three singers at the front and everyone behind them.

We all sat down in this little house thing. We listened to these three people, a lady and 2 men.

They first talked in moari then in english. One of the sayings that they said was to never drag your feet. Then after that we stood up and sang our school song and sat down as the kapa haka did their thing.

After that we were seperated into 3 groups.

1 with room 18

2 with rooms 7 and 5

Then

Rooms 16, 15 and 17 were together.

My class group,  we the first to go in the wharanui. I think it was the eating area.

The lady, i think her name was whaia luvy or something told us the stories that all the painting and weavy things and what they meant. It was interesting in a way. Some people thought that it was kind of oring but i liked it. Better than staying at school.

That lasted for a few minutes. Then we went off to another spot and sat down. We were being talked to by a man called Matua Tom. He was nice and old. I like old people because they are

cute. He talked about the marae and why it was green and what the carving symbolised, saying that green was chosen for growth. Because the place was surounded by green. He said thatv it was built in 1976. It was a good talk but wish i could of sat in the sun instead of the shade.

The last activity was when we went into the marae. A man called matua john was telling us about the marae and what it was for and about the things in it. There wasthe spinal cord wgich held the whole thing together. The carpet in the marae  was very soft. It was awesome!

When that ended we all went outside and sat down. The kapa haka did their thing again and we left saying good bye to the host people.

We walked out of the gate and hopped into the bus to school.

The day was not fun for many but i thought it was fine and it was far better than going to school.