Staying at the Marae

Here are the some of our stories we wrote in class about our trip to Te Hora Marae. We have more displayed on our classroom wall.  For some reason, many of the children chose to write about the night time!  Now why would that be?

DAY ONE AT THE MARAE

By Chani

“Are we there yet” Finally we are standing at the gate getting called in by the Tangata Whenua into the marae. We listen to the tangata whenua saying their whaikorero. We are the manuhiri and Kevin, Tama’s dad and Chi reply. After the whaikorero we sing our waiata. Then we do the hongi.

We all lined up and some people shook hands and some people pressed noses. Afterwards we shared our lunch with Canvastown School. In our free time we looked in the urupa and played Kev’s special. 

PACKED INTO THE WHARENUI

By Harry 

After we had finished star gazing, we got into bed. There was a person that did not stop snoring so we did not get to sleep easily.

During the night Fabian rolled over on top of Finn, so he rolled over on top of me, so I rolled over right beside Logan.

At home my dog Poppy sleeps on my bed so I immediately thought Logan was Poppy. I elbowed Logan dreamily and said “Poppy”. Logan woke up and said “leave me alone!” but in minutes we were both sound asleep.

                                                                                     

SLEEPLESS AT THE MARAE

By Grace

Giggle…… “Girls…! Shhhhhh!”

A snore erupts from a group of people. Another giggle. “Sophia, Grace, go to sleep now.”  Snuggling under the sleeping bags, a few people let off a few smells. Ripppp, giggle…

“Sorry Grace, I think I broke your sleeping bag zip with my foot,” Sophia whispers between stifled laughs.  I giggle too.

Zip, zip, and rip, comes from Ruby’s direction.

“Ruby?”

“What?”

Jane growls a message, “Be quiet!” 

Giggles rise from the covered floor.  Heat forms on the windows. The door opens.  Cold air rushes towards a huddle of whispering girls and boys.

“Brrr,” I say to the wriggling worm beside me.  “Sophia?”  A mumble slips out from her closed lips. In a split second Sophia is already bouncing on Chani.  Opening the door, I shiver.  I scurry back to bed.  

Mist hangs low as a crowd of drowsy kids walk over to the kitchen. I fill my glass greedily. A delectable selection of toast and cereals are laid out on the table.  “Yum,” I say.                                                         

URUPA AT TE HORA

By Zoe

On Te Hora Marae there’s an urupa which is a cemetery in Maori.   There are lots of graves and a lot of them under the name of Wilson. The graves have lots of stuff on them, like dolphins, flowers and lights. The whanau (family) and hoa (friends) put decorations on the graves to remember what the people loved.  

I am kind of scared of the urupa because Dad says, “Zoe, if you stand on a grave, it will haunt you for ever”.

“Stop being silly Dad,” I say and Dad just laughs.