The Waiata!

Today between 9.00 am and 10.30 am the whole school were not at school in the morning. We were out at Pt England Reserve for the exciting arrival of 2 wakas. This event was held on March the 25th of 2015. There were 12 other schools there. Including Pt England School, Tamaki College, St. Patricks School, Glenbrae and others. There were around 2,000 other children there. Which was quite exciting!

Unfortunately we had to walk all the way there. Which was pretty tiring but at the end we got there. But we were all very dehydrated when we got there. When we got there we got settled in and I got the honours of taking the photos and videos. We got to sing 3 Maori Songs that we practised very hard with. And we got to watch the leaders lead us in a haka.

In the beginning somebody blew there horn to us. Then somebody from our side blew a horn back. People might think that they are just blowing their horns for fun; but I think different. I reckon, that they were sending messages to each other.

There were 4 leaders that were from our school as well. All the leaders were lined up on the beach, while all the other students were laid out on the bank. There were speakers all around the place; so that we could hear the speeches as well.

I enjoyed taking a lot of pictures and videos. I also enjoyed listening to the speeches. Even though most of them were in Maori. There were some visitors from the wakas that came to shore and we greeted them as well. They greeted us back by singing Maori songs. And just like them we replied back. Then at the end, every child got to shake the visitors hands. It was quite cool and it was a good feeling.

At the end we got to go and bus to home! Which was a relief for me because my legs were killing me; from standing to take the photos. But I think that all that hard work payed off. When we were on the bus I just reflected on the morning that we had.

Today I felt very proud and joyful. I felt proud, because I was very lucky and proud to be apart of this special part of history. And I was joyful because I had enjoyed myself today. My highlight of the day was being able to watch the wakas. I was happy about that because something about the wakas; made me smile every time I saw them. And the image of the wakas will never erase from my head!