About 2 weeks ago the school went to the Hongoeka marae. When we got there all of us had to stay out side of the marae because we had not been invited on yet. While we were waiting to go onto the marae we went to the beach just next to the marae. Andrew was kicking at the rockes and his shoe came off and went into the sea. After he got it back he was soaking wet about 2 or 3 min later we had to get ready to go onto the marae.
When you go onto a marae the older women go at the front with the girls behind them at the back are the men with the older ones at the front and the boys at the back.
When we got called on and we replied then we went onto the marae atea. We went to the opposite side to our hosts and then the powhiri. the first speaker was from the other side and the one of our 2 speakers got up. Then we had the 2nd one of our speakers. Itwas all in maori so I could not under stand it at all.
Later on we went up to the wharekai for some morning tea. Afterthat we went down to the paua farm and we were told about the life cycle of the paua and we got to see where the paua were grown. When we got back it was lunch and then the kids from year 1 to 5 went back to school and the year 6,7 and 8 stayed.
Later on we had to set up the wharenui for the night ahead. After we had put out the matresses, we set up our bed then Mr Gunson told us about the history of the marae and what all the carvings meant.
Later on we had free time and we went to the games room, it was real fun. Later that night when we went to bed it was really noisy. There were a lot of people who where pretending to fart. It took for ever to get to sleep because of the noise and the gate light which was shining straight into my eyes and some kids would not be quiet.
The next day we woke up at about 7 because it was getting so noisy and we all got up because Mr Elms turned the lights on.We all went up and had breakfist and we all went and started to pack all of our stuff for the long walk ahead.
Later on we had to go and start walking to the train station. It took for ever to get there and then we found out that we were going to the beach for lunch and we spent about 2 hours there and then we went to the train staion. About 10 min after we got there the train arrived and we got on. It tooh a while to get back to Paraparaumu and we went back to school. We got back with 30 min until we could go home we went onto the computers and played games until we could go home.