Visit to Glen Innes Library

An exciting trip to the Glen Innes Library blew me away today... We travelled to the Library on a bus along with Mrs Raj and Miss Card, while we were on our way there our whole class were singing "The wheels on the bus" and that was super funny. Moments later, we were already at the Library. I haven't been to the Library in a pretty long time so I was excited to be there, there was Brenda and she asked if we knew what Tamaki makaurau means, but of course we knew what that meant (it means 'Auckland') but then she asked us a few more questions and some we didn't know so we learnt a few more new Maori words! I also learnt that underneath Queens St is a river or should I say te awa, I learnt what te awa means too (it means river). We got separated into two groups tahi and rua, and we sat on the two different mats facing each other. In the middle of both mats were a long cloth (that was an supposed to be an awa) there was also fish, kina, mussels and more sea creatures.

Before the story was told, we learnt new self defence moves with our kaiako (teacher or teachers). The two groups were told to turn around so we don't get a sneak peek on their moves and they don't get a sneak peek at us. My group used a rakau but it wasn’t a real one because the rakau are usually way too long to use in the Library and it could injure someone, so we used a bamboo stick. The other group used a patu, it was used to attack someone but using a rakau is protecting the patu from hitting you. Our kaiako and the other kaiako were very funny too. We all got a rakau each, we first learnt the four places to protect and it was the head, neck, body and legs. When our kaiako says Waitakere we protect our neck, we then protect our head then we bring the rakau on the side of our body that was really close to our armpit, after that we bring the rakau on the other side of our armpit but it was slightly away from our body and finally we get on our knee and hold the rakau down and while we do that, we do our pukana.

Both teams were ready but we had to choose a Princess and a Prince so it was Princess Amelia and Prince Danny. Our kaiako was the King and Danny was his son. One day Danny went fishing with his kete (basket) and Princess Amelia also went fishing with her kete, unfortunately they both forgot their matau (hook) so they had no choice but to jump in the river. They got their fish but Danny gasped and saw the most beautful girl across the river. Danny went up to her and said “Hey girl”, “Your very pretty” “Do you want to come over and see my family?” Amelia said “Yes”. So they both enjoyed their lovely walk to Danny’s house, Amelia met the King and she was so excited. A villager told the other King on the other side of the river that we have stole their Princess, they said “Give our Princess back!” back we refused. They got so angry they were training to fight us so we trained as well, we all had a fight and used our skills we were taught. We made so much noise while we were fighting the ground shook and the God came out of the ground and said “What is all that noise?”. He said a speech about why we should stop fighting and we were confinced so we listened. Amelia and Danny got married and also had many kids and that was us. We all lived happlily ever after.