Summer Learning Journey:Day 1, Part 2

This is the second activity of the Summer Learning Journey for day 1. The first activity was about Maui and how he went fishing with his brothers and caught a big fish. The second activity tells us to write a short letter to a friend as if we left our country to go to New Zealand. We have to include what we feel like and how the journey was...

Activity 2

Day 28

We have been at sea for a long time. I'm with a group of other people, in search of new land. Our waka is small. We have not seen our family and friends in almost a month. I feel home and sea sick. There's no turning back now. We have little food left. I'm scared that we might run out of supplies. We stop every night to rest, and to eat. We risk the danger every night of being attacked by what lies below. Our family back at home may think that we are dead, or lost at sea. But we are all in this together. Even if we do find new land, some of us will have to take the waka back to gather up our whanau. This is a risk we are all willing to take. Each and every one of us will leave the Earth at some stage. Whether it is sooner or later. But I agreed to do this to make my life on Earth worth while. Getting this change is something that I wouldn't trade for anything. The waves are getting stronger. That means land is near by...

Day 29

The waves are as high as mountains. I was wrong about being near land. I just miss it so much. A storm is blowing above our heads. If you are reading this right now, it means that we have found land. That we survived the long journey.

The storm has passed and there is land up ahead! We are heading into the reef now, where the tide will be more calm. As we pulled our waka up to the land, I jump out, it was only a few meters left of water until we reached the land. I jumped into the hot smooth sand. It was like paradise. A perfect place to raise our family. I signaled to my team to come to the land. Two of them were dragging the waka out of the water. We spent the rest of the day building huts, collecting food and exploring the land. As the sun set, we named this land New Zealand. New because this is a new land we found and Zealand because it sounds like 'the land' (if you say the the in a posh way). This is the land that we will grow up in. This is the land where we would start a new nation. This land, it our home. This would make a wonderful story to share with my grand children someday.