A Little Day Out

by Tim Cotton

After practising their Waiata on the bus, a rowdy group of enthused students from Ponsonby Intermediate jumped off the bus and landed on the grounds of the Orakei Marae. The students of rooms one and seventeen waited in the mahau (waiting house) to be welcomed by a couple Maori elders. Bob and Whaea sung a beautiful powhiri, although the return waiata was not quite as good, the elders were still willing to share their history with there visitors as part of the first EOTC trip.

After one hour of Maori history there was only a little time left for the students to look around the grounds. One of the most amazing and interesting things at the Marae was a dead tree, but this wasn’t any old dead tree it was the tree from One Tree Hill that had been cut down. Some members of the Orakei Marae had plans to carve the sacred tree and give it to another iwi.

Soon after gazing around the Marae it was time for the students to head back to more work and finish off their Valentines Day.