Turning around the corner I hear the sound of our hooves clipping and clopping on the never-ending smooth white tiles that shine like it’s glowing. My ears start to twitch. I can see an awfully tall spiral. My friends’ long tail with brown strands at the tip are right in front of me.

I finally start to hear the water flowing from the pool. We stop and are ready to leap our long legs into the cold blue water that looks like a blue-berry slushy. I sprint onto the diving board. I see my friend Roman dangling from the roof top ready to catch me. My Reflection is looking back at me. The smell of chlorine rushes through my nostrils. I leap towards the cool, sky blue water. I begin to get nervous I start to say “Please Catch me!” “Please Catch me!”  Luckily he catches me and I spin into the pool like I’m running inside a gyro ball. My bodys touches the water in the pool, I start to feel cold, I am shivering. My ears are clogged, my eyes start to burn. I still could kinda hear the muffled sounds of the crash of my friends cannonballing into the pool. 

I start  to swim to  land so I can dry myself off. I can feel that the water is getting shallower each time I take a step. My long legs are already tired. I still keep going. I make it to land while breathing heavily. My senses start to come back. I smell the air, There are chemicals. My friend Julio is behind me runs forward. We sprint as fast as we can to the huge spiral, we do a second round of High Diving except we had a lower diving board which I chose to avoid. In the spiral I can hear the Clippety-Clop of our hooves. I smell the chlorine again, I take a deep breath. I sprint super towards the diving board. Luckily Roman catches me a second time. I pose for the camera ready to cannonball like a meteor into the crystal clear cool water. I land in the pool my eyes don’t burn as much as before. My ears aren’t clogged. I emerge from the water the other Giraffe followed me. We lower our long necks on the edge of the pool to take a massive sip. We all tiredly run back to the Room of never-ending shiny tiles. 

The Top is bushy, compact and very dense which reminds me of a rug. Curvy and curly crinkly like sheep’s wool not sheared. Fuzzy and scratchy like a gorilla’s back. Very jaggy and vicious like a jaguar which feels the most craggy of all. 

The Rapsey family is a family of four which includes a father, mother, sister and brother. They hiked the longest route in New Zealand which is called Te Araroa or “the longest pathway.” Out of around 5 million people only 550 have crossed “Te Araroa”

Te Araroa is about 1,600 kilometres long which would take 120 days on average. The Trail starts at Cape Reinga and ends at Bluff. The average daily kilometres were twenty kilometres but then it started to rise to 30km.

They passed by many places which included, the Nelson Lakes, Waikato farmlands, the ancient trees of Pureora, Mount Ngauruhoe, Mount Tongariro, Whanganui River, Sabine Valley, Lake Constance, Rakiura and much more. 

The Rapseys’ finally arrived at Bluff after five months and minus one day. They were proud, very tired but they had a good time.

Peter’s Perspective of the Experience 

As I look back I see troops throwing something. I see smoke and explosions and the chemical smell of bombs. 

I can hear gunfire, loud explosions, crying people and terrified shrieking children. I scream help when a troop member spots us. We start running. I can hear my loud heavy heart beat. I start to pant and breathe heavily. I struggle to keep on running.

I trip on a dead corpse. A small amount of blood splatters on my face. I wipe it off with my bruised hands. I get up and catch up to my dad as fast I can run. His arm is fractured from being struck by a falling door. 

I can see people with gas masks. My neighbourhood is in chaos. We can see jets colliding into each-other. The jets soar in the sky coming towards us. We escape and find a place to sleep. As I close my eyes I see mayhem. What I’m going through is more unwelcome than my worst nightmare. 

Hi, I’m Nino. I’m from the Philippines and now live in New Zealand. I’m 11 years old. I attend St. Patrick’s School. My favourite subjects are Writing, Reading and Maths. I’m a single child so I don’t have siblings. I don’t have any challenges at the moment. The goal I’m looking forward to completing is to get faster at doing my work. My parents inspire me to be hardworking, respectful and have self-control. My personal achievement is to graduate from St Patrick’s School.