Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Day 2

I wake up, tired and wishing I could go back to sleep. But it was just too cold. I shake Micaela and Jes awake. "Wake up you guys! Hurry up! I want to explore." Groaning they roll over and sit up. "But its still early." Protested Jes. "So." I said, "We need to get up and explore." "Fine." They grumbled. We get out of our sleeping bags and put them into our backpack. Then we get out our lunchbox and eat the remains of yesterdays packed lunch. "Yum!" said Micaela. "Lets go and explore." I said. "We need to find lunch and dinner as well." Micaela said. "Lets go!" Cried Jes. Also together we packed up the tent and gathered up all of our belongings. When we are sure we have everything we headed south to the JJM river. All we could see for miles around us were trees, trees and more trees. After about half and hour the river came into sight. By this stage we were quite hungry so we began to walk faster. Eventually we reached it. Then... "AHHHHHHH!" "Who was that?" I thought to myself, then I realised that the scream had come from Micaela. "Whats wrong?" I asked her. "There are big fat eels in the river!" she sreamed. I went over to have a look but the eels weren't moving. "They're dead." I told her. "O ok." She said. "’Im hungry." Complained Jes. "We coulds eat these eels for lunch and dinner." I suggested. "Yea!" Said Micaela. "How are we going to carry it?" I asked. "I know, we can cut it up into pieces and then put the pieces into three rubbish bags so we can carry a part of it each." I suggested. "Ok, lets do it." Said Micaela. So we pulled our pocket knives out of our belts and cut through one of the eels until it was divided into three pieces. Then I took the rubbish bags out of our backpack and lay them on the ground.
"They're going to be quite heavy, so on three we will lift together and put it into the rubbish bag." "Ok." They agreed. "1, 2, 3!" We heaved the piece of eel into the first rubbish bag and tied it up. "Right, lets go and get another one." I said. "1, 2, 3!" "GO!" Together we heaved the second piece into the second rubbish bag and then tied it up. Then we went back to get the third piece. "1, 2, 3!" "GO!" As a team we heaved that piece into the last rubbish bag and then I tied it up. Then we all picked up a bag and walked through the river. It was only up to like, our ankles so it wasn't like we were going to drown or anything. When we were at the other side of the river we sat down a decide what to do next. Together we decided that we were going to set up camp here on the beach for the night. "Look!" Yelled Jes. "There is another island not far form here." "It looks about 100 Metres." I said. "Yea." Said Micaela. "We could go there for the night and then that way we won't have anybody disturb us or steal our stuff." "Good idea." They agreed. "Lets go and set up the tent." I suggested. "Ok." Said Jes. So I dug the tent out of the backpack and took it out of its sleeve bag thingy. Then together we stood up the poles and put up the tent. Then we all put on our swandri’s and snuggled under our survival blankets. "Goodnight." Said Micaela. "Goodnight." Said Jes. “Goodnight." I said.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Day 1: Part 2

We force ourselves to keep swimming even though we are thouroughly tired and weighed down by our backpack and clothes. Finally we reach the shore and fall down in the sand of exhaustion, gasping for air. My leg is stinging horribly as Micaela and Jes carry me up the beach. They lay me on the sand and then we hoist the backpack from the water and untie it from our waists. then we took a moment to lie on the sand and catch our breath. "What do we do now?" said Micaela. "We could go and set up camp." I suggested. "Good idea." Said Jes.
So we got up. But i just fell back down again. So Jes and Micaela hurry to get the first aid kit out of the backpack. They pull out a pair of tweezers and a long bandage. Jes uses the tweezers to pull out all the glass splinters. I hold my breath while she does it so I don't have to feel the excruciating pain searing throughout my entire leg. When she was done Micaela wrapped the bandage around the gash and helped me up. I stumbled a little bit but eventually I caught my balance. Working as a team we used our hands to dig a human sized hole in the ground, far enough away from the ocean so it wouldn't get filled with the rubbish from the polluted waters.
Then we dug out our tarpolin from our backpack and lay it inside the hole. Then I took our billy out of the bag and ran with it to the ocean to fill it with water. I did this about 9 times, each time tipping it into the hole when I was done. When it was was all filled up it was a bath. So that we could bathe at night if we needed to.
Then we grabbed the tent off the sandy beach and took it ou of its cover. then we started to set it up. It was quite difficult but eventually the mission was accomplished. We had a lunchbox full of food so we took it out and began to eat.
It was a cold night so we put on our swandris to sleep in. Then we entered our tent and snuggled u nder the survival blankets that we had bought with us.
We stayed up chatting about the next day. "What are we doing tomorrow?" Asked Micaela. "I don't know." said Jes. "Neither." I said.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Day 1: Return to Matainui

Every ones excited and tense. Mr Woody seems more nervous than all of us, sitting at his desk trying to get everyone organized. Everybody was running around making sure that they had everything and checking to see that they had all their survival gear. "Everybody sit down." said Mr Woody. When everyone was assembled we sorted ourselves into groups for the trip. In the end I was with my two best friends Jes and Micaela. Finally it was time to go. Everybody was chattering excitedly as we made our way to the bus.
Eventually we were at the bus and the people at the start of the line were just getting seated. Once we were seated the bus left. we spent the night at a backpackers lodge and then headed down to the docks the next morning. when the docks came into view everyone gasped. We hadn't realised it was going to be a sea plane. Carefully and nervously we boarded the few steps into the plane.
There are 30 of us so it takes a while but eventually everyone is on. The weight of all 30 of us makes the plane sink a little bit but the pilot, Samuel assures us over the loudspeaker that it is perfectly normal. Everyone breathes a sigh of relief. "Phew!" I said. Finally we get going. We begin a painfully slow circle around the harbour then slowly descended towards the sky. "WE'RE OFF!". I yelled. The noise of the plane was deafening, like someone was starting half a dozen motorbikes in my ear. "Man that's loud!" I said to Jes and Micaela.
We headed out towards the open ocean, flying high above the water. Then suddenly we flew into ominous looking clouds. Suddenly they started to get darker and lightning flashed. It struck the plane and everyone screamed.. 'AHHHHHHHHHHH!" It was strange because there had been no weather report on this absurd weather. I heard someone scream, then realised that the lights had gone out and the plane was shaking violently. Then it stopped. I looked to my left and Jes was rising into the air. I looked to my right and the same thing was happening to Micaela.
"Oh my goodness! What's happening?" I yelled loudly. Then is saw some of my other classmates fly pasts well and I wondered why it wasn't happening to me. Then realised I had my seat belt on and I hurriedly took it off. The next thing I know I was rising into the air as well. It was an amazing feeling, like I was a soft feather, floating on the breeze. "OUCH!" I shouted as I fell to the floor. we scrambled back into our seats and then very unexpectedly.... WHOOSH! we took off again. then over the loudspeaker the pilot Sam yells "I NEVER PASSED MY TEST!" As we plummeted towards the ocean.
I scream, absolutely terrified as water surrounds the outside of the plane and we all realise that we've crashed into the bottom of the ocean. Every ones screaming and yelling and running around trying to find the emergency exit. I find it beside our seats and I scream "ITS OVER HERE!" And everyone comes running. I grabbed our backpack and smashed the glass. We had put all of our supplies into our backpack so we didn't have to carry three. Then I held my uneven breath and swam into the water. As I swam out I cut my leg on the smashed glass. But I make my way to the surface anyway.
Finally we made it and we gasped for air, trying to survive. It was chilly and not the best day to be in the water. I grabbed the rope off my belt and grabbed my backpack. Then we tied the other end of the rope to all three of our waists and began swimming back to shore. It looked about 100 metres so we went slowly because we didn't want to get tired. "Where are the other two bags?" I asked Micaela. "We lost them in the hurry to get out off the plane." She said. "OH NO!" Jes and I shouted together. "Oh well". At least we put all our supplies in this bag here. "Yea". They said.