Reaper, dead, danger, prowling, congregation

“The reaper is calling your name.” I hear the eerie voice in the pitch black horizon scream at me “You may as well join the congregation of the dead” I hear my brain cry in exhaustion “DANGER YOU FOOL RUN FOR YOU TINY USELESS LIFE.” Yet something in me is walking towards the voice. I can hear the prowling of the wind dragging all the blood out of my veins. “ Your dad was as useless as you are, you tiny pig, you should have listened to me when I told you to run.” I feel like my bones are about to crush into a pill of crushed meat when everything goes even darker than it was before. 

Tuesday 10/2/26

Chorus, crumbling, lethal, aquamarine, Maroon

Lethal poisoning. That’s what they always say, this is what it feels like. I feel my bones crumbling and the chorus of my brain screaming “GET OUT OF HERE.!” hallucinations hit my brain left and right. I see the aquamarine eyes of my long gone dad and the maroon jersey my sister always used to wear. “WAKE UP EURDICY, WAKE UP!.” Who does this sweet “I have never seen blood in my life voice” belong to? “Shut up witch” The world is spinning so fast I can’t breathe. As my brain shuts down I hear the voice say “JONNY YOU FOOL GET DOWN HERE!” and for the second time in a row the world goes even darker than it was before.

The Black Tunnelweb spider 

This article is about the Black Tunnelweb spider. The Black Tunnelweb largest spider is New Zealand’s largest spider. If you were arachnophobic you would not be very pleased about that. (arachnophobia is the fear of spiders.) Tuhura Otago Museum’s very own technician On Lee lau is hoping everyone will fall in love with this amazing spider. She said that bugs are the unsung superstars that run the world. Living and working in farms to produce the best food for us to eat. The Black Tunnelweb spider’s habitat is often in bush environments across the South Island except for Fiordland. They mostly feed on crawling insects like beetles. There are more than 20,000 species alone of insects and on the 14th of February you could go to the Tuhura Otago Museum and show your support for the black Tunnelweb spider. There will also be a voting station for people to vote for their top three Bugs of the Year.

On the 9th-10th of March 2026 we went to the Tūhuru Marae. Monday was a misty cold day but there was excitement in the air. We got to school and put our bags in the cars. I went to Mercedes mom Demelza Haurkai. There was a lot of singing and laughing. Everyone was ecstatic. We arrived at the marae and we were one of the first people there. We waited in the car park for our tai and whānau to arrive. When everyone eventually arrived we made our way to the waharoa for the pōwhiri.

Pōwhiri

I had never attended a pōwhiri before. We were told to stay on the left side of the waharoa because the right is for the deceased. Our kaikaranga was Michelle Gibson the kaikaranga for the tangata whenua was Diana.We were taught that the tangata whenua and the manuhiri both have a kaikaranga. The kaikaranga from the tangata whenua will begin to call and will be then responded to by a kaikaranga from the manuhiri. The manuhiri will move towards the marae and the kaikaranga from both sides will keep calling. When we reached the wharenui we left our shoes outside and entered the whare. Whaikōrero were then given by both hosts and visitors on the marae. The tangata whenua gave a Whaikōrero then sang a waita and eventually the  manuhiri too. When the Whaikōrero were finished we were supposed to greet each other with hongi or a harirū but there were a lot of us! So there were so many of us we were told to breathe together in unison and say Tīhei and exhale and say Mauriora! Which is sharing the breath of life. We later had a hākari to remove the tāpu from the event.

Arahura awa 

After the pōwhiri we walked to the Arahura awa . When we got there we sang hūtia. Some of us found pounamu and others found and others didn’t but either way everyone looked like they were having a great time. The Arahura awa was so beautiful and unique. Peaceful in a way. A friend and I thought we found pounamu Yet sadly what we thought was pounamu was a regular stone. In a rage she dropped the stone and the stone split in half so we decided that as a remembrance of her anger issues she would take one half and I would take another. Then we gathered together and walked all the way back to the marae. By then I was exhausted.

Mihi

When we got back to Arahura awa we went inside the wharenui and the mihi process began. I was nervous to say my mihi in front of so many people but I eventually got over my nerves. As I fun twist our guide Henare Mason told us to also say our favourite food. I said my favourite food was blue pancakes, others said Macdonalds and many more strawberries. After everyone said their mihi we learned of many pūrākau. One was about Poutini, Waitaiki and Tamaahua. Pountini was a tainwha. One day as he was seeking refuge from an enemy he saw a beautiful woman named Waitaiki bathing near Tūhua. In a moment of desperation he abducted her and fled south. After being chased from place to place Poutini  decided that if he couldn’t have no one could so he transformed her into what we now know as pounamu and hid her under the  bed of the Arahura River. When Tamaahua realized that his wife had been turned into pounamu he grieved and named one hill after himself Tamāhua, as a remembrance of his own sadness. He also named another hill after Tūhua, his home, to remind everyone of their shared past heritage. 

A Break

After listening to the pūrākau quietly we had an amazingly tasty lunch and played exciting games. I played chess against a friend. After a while we started madly racing each other across the grass. Milie and I thought it was a great idea to drag Julian across the grass (I think he’s fine now). Later we were called and told we should get ready to go to the beach and find a good stick because later in the night we were going to make smores. We walked to the beach and collected firewood and sticks. Others drew in the sand. Then we were told to make Poutini and Waitaiki sculptures. I am 100% convinced that our group had the best sculpture. After collecting fire wood and sticks. I tiredly walked all the way back up to the whare. We had about thirty minutes of play before dinner and dinner was delicious. We sang Te aroha to thank the staff for the delicious food. 

Cultural activities 

We then indulge in some cultural activities. I was in a group with a lot of friends. For our first activity we had to dress up a volunteer as either Pountini, Waitaiki or Tamaahua. We dressed Caitlin up as Waitaiki and she looked stunning. The hardest thing about the activity was that we were only allowed to use newspapers and cellotape and we could not use anything else. The second activity around flax weaving. We could either make a flower or a waka with a friend. Emme and I made a waka which was quite hard but we managed to make the base of the waka. When we finished cultural activities we made smores which was far the highlight of the trip for me but first we had to sing and I mean lots of singing. When we could finally make smores you could tell everyone was excited. This time I was smart enough not to burn the marshmallows! I enjoyed the marshmallow and went back home with my parents. 

Picnic point 

The next day I traveled back to the marae. When I got there everyone was playing tag. We were then told to get ready to go to Picnic point. This time I went with David Sharland. We put our bags in the car and traveled for quite some time before arriving where the trap started. We walked for what seemed like hours before we finally arrived at the beach. We sang hūtia and were told more pūrākau to do with the awa. We then walked all the way back to the cars where we traveled back to school.

Reflection 

I really enjoyed the experience and I would definitely love to go again. The most difficult part for me was making the dress for Waitaiki because we could only use sellotape and the best part of the experience was obviously the food! I had such a great time and it looked like everyone else did.

Māui ki Te Waipounamu

A exetremly long time ago an amazing waka houra called Tūwhakarara that travelled across the ocean on its way to Te Tai Poutini. While they were travelling to Te Tai Poutini they sailed into Mahitahi. They were captivated by the land’s elegance and beauty. Sadly they could not stay because they had to continue on their journey. So they tied two taniwha to the land. One a bronze whaler and a great white shark. The place is still called Heretaniwha, the place where taniwha were tied. They put the taniwha there to protect Mahitahi

Māui was sailing on his waka, Mahaanui with some of his people. They were trying to escape from raru (a serious problem). There were lots of people of different ages on the waka. Young and old, Men and women, boys and girls. As they went on their way a child cried out “He whenua, He whenua!” Everyone thought it was land but Maui said “Kao! He tiriti o te moana!” No! It is just a mirage of the ocean. Yet when they got closer and closer to the land Maui and all the people saw was land being covered by huge white clouds! So Maui decided to name the two mountains at Mahitahi after his grave mistake and after his bird. Maui then noticed Taniwha tied to it. So he defeated them both.

This is part of my recount about Māui ki Te Waipounamu.

Susan Brocker is a talented author. She has written more than seventy children’s books and counting. Born 

Hamilton, New Zealand. On the fourth of August, 1961. She went to Hilltop  Primary school. She then went on to attain a degree in history at the University of Waikato. She has a husband named Lionel and she volunteers at her local SPCA. The first book she wrote is called ‘Restless Spirit’, a book about saving the wild Kaimanawa Horse. After that she went on to write many more books such as “Dreams of warriors”, ‘Ice’ and ‘Mrs Chippy the cat’. The most recent book she has written is called the ‘Eye of the Dragon’. She speaks strongly about war and social issues. For example in one of her books ‘Dreams of Warriors’ the main character Bella, you may be able to tell that she loves animals because they tend to feature in almost all her books! She is currently 62 years old and she lives in a villa on a small farm near Tauranga.