Prospective Student Writing

Prospective Student-( Video my Writing is Based off)

He gripped the edge of the cliff, he puffed and panted realizing he had only needed to walk up the last hill to get to his destination. He was wondering “Can I actually make it?” Pulling himself up off of the ledge, he was dragging his feet up the hill and wiped sweat off his face. Determination was left on it as he knocked on the towering door of the dojo. The door slowly opened and the sensei strolled to meet him.

The boy bowed down to his sensei. His penetrating stare scared the boy a bit. Disappointment and rejection had made his head fall and shoulders drop. The sensei pointed to his right and slammed the door behind him. He breathed in and clasped his hands. A day and night he meditated, waiting until the sensei would come to his senses and realize what a strong warrior he was.

He heard the clanking of the chains on the door. Slowly, the sensei emerged from the dark. He was turned down once again and cringed when the sensei pointed to the right. He stomped away but something clicked inside him. His eyes went from sad to angry. He strode furiously back to the huge, hefty door. Clenching his fists, he threw a powerful kick to the door. The boy felt as if he was ready to fight and prove his worth.

Sensei lifted his arm, pointing right. The boy followed his arm and stood staring. “ PLEASE USE SIDE ENTRANCE” A sign was set on the right of the door. He stood humiliated and embarrassed.

Tamaki Tech 2013

The sun was beaming down on me. I could see the food tech place up ahead. Rooms 20, 21 and half of room 22 were heading down to Tamaki College for Technology.

We all split into groups of year 7s and year 8s. Then one by one our names were called to go into our different groups. I was worried for a second because all of my friends were in Hard Materials. “Shoal”, I heard my name being called. The deputy principal had put me into hard materials. Yes!! I got to be with all of my friends.

Mr Grundy is the hard materials teacher. I enjoyed his class last year and was excited to be in his class again. He gave us a little book and told us to put our names on them. I saw that this year our task was to make a box. It could hold anything you wanted in it.

The 6 ideas I drew were down on my paper. “Mr Grundy, can you check my work please?” I called for him to come but he instead said to pack up.

I am really happy that tech has started up again. Last year was really fun and exciting learning and creating new things.

A Very Hot Holiday! (Part 1)

The plane was bumpy and moving the way it shouldn't have been. I wasn't having the best time. So I pulled my book out and started to read. 40 minutes later we landed smoothly in beautiful Mangaia.

Since I have a lot of family connections, there are a lot of family reunions held in different places. I have been to Wellington, Tahiti, and the Cook Islands when I was 7. It was the second time I had visited the islands. Over the last 6 years, I had missed the beautiful scenery and wonderful family members. 

Mangaia. One of the 15 outer islands located in the southern cooks. I have been to Atiu and Rarotonga but before this trip, never Mangaia. I was nervous and excited at the same time when we got to the place we were staying at. Mangaia School. Other family members that I had never seen before had arrived before we had. Food was set out on the tables for us to eat. Chop suey, chicken, taro and rice. YUM! Real islander food. 

We stayed there for about two weeks. The first to introduce our-selves to the family and the other to enjoy Mangaia and its wonderful atmosphere. We had been slit into groups and had chores to do as well. So we weren't letting the environment around us be dirty and disgusting. 

If I had to choose one thing that I didn't like about Mangaia was that the island was basically rock. Plus the beautiful waterhole that everyone was talking about, was just a small hole in more rocks filled with fresh water. It could only fit about 3-4 people in it! Not a really great swimming place.

During the course of the two weeks we had some really fun evenings where we had a riff off(singing battle) between two teams, played and learnt new games to play with cards and had a really good laugh with the family.




That all changed after my Aunties Leonie and Jaky, as well as cousin Hyrum and I left Mangaia a day earlier than expected. Our departure was set to be on the 10th of January but we went on the 9th and swapped sets with a guy named Sam who wanted to stay in Mangaia for just another day. That was fine with us because we got to go back to the fabulous Rarotonga!

12.12.12

Its the 12th of December 2012. Some people think its the end of the world. Some other people think that its a load of rubbish. What do I think? I also think that people are just saying that because they are superstitious and its just a rumour.

Outlook For Someday Winners!

I walked into the venue and there were children everywhere. “ What movie are you guys here for?” A man was standing at the door. “ Lost Paradise.” Rita, Mrs Lagitupu, Miss Muliaumaseali'i, Kingston and I were at the outlook for someday award ceremony. Our movie, Lost Paradise was one of the 20 winners and we went to the aotea center to receive our prizes.

The chairs were set up Mrs Lagitupu and Ms M had to go and sit on the other side of the room. Rita, Kingston and I sat at the front looking at the stage. At first there was a karakia and the presenters introduced the first winners.

It took a long time for our movie to be called. I was getting restless because I really wanted to see what we were going to get. The 15th group of winners went up. John Pulu from Tagata Pasifika went up to present his award. This is the award that we were hoping to win.


“ Can I have a drumroll please?” Every slapped their knees and I was waiting to hear who the winners were. “ Room 21 at Pt England School for Lost Paradise!” I was happy and cheerful. All three of us went up on stage and watched the first 20 seconds of the movie after we got our prizes. Then Rita went up first to say her speech. I was standing next to her looking out to the crowd for my dad.

Her speech was finished and it was my turn. The crowd was all staring at me. I was getting nervous but the speech just came out. It was over and we went to sit back in our seats. My adrenalin was pumping and I was proud to represent our school. Mrs Lagitupu dropped me home after the ceremony and the food. We had quiche, sausage and lemonade. YUUM! The night was a big success and I loved every moment of it.

Visiting Aunty Nana

 The Day was grey and I was worried because we might not have been able to light up the lanterns. It was Sunday and my family were getting ready to go to the cemetery to visit my Aunty.

Katrina Tuaine Mataio was her full name. She passed on 2006 because she had cancer. We all were going to light the lanterns in memory of her and to celebrate her birthday. She would have been 27 years of age.

The wind was blowing and it was terribly cold. Our aunties grave was in the mongst of a lot of other unfortunate people to pass away. I stood in front of her headstone and gazed at her beautiful picture. She was really young and pretty when she died. I bent down and gave her a hug and said Happy Birthday.

We all gathered around and took a few pictures with her headstone. Aunty Leonie went to light one of the lanterns but when she brought it out of the car and lighted it, it ripped and only the metal ring was left in her hands. The lantern blew away and my uncle Kalo was forced to chase it around the cemetery.

So we weren't able to light the lanterns but instead we went got get some ice cream from the strawberry farms after we took the time to visit other relatives, that were buried around aunty Nana. I enjoyed the ice cream and the visit to Nana. I really miss her and wish she could be here with me.

Strawberry Farms

The ride to Mangere was long and hot. Even with the wind blowing through the windows into my hair, it was still blazing hot. It was all worth it though as we were going to Mangere to get the BEST strawberry ice cream ever!

Our car drove into the entrance of the farm. It looked like everyone wanted a taste of the ice cream because the lines were huge! We got out of the car and stood in line and waited. The ice cream  looked so delicious as it made my mouth water.

Mum paid at the cashier and we waited for our ice creams. We ordered 1 kiddie cone and 3 waffle cones. I waited in line for our ice creams. The person in front of us ordered a ton of ice cream and it took a long time for the man to dish them out to her.

“ Finally! That lady was taking forever!” I walked up to the counter and told him how many ice creams I wanted. The processor made the frozen delight come out really fast and soon all 4 of them were done.

It tasted nice and it truly was the best strawberry ice cream I had ever tasted! My ice cream was gone in a heartbeat, and I tried to eat some pancakes that Khaia had bought. They were yum!

Caleb Chung

Furby, Foam Launchers and robotic animals. These are just some of the toys that Caleb Chung has helped or actually invented himself. Caleb is an amazing toy inventor that I have been given the opportunity to research on. 

He didn't start off as a toy maker though. He was a street mine and out of school when he was 15 and a half. Chung was also a silversmith.  He was also an actor before he worked for Mattel. 

After his experience at Mattel he went on to creating a toy company called Giving Toys. A popular toy that he has invented with the company, is the PLEO. Its a small, animatronic dinosaur designed to copy a week old baby Camarasaurus.

Animation Apprentice Workshop

It was Thursday the 16th and I was so excited for what was going to take place in the Tusitala meeting room at 12 o’clock. The creators of bro town came to our school to show us some techniques and tips on how to animate. The creators Maka and Ali were here to teach us how animation is done. Nils is a guy that came with and he works at the museum.

Our lesson was about the history of cartoons and how they first made cartoons. Ali showed us a number of some cartoon characters silhouettes. We had to guess what cartoon they were from by looking at the features. The first one was a dinosaur, but it wasn't just any old dino. It was a the first moving picture and dated back to the 1900s. A few years later people took it to the next level creating the first mickey mouse steamboat cartoon. It was the first cartoon that included sound.

After all of the yelling and laughing that the silhouettes brought, Ali showed us a very interesting toy. It was a zoetrope! What is a zoetrope? Well its a toy that shows an animation that you draw on paper. Ali showed us an animation where there was a hand was dribbling a ball. It was so cool! 

After taking turns and seeing the amazing animation, it was time to learn how to do 'tweening.' If you dont know what tweening is, it's when there are two lines and they are split in between to show the moving object. We had some exercises to learn how to tween, then we were handed a piece of paper with lines that kind of looked like a jellyfish. We drew loose lines on a separate piece of paper and colored it in. Then we put it in the zoetrope and it was soo awesome! It was moving around and flopping its tentacles.

Tomorrow is our last session with the Animation Apprentice workshop. I really want to keep going to the workshop because it is so cool. I have learnt so much through the first session and I cant wait until tomorrow.

Joshua Iosefa's Brown Brother.

An amazing prefect from Mount Roskill Grammar gave an inspiring speech to the world.  I was very inspired by Joshua Iosefa  speech Brown Brother. He was so true in explaining the stereotypes in people. One thing he said that is really motivated me was ' be the first to change.' I am very moved by the words that he has said and I hope I would be able to hear more speeches from him.

A Noble Relic of a Noble Race by Charles Goldie.

For the Art exhibition, the extension group have decided to recreate one of Charles Goldie's many wonderful paintings. This painting I have chosen to reproduce is called ‘A noble relic of a noble race’ and was painted over 100 years ago.  This is a wonderful painting of Te Wharekauri Tahuna, a maori tohunga or priest. Goldie painted maori people and was inspired by their mokos because he thought they were dying out.

I had a bit of trouble drawing the painting.  I learnt in the process that if you want to make your picture look 3D you need shading.  This was the hard part for me. To shade, you need to move up the colour wheel in hyperstudio, starting with a darker colour and fading it out. If I could draw it again, I would make the shading around his face a bit better than what I have done. 


This experience has made me wonder about the moko. Like why do they get a moko in the first place? Why is it so important to maori people and what is a moko supposed to represent? 


When people walk away from all of our paintings, I want them to be blown away. Our paintings are all very intelligent and awesome. 

Features of a Narrative

He triples in size if you anger him. His pale skin turns green in almost an instant. he turns into the mighty hulk! At first the government thought of him as a threat to society, but now use him as a weapon to fight crime all over the nation. His black hair almost covers his bright green eyes.

Robyn Kahukiwa Project

Upoko Whero is the name of the painting that Robyn Kahukiwa created. I have recreated it for my Taonga time project with Mrs Tele'a. To create this movie we had to use time lapse which in this case is drawing a line one by one and copy them onto different cards. You keep doing this until you have drawn the whole picture. Then you put it all into a movie. In the end it shows the process of your picture and how you have used the texture.

My Symbols.

This is my first project for extension 2012. We had to draw symbols that we thought that best described our selfs. I love music and I listen to it all the time. Peace is a sign that I chose because I think that we need peace in the world. The Cook Islands and Niue flags is just to show that I am proud of where I come from. If you go to flickr you can leave me comments telling me if you like it or not. Link is here. 

Netball Skills

Last week in netball was alright even though I did stub my toe and I wasn't able to play. But this week I jumped right into the game. We were on the court waiting to meet Liz so she could teach us more skills.

The first drill was easy. The attacker had to side step 3 times when Liz called field or room, and then run while the defender acts like a mirror and follows her every step. My partner was Brooklyn and she was the attacker. Brooklyn and I were getting mixed up. The whistle  blew and we had to run back to the yellow line. We did the activity 3 times and moved on.

Our next skill was a defending drill. When the opposite pair threw the ball at your partner, you had to hit it down and catch it. Huelo-Ata and Junior were throwing the ball to us. First try and I hit it down but didn’t catch it and it nearly hit my face! This went on until I finally caught the ball. After a while we changed to the next activity.

We played a little game at the end. You had to try and tag the opposite team. If you do, you get out. My team had the ball first. Everyone was screaming “ Pass it to me!”  I passed it around, people got tug until the ball went out of the court. It was the other teams turn. I ran and ran but the next thing I knew I was tug! OUT! The opposition were fast and got most of my team out. They were good.

After the game we lined up and went back to class. Netball skills was fun and I can’t wait to hear whats in store for us next week.

Treaty of Waitangi

The Treaty of Waitangi has been around for a long time. It was signed on the 6th of February 1840 by the British government and Maori chiefs in the Bay of Islands. It was made because there was too much conflict between the Maori’s and British settlers. First William Hobson and James Busby made a draft of the treaty.

Last week our class watched a re-enactment of the treaty. The people gathered around in a Marquee and British flags were everywhere. Henry Williams stood by William Hobson translating everything he said into Maori. Most chiefs were angry and didn’t want the British to live on their land. The English treaty said that the Maoris could keep their leadership and the chiefs could keep their land and taonga under the rights of the British subjects.

Hone Heke was the first out of 40 chiefs to sign the treaty. Other chiefs followed and in that year over 500 other Maori had signed the treaty including 13 women.  Some Maori’s didn’t even sign the treaty.

The three P’s fit into the Pt England way in a lot of ways. We Participate in many sport and activities, class and school events and things after school. People protect one another and things they love. With partnership we work together and co-operate with each other.

The Treaty of Waitangi was great moment in the past because it brought peace to British and Pakeha in New Zealand. But it didn’t last long.

Helping Miss Ouano

Since I smashed my face against the tree, I wasn't able to participate in the activities. BUMMER! Miss Ouano was needing help so I went with her. We went down to the bottom field to help Mr Barks with javelin because it said that Miss Ouano was on javelin. It turns out that we were supposed to be doing the junior javelin and softball throw. It was really fun working with the little kids and Miss Ouano.

Ice Cream Comets.

I walked into the class room seeing that the ice cream,   sprinkles,  cones and plates were laid out on the table. " It's time to make the comets!"  Room 16 came into to sit with us on our mat. We started making our ice cream comets.

Do you know what comets are? Well they are balls made of ice, dust, rocks and gas that fly in outer space. They also have tails at the end of them made of fire. While they zoom through space,  the rocks on the comets come of and they form into meteorites.

If you were wondering how do you make these ice cream comets,  I will tell you.  First you put the ice cream onto a cone then, crush up some biscuits. Put the biscuits and sprinkles into a bowl, and mix it all up.  Sprinkle the mix onto your ice cream and your done.   As simple as that.

Miss Garden scooped the chocolate ice cream in my hands and I rushed outside to stop it from melting.  "My hands are freezing!"   I was wanting to get this cold treat out of my hands ASAP.   Everyone's ice creams were melting onto the ground!    When I put the biscuits on mine,  it crumbled through my fingers and some was even going down my arm.  My stomach was growling, forcing me to lick the delicious crumbles off my fingers.   It was messy,  but yummy.

 The comets were delicious and my impatient stomach was no more.   I ate the rest of the cone and  the icy cold comet was in my tummy. YUM!