Kakepuku #1

Our trip to Kakepuku definitely started off normal. Everybody in my class was in the bus singing ‘the wheels on the bus go round and round’ until we reached mount Kakepuku, our destination. A while after we got there Mr Woody started to say that things were different since he last came here like “I remember there being a mountain map here and there are more trees this time. I’m surprised the parents are not here yet. Do you here that bird calling? It sounds like a Huia which by the way is EXTINCT!! “He said that “we should start up the mountain.“ and asked if anybody wanted to stay behind to wait for the parents. A few people did including Cecelia and some boys. We started our way up the mountain and on the way he pointed out the Kowhai tree and noticed more unusual stuff “I think we should be able to see the lookout platform by now and I haven’t spotted any cows behind any fences that is very mysterious.” From what he was saying I started to get an uneasy feeling. After a short time we stopped for lunch. While we were eating Mr Woody asked if anyone needed to go to the toilet, I considered going but I didn’t. Emily W went in the bushes. Mr Woody just went on blabbing on about how different it was. We carried on eating our lunch and talked amongst ourselves. After about half an hour we noticed Mr Woody had disappeared. We started to panic and ended up sorting ourselves into groups. Me, Brenda and Zach went to look for Emily W. We wandered around in the forest, and then we heard some voices and cracking of sticks so we started to follow the noises. We came to a clearing, there were other students there. There were Emily W, Ella, Claudia and Cecelia. After we set up camp, we sat in a circle and told our story. Cecelia had ditched the boys that had stayed behind and heard someone screaming for help, and followed the noise and found Emily W. Emily said “after I had gone toilet, I heard the sound of cracking sticks so I followed it came to the clearing and got lonely and started to scream for help.” and then Cecelia found her. Ella and Claudia had followed Cecelia before that and jumped out to try and scare me, Brenda and Zach. After all the stories we decided that it was time to go to sleep. Everyone, apart from Zach, slept in the tunnel. Eventually I just dropped off to sleep.

DAY TWO:

In the morning Cecelia and Brenda had disappeared! We called them and yelled their names but they didn’t answer. We also noticed Zach wasn’t outside anywhere. We decided to explore the tunnel further. Claudia went first then Ella and me and lastly came Emily W. As we walked the cave roof started to get lower and lower, eventually we had to crawl along the tunnel. Emily started to lag behind because she is the tallest; we went around in a turn then the path split. We decided to go left and carried on down the tunnel. While we went down the left tunnel, we heard faint dripping sounds and they seemed to be coming from what seemed the end of the tunnel. So we carried on down the tunnel and the dripping sound started to get louder the closer we got to the source of the sound. We got closer and closer and closer until the sound was echoing in our ears and then finally we came to the end (of this tunnel). We came to the opening and realized where the dripping noise had come from: a hidden lake in the middle of a cave.

Kakepuku #2

The cave was very dark and damp, the lake was more of a circle so the radius was about 7 metres, around about the middle of the lake was an island about 3m in and 1m wide and 1m long. Claudia decided to swim to the island first because we thought it would be a good idea and Claudia was the bravest out of us. Because of the hidden lake we completely forgot about Emily so we never realized that she never came out of the tunnel with us. After Claudia had reached the island she told us that the water was cold and dark but it was fine to swim in. Me and Ella dived in at the same time and started to swim for the island. After about a minute Ella was lagging behind and while I had reached the island safely Ella got bitten on her legs by white and pink eels. Her screams echoed around the cave with quick thinking Claudia got her rope out of her backpack and threw it to Ella and started to haul her in. She wasn’t coming fast enough so I helped. She came in faster and faster and finally she reached the island. She was crying and she had blood everywhere on her legs. We helped her recover from her shock and Claudia went into her survival kit and while she was searching in her kit, I was tying cord around Ella’s legs to stop the blood flow so that it wouldn’t hurt so much and so she wouldn’t bleed to death. Finally Claudia found her bandages and bandaged Ella’s legs up. After we had sorted Ella, we looked around the island and found a kiti. Again Claudia looked first: a glazed look stole over her eyes, me and Ella got curious so we looked too … it was EMPTY!!! She was still staring at nothing so me and Ella shook her until she ‘came to’. Suddenly her body went through a lot of changes at one time so she didn’t look like Claudia anymore she was a fawn Miss Tummnis was crouching right next to us. We thought about our choices:

1. We couldn’t go back where we came from because it was on a cliff and

2. If we went to the next tunnel we’d have to swim there but the eels would come.

From my research, fawns can jump about 2m without a run up so Claudia could take Ella part of the way, I could swim and hope that I don’t get bitten but at the moment I don’t trust Hope so I argued that the idea with all my might. In the end we chose No.2 (sadly). I’d have to swim. We put the plan into action. Claudia braced herself and jumped she and Ella got most of the way I got bitten by the eels and it felt like they were feeding on my blood. From Ella’s yelp she got bitten too. Claudia, realizing we were hurt, flung us to safety and swam back herself. I saw light ahead, it was the end of the dreaded tunnel. I dragged myself out of the tunnel. Finally fresh air! I gladly took deep breaths until Claudia came with Ella and bandaged my legs up. We set up camp in the area and made a fire and sat in a protective circle just as I was dropping off to sleep I got snatched up by this Emily-spider-thing and taken down the tunnel again and next thing I know I’m breaking out of this silk cocoon and wandering up out of the tunnel for the second time and I was really surprised that someone was there. It was Leina but transformed into a super-hero person. She asked “do you want to be an animal of any kind?” I said “yes, I would like to be a bluebird please.” Leina concentrated and I found myself growing smaller and smaller, my arms turned into wings with blue feathers, my head sprouted feathers and a beak and four of my toes disappeared from sight. I was a bluebird! A 12cm high bluebird! I said “thank you so much Leina!” “You’re welcome,” she replied as she watched me fly off into the

Kakepuku #3

distance. I’d always wanted to fly which was why I left so soon, because I wanted to test out my new wings. Throughout the rest of the day I was building and collecting materials for my new home (or also known as a bird’s nest). By the end of the day and start of night my nest was built. I weakly flew into my nest. If I was a hibernating creature I would have hibernated for the rest of the year, but of course I could not.

THE DREAM

I was home with my mum and dad. It was dinnertime and I was going to feed the cat, Oliver. he looked hungrily at me. I thought that it was natural because I was holding his food as looked at my hand I saw NOTHING! And my hand wasn’t a hand it had feathers on it! It was a wing! He was looking at me like that because I was a bird. I flapped furiously and lifted up quite easily. Watch out, there’s a tree there! I didn’t swerve in time. SMACK!!! Ouch, I’ll feel that tomorrow!!

What a nightmare, I mean torturing me with my parents and why the cat? Why Oliver? I thought about cats and how tasty birds were and… what is wrong with me? I mean birds are not…are so tasty! Wait a minute! Meow! I’m a cat, how did that happen? I guess that I got Leina’s powers – shape-shifting. Hmmm how a butterfly! A few seconds later…It really works! Now let’s go and find something I can change into my best friend who will be …a fantail. That will be fun and then me and Pip could try to find out what happened to Leina. Ok time to go fetch my buddy. Ok, lets go, this holly bush should do. After about an hour of concentrating my friend Pip was alive and well. Soon after a bit of debating we went to explore the mountain. Pip led the way and in our adventure we found a portal we named it the ‘Portal of Mischief’ because we figured out that it could take you through time. We had many other adventures in different times but of course they are other adventures.