Kakepuku Catastrophe
Chapter 1 Disaster Strikes
Oh NO! What started out as a normal class trip to our special mountain - Kakepuku - has ended in disaster. After all the learning, careful planning, survival preparation and excitement, we finally headed off in the school bus with Mr Dyer to climb our Maunga. We drove towards Te Awamutu, across the beautiful rolling Waikato dairy land, Parked up and got ourselves into our expedition teams. With backpacks stuffed with only the most important survival gear, we wandered off across the farmland towards the verdant slopes and regenerating bush. Some of us moaned at the growing heat and the ever-steepening slope. Others revelled in the freedom from the classroom, surrounded by birds, native trees, and our ever-rambling teacher, Mr Woody. Once across the farmland, having encountered the odd inquisitive jersey cow and skittish newly shorn ewe, we clambered across the last bit of number eight wire and entered the bush zone. Even though it was shadier, the incline made it hard going. Rewarewa and kohekohe sheltered us from the scorching sun, but our shirts were soon drenched with sweat. We all sighed with relief we broke into a clearing and got to sit down to rest and drink our precious cool water. Mr Woody was twittering on about fantails, wood pigeons, skylarks and various obscure invertebrates when suddenly the ground started to vibrate, the birds which had become silent without us noticing started fluttering frantically to lift off before it got worse. The vibrating turned to shaking, shaking to rumbling, and then we saw it: a massive wall of water, the height of the sky tower, the width of Kakepuku, came gushing towards us. I kept my head all the way unlike most people who ran everywhere. I headed towards the summit like the smarter people like Cameron. My group started to panic except Daniel who saw me and followed. George saw Daniel head up so he followed then Galileo then Jay. We didn't get far before the Tsunami hit Kakepuku with enough force to knock the wind out of a god knocking us off our feet. Then as fast as it happened, it stopped. We're alone on Mount (now Island) Kakepuku with our backpacks and our groups. It is time to put our survival skills to the test!
Chapter 2 Stranded
“Holy kaka what is happening?” I yell out loud.
“I don’t know,” yelled Daniel answering my call.
“It was a tsunami,” whispered George unexpectantly, out from behind a tree.”
“If we are stranded we should make a shelter, gather some food or gather firewood. If we could accomplish all these we should be fine, for today,” said Jay taking control of the situation.
“I never knew your vocabulary level was so high,” I say sarcastically.
“Shut up!” yelled Jay startling me with the venom in his voice” My mother and father was in that bus before the tsunami struck” he said before bursting into tears.
“I’m sorry I never knew that,” I said grim faced. “Also to come to think of it, our parents are probably dead…
“People we shouldn’t worry about the past maybe honour them by having a moments silence then we should see what we have to survive,” said Daniel.
SILENCE… even the birds seemed to know what this meant to us.
“Now we should going to prepare for the hard days ahead of us,” whispered Galileo breaking the silence
“What do we have here: water, lunch, my backpack, a knife and a sleeping bag.
Ok first we should make a shelter. There are five of us so 3 should make shelter while 2 get firewood and food."
"Ok Galileo and I will collect firewood," said Daniel thoughtfully, reading my mind.
“And while you do that ‘collecting,’ George, Jay and I will go make some shelters so we don’t freeze to death,” I stated. “And don’t take to long because I couldn’t make a wind-proof shelter in only one day.”
“You guys listen to me we should find a shelter site before you guys set off so you know where to go and don’t forget to make marks on trees so you don’t get lost. Also the shelter should be a flat surface and around the middle of the mountain.” We set off looking for a shelter site, full of determination. It was a miracle because we found a perfect place for a debris hut and what style of hut Jay or George wanted to make in less than an hour. “We should work together on my hut because if made properly it could fit us all in for the night and maybe longer.”
“He’s probably right because I didn’t do my homework one night and copied off Jayden’s book and the Debris hut is AWESOME man,” said Daniel.
“I forgot you guys were here, you can go now,” said Jay formally.
“Okay boss guy man thing,” joked Galileo.
Daniel and Galileo then tramped off and out of sight. When they were gone I took over the situation by saying:
“Ok, now look for a long, sturdy and/or thick looking pole or stick or branch etc.” I command.
It took a long 20 minutes to find a suitable stick and haul it back to our campsite.
“Now find a tall forked stick and shove it into the ground opposite this tree with the little fork thing on the trunk.”
This time we were more fortunate and spent only 5 minutes finding the thing we were looking for. Then we took about 20 minutes trying to pick up our sturdy stick and put it on our forked one, before we succeeded.
Now look for lots of little sticks and carefully and I MEAN CAREFULLY lean them on the main beam. We had done about 1 third of the covering when I jumped over the beam. Then George did it after about 5 minutes them jay tried to copy but stopped midway and ran into the beam and knocked it over.
“JAY!! YOU, YOU EEDGIT! JUST BECAUSE I JUMPED OVER THE BEAM DOESN’T MEAN YOU HAVE TO TOO, BECAUSE OF YOU, WE HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN… GOSH YOUR DUMB” I yell angrily.
“I’m sorry,” whispered Jay.
“You should be.” I say very coldly
“I truly am, if you want me to do it all again, I would, if I can” Jay said starting to cry
“George and I shall do it until you feel better and come to help,” I whisper slowly.
“Groan” moaned George, out of the background as he tried to pick up the beam by himself.
“George, what are you doing, you might hurt yourself,” I say in exasperation as I rush to his aid.” Together we took ten minutes to get back to where we were before Jay’s intrusion. We did it faster because we had all the materials there in front of us and he knew what to do and what the best method is, to put up the beam. That is when Jay finally sobered up enough to help us but was still in a foul mood. After we finished that I told them to find leaves and pieces of debris to put on the sticks to keep out some of the cold, which was a relatively easy task By the time we were about halfway through, Daniel came back (drenched in sweat) with an armful of dry wood, perfect for starting a fire. The wood wasn’t cut evenly. It looked like they used a hatchet to hack a thick tree sideways. He came and helped a bit before going to get more wood or to go find Galileo.
After a few minutes Daniel and Galileo come back with more wood and piled it next to the hut. Then they came and helped us make more of the hut. We’re getting quite tired and sweaty. Also we are hot and bothered.
George has already having a rest and I’m nearly about to drop. A few more leaves and twigs, a few more minutes. Now Daniel is getting a rest……. Now Galileo is too. The speed is slowly declining and soon I fear it may stop. I lost track of time making this hut. It may have been a few more minutes or maybe hours and my fingers are getting numb and sore with blisters, which really hurt, but I vividly remember when I said
“Oh I give up, I’m too tired,” and flopped down beside Daniel under the big oak tree. I look around for my bag and find it beside the hut. Once I have it under the tree with me I scabble with the zip and pull out my drink bottle. I take a long drought from it, feeling relief as the cold fluids run down my parched throat. Soon I run out of water, cursing that I should have not drunk all of my water a 1 go. I pull out my sleeping bag and lay on top of it, feeling my aching limbs relax in comfort. I was going to just lie on my sleeping bag but accidentally dozed off. I was woken up by Jay hours later, who pointed at the now fully made hut and said: “Is that good enough,”
“That’s awesome Jay,” I say in awe. It’s now very dark and cold and I head off towards the hut with my bag on and sleeping bag in my arms. At the entrance I see that there is a blazing fire going and George is feeding it more wood.
“Daniel is asleep and Galileo is too,” he said whispering.
In the hut I found an empty space beside Daniel (who is curled up into a ball) and lay my sleeping bag down. I lie down on my sleeping bag and finally realize that I’m the only one who has a sleeping bag, before drifting into an uneasy sleep, to the sound of a horn.
CHAPTER 3 THE GHOSTLY HORN
“ZZZZZZZZ.... BLEEUGH!” I wake up to find Jay standing over me yelling at me to get up.
“Brrrrrrrrrrmmmmm,” a deep note splits the air.
“What is happening?!” I yell. I look around and see Galileo, Daniel and George standing outside, looking towards the East alert, and listening.
The horn booms again…… And again.
It booms a few more times before going to rest.
“What was that?” I say a little shaken
“It sounded like some foghorn,” George whispered from outside.
“We should wake up earlier tomorrow than when the horn blows,” said Jay.
Yeah, you’re right… but I’m starving,”
“Same,” groaned Galileo, Daniel and Jay.
“We should eat something before we go for the sheep or cows. Do any of you have any food left?” asked Jay.
“I do,” said George. We walked over and looked in Georges pack and found his bag crammed with food.
“My mother cares about me too much” I hear George confess in the middle of the group of people crowded around his bag.
“Jay and I shall go and get some food while you make a map,” I order.
“O.K Mr bossy-boots… Wait I'm just joking, man you've got a temper issue”,
Galileo mutters. We head off and immediately find a fat Wood Pigeon flitting between trees. We already have a pocketknife and a hatchet ready for use in our hands. Soon we lose track of it and Jay swore. When we were about to head back Jay goes rigid and stops moving. I copy and slowly turn my head around and see a healthy female sheep grazing a few metres away.
“Jay I’ll strafe towards the sheep so it doesn’t notice me and you should walk in a semi-circle around it then scare it towards me. I slowly get closer while Jay does his job. This is very risky and if the sheep sees us and bolts we’re doomed. So far so good, we’ve gotten into position now.
“BOOGAH BOOGAH BOOGAH!!” Jay yells running towards the sheep. It bolts, but not towards me but to the gap on my right. “Nooooooo!” I yell in desperation as I tear across the grass after the sheep. I can’t catch it for it is too fast, so in a last ditch effort I hurl my pocketknife at the sheep’s head. It half worked because the knife missed its mark by a metre but the sheep turns around and bolts back, sidestepping me and runs straight at Jay. As it comes closer Jay lunges towards it hacking furiously. He falls off and the sheep starts staggering to the side while running a lot slower. I take the axe off Jay and sprint off after it. As I reach it the sheep looks at me with hopeless eyes and I just can’t do it. Jay hobbles towards me and delivered the fatal blow. I step back and close my eyes as I feel the life ebb away from the limp body of the sheep. It takes both of us to even lift it up and we can only carry it a few metres before dropping it. “I’ll go and get help” I call back over my shoulder before I bolt off towards ‘camp’. There I find Daniel bent over some piece of paper with a pen in his hand.
