Monday 27 February 2012

Monday 20 February 2012

#2- creative writing

I'm hungry. So hungry. My little sister, Sophie, and I are having what we call a hollow day, where no matter how much food we can find, it still can't fill us up. I'm picking through the scraps of some fancy restaurant for food. It looks like the rubbish truck just came through so there is nothing edible in sight. With Sophie waiting for me back at our home in the woods, I know I can't go back empty handed. So, taking a deep breath, I crept into the kitchen through the back door and took two massive burgers from the counter. There's no way I'd be able to eat half of one of these, so these should last a long time. Sophie will be delighted, she loves burgers. I practically skip through the woods, I'm so happy with my catch. After half an hour of walking, I arrive at the hut. It took a week to perfect our home in the woods, but we did it. The hut is made of tree branches, leaves and mud. I used to love making huts with my parents in the woods behind our house. But I can never do that again. They're dead.

"Sophie!" I yell. She bursts through the trees around our small clearing. Sophie is the cutest little thing in the world. She's tiny, with long, blond ringlets, which are dirty and knotted right now but they're beautiful when clean. But she has hard lines on her face and the sad eyes, from everything we've been through. She's nine years old, only three years younger than me. Our parents died in a car crash and now we're running away from our crazy uncle, who wants to adopt us. He broke my arm when I was 5 because I spilled his beer. He's a good liar so even my parents didn't believe me, when I insisted I didn't jut fall over. I know he's very persuasive, so he'd definitely get custody. I took off with Sophie into the woods, just for a little while, until I can think up a better plan.

Anyway, when Sophie and I finish our burgers, we curl up in the hut to go to sleep, as its dark. Sophie has the gift of falling straight asleep as soon as she lies down. But for me, it takes a lot of tossing and turning for a comfortable spot and even then I can't seem to sleep. Frustrated, I get up to go outside. The stars are so bright out here, it feels like daylight and the moon is so big, I could reach out and touch it. I wonder about my parents, where the are, if they're watching over us. That's what I'm thinking about as I fall asleep under the stars...

I wake up drenched in sweat and to the smell of... smoke? Smoke! I jump up.
 "Sophie? Sophie!"  I scream.
I'd heard horrible stories about the forest fires in this area but they were only supposed to happen about once every 5 years.
"what? What is it?" My little sister asked.
"It's a fire!" I yelled, "C'mon lets get our of here."
She nodded, looking alert. Just then, I see an endless wall of fire raging toward us, the wind pushing the wave of fire, urging it on. I know it's hopeless now. I know it's too late for Sophie and I, but that doesn't mean I won't try. I grab my sisters hand and sprint away from the fire, but it keeps flying toward us, swallowing anything in its path. I can feel the blistering heat it gives off, but I keep running, keep trying. I can't breath, the smoke is suffocating me. I'm helpless and so is Sophie. This is something I can't protect her from. We are going to die and there won't be anyone to morn us. Sophie and I stop at the same time, but we don't turn toward our death. We face each other. She looks so brave. At that moment, she is my anchor. The fire crashes onto us, like a wave, and miraculously, I don't feel any pain. I feel free. I know Sophie and I are finally going to be with our parents.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

#1 -my holidays...

In the holidays, I travelled in a caravan around the East Cape with my mum, dad, sister and brother. The East Cape region takes its name from the at the northern-eastern end of east land, New Zealand and it's just above Gisborne. It has lots of windy roads but has beautiful scenery of the beach, especially up on the hills. The east cape is the place where Captain Cook first landed in New Zealand, he even named the place he landed the Bay of Plenty because Maoris that greeted him were so generous.

We travelled there from Ohope, which took about three hours. We stayed at a campsite in Te Aaroa, which was about 5 minutes from the beach. My favourite thing about the camp was that  there were hundreds of horses surounding the campsite. After 5 days, we drove to another place called Anaura Bay and took lots of day trips from there. My favourite thing about that campsite was the water. We stayed there for 7 days because it was so beautiful. After that we went to another campsite right in the middle of Gisborne. Then we drove home through Rotorua and it took 7 hours. I really enjoyed all the sun, water and sand!