Marae Trip

Group Writing

We all arrived at school with butterflies swirling at full speed inside our stomachs as we were all excited for the Marae trip, (or just a day off school). We grabbed our bags and headed for the courts to line up and get on one of the five buses. Soon as we were on we began the drive in the loud child filled bus. It was now time to see the huge Marae.

We approached tall Marae as we walked up to it the girls were in the front and the boys followed us. We were then welcomed into the building as we walked in bare footed.The first thing we saw when we walked in was all the photos of the ancestors of the Marae on the back wall, we even saw Shakira's aunty. We then all took our seats some of us sat on chair and others sat on the wooden floor with a thin light green carpet and said a karakia. After that we listened to the Marae owners sing a song, then we heard Xavier’s mihi followed by the school singing tutiri mai. We then walked out of the Marae after the school council and four kids from the kapa haka ground did a hongi. We were then out of the Marae and it was time for morning tea.

We then heard some of the history of the Marae was really interesting we saw all the photos, and then Brena told us all about the top three photos and they are the chiefs of the Marae that watch over us and all the other past ancestors watching us from above. Brena asked us some questions and we had to answer them and then we asked him some questions like why do only men speak at the marae and its to protect the woman behind them. After all the questions Brena said that we were going to play a game and we had to match the beat, we had to count to seven in Maori. There were seven rounds and seven beats and once we had finish Brena said that the boys were terrible and he said to watch the girls do it and then we got faster and faster as we procided in the rhythm game.

After lunch, we learnt about short finned and and long finned eels. We learnt about their life cycle, the difference between the short finned eel and the long finned eel and the man who taught us about eels had a type of oil that they use at the dentist to numb your gum and teeth. Did you know that an eel can choose to be a boy or a girl, so the boys have to keep annoying the girls so they don't change into a boy. The short finned eel has a parallel fin and the long finned eel doesn't. The life cycle of an eel starts as a little egg, the eggs are usually in fresh water, when the egg hatches they become larva, soon they become a glass eel,when they are a glass eel, they swim out to the sea. When they are an elver eel, they return to the freshwater river their egg was, there they grow to an adult and lay their eggs. All eels go back to where their egg was.

It was a great time at the Marae and everyone at the school enjoyed that day even if they only wanted a another day off school. But it was a lot of fun and a great time that no one will ever forget (you know unless they get amnesia or something).