Exciting writing pieces from our senior school.

ANZAC Day Writing
By Holly Lomas Room 13

Bad dream
blinded, cold
fading, passing, rotting
freezing cold battle field.
Deafening sounds – shells crashing
screaming, dying, running
loud, terrifying.
Gallipoli.


ANZAC Day Writing
By Taine McLeod Room 13

Battle
bloodshed, shell-shocked
slaughtering, stalking, assassinating.
Will they survive war?
ANZAC.

Soldier’s Hearts
By Helena Goldsmitm Room 14

Here in the heart of Flanders field, poppies grow as red as the dark pools of blood which lay here years before.

The crickets chant their sorrowful song over and over again. The poppies stand like the young brave men waving farewell to their loved ones.

For every soldier a poppy grows just as strong as the hearts of the determined soldiers who sacrificed their lives. For what did they sacrifice their lives? Nothing at all.

The fresh emerald grass brushes my feet, silence falls over the field. The birds twittering, the bees humming and even the cricket’s sorrowful chant melts away. It seems like the birds, bees and crickets all bow their heads in silence, as if they saw the pain years before.

The fresh pollen dances up my nose and makes me ponder about how these poppies came. For before, this land was so barren and covered with lifeless bodies and helpless grains of sand which had streams filled with ruby blood flowing over them.

As the coal black sky veils itself over me I lie with the flame red poppies who just stand there quite proud and swan – like. The silver moon shines over my solemn grey heart which aches for the soldiers. I gaze at the stars shimmering. Many lost their lives in Flanders Field but they are all present in the hearts of others.

As the thin grass slithers along my cheeks I shut my eyes and soldiers drift around my head saying ‘Don’t forget’.



Ngatuhoa Nights ... and Days
By Duncan Hendry Room 12

In the middle of nowhere, as I peeped out my slightly tinted window I saw it, hooray! After a 3 hour drive we arrived at a ... pile of kindling!?! The so-called Ngatuhoa Lodge is a ... oh wait there’s the lodge yay! We’re here!

As soon as we got out of the car a sharp cold chill cut through my veins, probably because we were all wearing summer clothes!! When we sat down the seats felt like freezing wood because they were exactly that.

When John (the guy who owns and lives at the place) came out everyone sat down and stopped talking like the hand of silence had grabbed them all.

John told us all about Ngatuhoa. When he finished telling us about the lodge we chose our bunkrooms. The girls chose first and of course they chose the double beds but there were more single beds so the boys were okay – besides they were all bunk beds.

I was in Group 3. My first activity was the flying fox. When we got to it Jordan went first then two other people did it ... then it was my turn. I felt agitated when I stood up on that little wooden platform. I was strapped to go across to the bigger platform, it was hard because I had to walk across a wobbly wire with two more beside me to hang on to.

Once I got to the other side I was even more nervous waiting for my turn. I felt horrified when my turn came. I got strapped up again and sat down on the metallic upside-down T-shaped flying fox. A few minutes later the guy setting me up said, “Ready?”

“Yep,” I said.

“OK. One ... two ... three ... GO!” He shoved me off the big suspended platform.

I felt like I was going 100mph with my blood rushing to the back of my body. I closed my eyes and started yelling “aaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!” thinking I would go BOMPH into the big pole at the end but when I opened my eyes I was already flying backwards clinging on to the flying fox. I wanted to say “cool” but to be honest all I was thinking was “what the heck?”

Then I started careening forward again. The parent swiftly grabbed me and helped me climb off. Afterwards I had to carry the flying fox back with a rope so the next person could have a go. Josh Sutherland gave Emma an emotional speech so she agreed to have a go after Alice. On my second turn I got pushed and went even faster and nearly touched the pole.

Next we went kayaking and my back was aching so badly it felt like it was going to snap in two. Plus I pushed Joshua out of his kayak. TEE HEE!

Last of all we had the confidence course where everybody worked arduously most especially at the very dirty, shallow, crocodile pit – a muddy patch you had to avoid by swinging across on ropes. Joshua face-planted in on his fifth go. TEE HEE!

At the end of the day we had dinner then lined up for the Burma trail – basically a walk through the bush in the dark ... so we wouldn’t want anybody sounding like a tuba going boompha boompha boompha into the trees, so keep holding on to the rope.

Finally we got to our beds and in our sleeping bags. We said our “goodnights”, curled up and drifted off to sleep. THE END …

... well for 12 hours anyway because me telling you about 12 hours of sleeping would just be “wah wah waaah”.

When we woke up at 7.30 we had breakfast/buffet, we could feast on food like cornflakes, weet-bix, canned peaches, spaghetti on toast, toast, baked beans on toast, spaghetti, baked beans ... you get the picture, no-one went hungry. Now back to the activities.

Group 3 started the day with the bivouac. Wow the boys’ hut was considerably good. It seemed like we had only five minutes to put it together because we spent 10 minutes thinking that the tarp was the roof. The girls’ hut was a nature’s igloo.

Now, the amazing Abseiling! Once we climbed up the hill we some time to look around while waiting for John - dun! Dun! DUNNNN! When John arrived it was time to start the abseiling - dun! Dun! DUNNNN! Where is that coming from?

A couple of people went before me on the cliff then it was my turn. All I was thinking while abseiling down the cliff was “aaaarrgghhh” and

“MEOW” would that angry cat get out of here. On my second go I was the fastest in the group.

The swimming hole was next and all I can say about that is - it was freezing!

Then we had orienteering where you have to go around Ngatuhoa looking for letters of the alphabet so you can write down the three-digit code as proof that you found every spot ... my legs were burning.

Last of all we had the DOUBLE M CHALLENGE ... dun dun dun ... dun dun dun .... dun dun duuuuuuun! The M stands for Marshmallow – scary! Naaaa. I made the biggest fire in my group, yay me!

But I didn’t know we had to put our toasted marshmallow between two biscuits so I ate both of my marshmallows then got given my biscuits. Luckily they had a spare marshmallow, I toasted it and got a marshmallow sandwich after all.

After a delicious dinner it was raft making time. I went with Mrs Welten, Ronan and Spencer went with Mr Wright. Eventually it was time to sail our creations down the river – everybody named their rafts (I called mine Bob) and we took them down the river to sail away never to be seen again ... well that sounds delightful. Once a raft was placed in the water with a 2 gram candle on it the owner would say goodbye and watch it float off.

Surpisingly Bob had a miracle up his sleeve – when his candle went out it lit back up again and Bob also survived the whole way through to get pulled out at the end by rope. So, I put Bob in Mr Wright’s car to take him home.

The finale concert that night was at 7.30 with lots of talents on show. It was really fun but Ronan and I didn’t get very far with our double fling before we mucked up – oh well.

Then we had supper and went to bed for the second and last time.

After breakfast next morning we had a bedroom inspection then we packed up our personal gear. Tramping the loop track with John was the last energetic activity before we had lunch and cleaned up our bunkrooms.

It was time for the tragic departure. Most of the people almost cried.

Some people sadly wanted to go.

Not me!