We have spent a week preparation and we are all very excited. It was a short trip to our take-off place, Kawhia Harbour but we were all excited and we were all ready in advance. We had absolutely no idea what to expect apart from disaster since 11 year old Sam was piloting the plane. We piled onto the bus and sat in our classroom cliques. Below the noise of excited chatter was the soft rumble of the bus. As we swerved in every direction, we bumped into each other. After about 20 mins, we jumped off the bus and prepared to board our plane, a Grumman HU-16 Albatross.
When boarded we heard a cough as the plane's engine roared to life and started to creep along the water picking up speed by the second. We were all waiting for the disaster to happen and out of the blue, "I don't think we should trust Sam as the pilot!" exclaimed Dilshen.
"Nonsense,'' argued Mr Woody. "He had tests to pass!"
As we became airborne, flying gracefully over the blue sea stretching as far as the eye can see was a silhouette of a distant island becoming clearer but suddenly, BANG and we plunged into weightlessness. The chatter turned to screams and chaos that could wake the dead! The weightlessness was over in a second and instead we were plummeting towards the ocean. As we plunged into the water being gulped up by the angry waves, I tried to break out of the plane but, I was stuck. After a while of searching I found a hatch and to my relief, it was open!
Before I found the hatch, I found unconscious Haylee so I tied my rope to her and towed her round to find the open hatch. I propelled myself to the surface of the water to get some air, lifting Haylee above as well so she can get some air too. Then I started swimming, forgetting mine and Haylee's bags as I was busy keeping Haylee above water. It was 100metres to get to the shore and it took a while although, it was not a waste of time. When the water wasn't over my head, I walked up the beach and flopped down on the sand. I was one of the last people on to the shore, but I was towing Haylee and I had to keep her afloat.
"Kim! Finally your here!" exclaimed Maddi.
"I had to keep Haylee afloat so you can't blame me," I replied. "And it was tiring."
"We are planning to walk to the smallest mountain because of the spring on the top." informed Kieran.
"Okay, let's go!" I encouraged.
So we started the long journey to the small mountain and since we all knew that we wouldn't be able to reach the mountain in one day since we had to wait for Haylee to come to consciousness.
As we walked we realised we only had 3 litres of water each and we decided to pitch Maddi's tent at a beach which had a small island in the bay. It was nearing sun-down and we were all starting to tire, but fortunately we had reached the bay where we were to pitch the tent.
As the sun disappeared a great ring of clouds spread round the island but never came within 100m of shore. When we were in bed and nearly asleep and it was pitch black I noticed there were absolutely no stars in the sky.
The sound of a dawn chorus awoke me from a deep sleep. As I looked around the tent, I saw Maddi, Dilshen, Kieran and Haylee also awake. I was tired and I needed to stretch so I walked outside the tent and stretched, taking in the unfamiliar surroundings.
Then my group walked out of the tent and we ate some of Maddi's tinned food, packed up the tent and set off towards the small mountain with the spring. At around lunchtime we reached the mountain and Maddi handed out a protein bar each. Then after finishing our protein bars and having a little sip from our drink bottle we started to ascend following a small trail which suddenly stopped.
After about thirty more metres, we came across a 1.5 metre high cliff. The cliff looked like a stone blocked and we realised the stone block was one of many stone blocks that were forming the mountain. As two of the group members were too short to climb above the stone block so Dilshen (the tallest) climbed up the first rock and lowered a rope and the rest of us climbed up after him and we did the same for each level until we found a gap in the stones. Kieran and Dilshen offered to go down so us girls had to give in.
At first we could hear Kieran and Dilshen's footsteps echoing in the cave but, after a while, the sounds faded away and there was no sign of Dilshen or Kieran anymore.
A few minutes later, Maddi convinced me and Haylee to let her go down on a rope. "What do you think is down there? I think there might be an alien thingamabob!" I said.
"Well, you never know, but I think you might be right!" Haylee replied.
Five minutes later, Kieran emerged from a window higher up the 'mountain'.
"Where have you been?" asked Haylee.
"Well," Kieran replied. "When we went down on to the cave there were the steps again. After a while the steps flattened out and we walked along a narrow passage. At the end of the passage, was a T - intersection and I wanted to split up but Dilshen wanted to stay together. So I ran off with the mechanical torch and a flame torch. I could hear Dilshen's footsteps following for a while but then they died out. After a while, I emerged into a big cavern, but I kept running and fell into a big hole with a really brittle floor. I felt around the sides of the hole and found a passage. After walking along the passage a bit, I realised the bones on the floor were changing shapes and had different bone structures to humans. Then I came to a big room with a furnace in it and a basket contraption. To work the basket, you just need to pull a lever. The basket took me to a plain room with a window that has no glass. That's where I climbed down from to get to you guys. I also found an amulet and an ankh."
"Wow," I said. "That is such a long and exciting story!"
Just as I finished talking, Maddi and Dilshen walked up to us. "Explain." exclaimed Haylee.
"I tried to follow Kieran," Dilshen explained. "But my torch went out so I turned around to go to back to the T - intersection, but I went past it and fell off a cliff. I started blowing my whistle and -"
"I followed the sound and Dilshen said to be careful so I stopped just on the edge of the cliff and saw Dilshen. I lowered a rope and when he was walking his feet up the wall, it gave way and Dilshen fell on a dead body and found an amulet. We went back to the fork thing and Dilshen put the amulet in a carving on the wall which made the wall move and us locked out of the fork intersection." Maddi finished.
Dilshen and Kieran held their amulets up and they were identical apart from an iris shape as the amulets were in the shape of an eye.
"We need to survive the night. But, how?" I queried.
"The pyramid thing, duh!" Kieran shot back at me followed by a round of laughter.
"In the pyramid thing, nice!" I said.
"Kim, you killed it!" Everyone groaned.
"Haha, very funny. Let's go through that window thing. Lead the way Kieran." I said.
So we started another tiring journey higher up the mountain. When we got to the window, it was about 6:00 p.m. We were all tired and Kieran showed us to the big cavern. "Let's set up for the night." Maddi exclaimed.
We set ourselves up so that Maddi was on one end with me beside her and Haylee was on my other side with Dilshen and Kieran in another area of the room.
Day 3
I yawned as Maddi woke me up from kicking me and then I woke her up. "What is that on the roof and walls. Wake everyone up." Maddi yelled.
I looked around and saw what Maddi was talking about. All these glittery lights, all the colours of the rainbow. THUMP! I was turning and bumped into a wall. I heard the stunned gasps of my group. "What? Tell me what you are staring at!" I demanded.
COUGH! I suddenly realised I was in a cloud of dust. I walked out of the cloud of dust and looked at where I had bumped into the wall. There was a big patch of silver metal.
I walked over to another patch of the wall and started brushing and all this dust came off the wall. "Guys, start brushing the wall!" I said.
An hour later, we had dusted all the walls and now we were standing in a big silver room. Kieran walked over to the furnace and pressed a button. All these panels popped out of the walls and the panels were covered in buttons. "Awesomeness!" I yelled with a ton of enthusiasm.
I walked over to one of the panels and pressed a button and pulled a lever. The walls shrunk and one of walls went up to reveal outside the Mayan temple. I pressed the button and pulled the lever again and the door closed. "Look at that!" Maddi exclaimed.
Maddi had spotted a alien hand imprint and fainted.
After a few hours, Maddi came around. By now it was 2:00p.m.
CLANG-CLANG! Haylee opened the door and we saw Marek. "Explain." Haylee ordered.
"Well, I was looking around and started banging and you get the point." Marek replied.
SLAM! I closed the door to keep Marek out and turned around to find Dilshen had disappeared.
When I next saw Dilshen, he was talking nonsense and Kieran was holding a bone which he pressed onto the hand imprint. Screens popped out of the walls and flicked on showing a map of the island. I fell against the screen and touched the small mountain so a box popped up and showed us in the small mountain.
The dawn chorus woke me over the security system speakers. CLANG-CLANG! "Marek's group!" I yelled "Keep them out!"
We just ignored the banging and pretended we weren't inside the temple. "I'm going to sleep again." I said.
A few hours later, I woke up to find out that Maddi, Haylee, Dilshen and Kieran had ditched me to go look for food or something. I got the hand and found another hand imprint. I pressed the hand into it and a door slid open revealing a egg shape capsule made from one way glass. I walked over to the capsule and climbed into an open door.
WHOOSH! Suddenly, I was in the air above the island and frantically trying to figure out how to control the capsule. POP! I popped out of the bubble and then I saw a sea of wasteland and pollution. I found a window in the capsule and opened it. I could hardly breathe because the air was so polluted. I closed the window and pressed an air conditioning button. I flew back towards the island but when I tried to go through the bubble, I just bounced off. Again and again I bounced off the bubble until I flew to the top. I saw a purple and black blur beneath me. I maneuvered the capsule into the blur. I felt the same weightless feeling as on the plane and then the capsule started plummeting into the water.
I was a few metres above the water when I gained control and flew back to the 'mountain'. "Where have you been?!?" Maddi demanded.
So, I told them about flying out of the bubble. "I'm so tired and you guys ditched me!" I said.
I fell asleep just as I lay in my sleeping bag.
Day 5
I yawned, yesterday was so tiring and it was really scary flying out of the bubble. "Wake up, we should have some breakfast. Maddi can we have some tinned fruit for breakfast?" I asked.
"I suppose so" Maddi replied and opened some pear halves.
We got a half satisfying meal of 2 pear halves each. Then we decided to go for a fly in the capsules. I demonstrated how to work them. "When you are shot up, hover just by the top of the pyramid." I instructed.
Haylee climbed into a capsule and was shot up the hollow tube and another capsule replaced it. Maddi, Dilshen and Kieran each climbed in and were launched into the sky. My turn, climbing in I was shaking but after I felt myself speeding up the tube, I felt confident.
When I popped out the top of the tube, I saw the rest of my group in a circle around me. "Something on the small island makes me feel suspicious," said Haylee. "I'm going to go and check it out."
"Suit yourself." Kieran replied.
I watched Haylee fly in the direction of the small island but suddenly I heard a deafening scream. "AHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Who should be Haylee's heroine?" asked Maddi. "Maybe Dilshen."
"Or hero? Maybe Maddi." Dilshen shot back at Maddi.
ZOOM! I watched Maddi zoom after Haylee and start plummeting herself. "WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
An hour later, Maddi and Haylee flew back to us looking stunned. At first I couldn't see anything strange, but then I realised that Haylee was carrying a box and that Maddi's eyes looked like DIAMONDS and Haylee's eyes looked like SAPPHIRES!
When back at the temple, I walked outside and planted my seeds from my pocket just in case one of the plants was a cure for Maddi and Haylee's eyes.
While I was digging, I found and amulet identical to Dilshen and Kieran's but with a different pupil shape. I walked inside and showed it to them. "In the box were gems and one fits into my amulet, another into Kieran's and there are three left over!" Dilshen said excitedly.
"Wow." I replied.
I walked over to the box, grabbed the green gem, because it is my favourite colour, and placed it in my amulet. Surprise, surprise. It fit perfectly.
By now it was late at night and I went to bed and slept soundly for the whole night.
Day 6
Breakfast was more tinned fruit and we were all by now, very annoyed with it. During eating, Maddi and Haylee started coughing and spluttering. "I c-c-a-n-'t b-b-r-e-a-t-h-e." Maddi gasped before she passed out!
A few seconds later, Haylee passed out as well. The day went slowly with us just wandering around the spaceship.
At night, Dilshen started complaining about the cold and Kieran was being stupid. "FIRE!" Kieran yelled at the furnace with his hands holding his amulet out.
Flames burst out of the furnace and Dilshen went quiet. "Yay, I can control fire!" exclaimed Kieran.
"Let's go to bed now" I mumbled and went to my sleeping bag and slept.
Day 7
"Wake up Dilshen and Kieran!" I said "We need to check on Maddi and Haylee."
"OK, let's go." replied Kieran walking over to Haylee and Maddi.
"Well, we know that they are still unconscious." said Dilshen.
"Guys, I'm tired so I'm going back to bed." I mumbled.
"Weirdo!' exclaimed Kieran.
GRUMBLE! RUMBLE! I woke to the sound of my empty stomach pleading for food. I got up and stumbled, while half asleep, over to Maddi's pack. I grabbed the last energy bar. Ate the energy bar and went back to sleep.
CLANG! I hear the sound of Dilshen and Kieran return for dinner. "So, what do you want for dinner?" I asked.
"I don't know. Tinned fruit?" said Kieran.
I opened a tin of fruit and passed it around. "Let's sleep outside tonight, just to be different." I said.
"Definitely!" exclaimed Kieran.
"Fine then." Dilshen grumbled.
An hour later, we were lying outside under the bare navy blue sky. "Can you see that star over there?" Dilshen asked pointing to the sky.
"No, stop pointing, it's just your imagination." I replied.
Dilshen started to lower his arm when suddenly, he froze, made a fist and brought his arm down. "Uh guys?"
"Yea Dilshen." We replied.
"I think I can control space!" exclaimed Dilshen.
"Awesomeness". I said drowsily then fell asleep.
Day 8
RUSTLE! I gasped. "What was that?"
I looked over at Haylee and Maddi to see that they were making all the noise. I ran outside to my plants in case one of them was a cure. They seeds had only just popped up. "I wish these plants would grow faster!" I exclaimed and all at once, the plants grew really huge.
"That is a bit to big!" I exclaimed and the seeds went a bit smaller.
I sprinted inside and shook Kieran and Dilshen. "What is it?"They asked in unison.
"I think I can control earth!"
"Prove it." said the boys.
To the boys amazement, I made a tree grow out of the ground. "Wow, maybe you can. Do you know how to cure Maddi and Haylee?" asked Dilshen.
"Hold on a second. I think I can." I said and picked four red petals from the tree and placed them gently over Maddi and Haylee's eyes.
"They should wake up in the next hour!" I said
An hour la- "Hello, Maddi, Kim, Dilshen, Kieran! Are you here?" asked Haylee.
"Huh? Haylee your awake!" I exclaimed.
"I am as well!" Maddi demanded.
"Oh hello Maddi," Dilshen said. "Kieran can you start up a fire?"
"Random, you can control fire." said Haylee.
"I can control space." said Dilshen
"Me, well I can control earth!" I said.
So Kieran started a fire and Haylee walked up to it and held out her hands saying "WATER!" and sure enough, Kieran's fire went out and all I could see was some smoke. "Hay-lee!" We said.
Kieran lit another fire while everyone else talked about what they wanted to eat for breakfast. "Who wants some porridge for breakfast?" I asked.
"Me" yelled everyone in unison.
I grew some oats and Haylee made some water and we held it over the fire.
In a few minutes, we had some porridge that was cooked to absolute perfection. I then grew some sugar and sprinkled it over everyone's bowls.
The rest of the day was a slow one with everyone just kicking back and relaxing sticking to just tinned fruit for meals.
"Let's go to bed now guys, I'm really tired!" I mumbled sleepily.
"Okay."
"Great idea."
"Affirmative."
"Smarty pants. I'm Dilshen, AFFIRMATIVE"
"Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite. If they do, get a shoe and beat them 'til they're black and blue."
"Haha, very funny Kim."
Day 9
"I want to find and amulet!" Maddi demanded.
"Well, we'll go for a fly in the capsules and see if you can spot your amulet." Kieran said.
So we launched the capsules and soon-"I FOUND AN AMULET!" screamed Maddi overjoyed that she wasn't the odd one out anymore.
"Well, here is your gem." I said handing Maddi her gem.
"MADDI, LOOK OUT!" I screamed as Maddi flew straight towards a mountain.
I couldn't watch so I turned away. "Whew, that was lucky!" Maddi said.
I turned around and Maddi was unharmed. "What happened?" I asked.
"Maddi flew straight through the medium mountain at the end of the island." Dilshen answered my question while I looked amazed.
"Let's go back to the mountain now, OK?" Kieran asked.
For the rest of the day, Maddi kept practicing with her amulet to discover what her power was. "Guys, I think my power is air!" Maddi said enthusiastically.
"Prove it then." said Kieran.
"OK, happy to!" Maddi replied, and made herself fly and then go invisible.
"So, maybe you can fly." Dilshen said.
"Kieran, what is your favourite fruit?" I asked.
"Apples, Granny Smiths in particular."
So, without any hesitation, I grew a big Granny Smith apple tree with a lot of ripe apples on it. "Haylee, what is your favourite fruit?" I queried.
"Ummm, well, I have to say I like peaches."
Again I grew a tree, but this time it was a peach tree for Haylee. "Maddi, what's your favourite fruit?" I asked.
"APRICOTS!" Maddi screamed in delight.
I grew an absolutely humongous apricot tree just for Maddi. The tree held a lot of ripe apricots and when I say a lot, I'm not exaggerating. "Dilshen, you?"
"Peaches." he answered in his boring tone of voice.
"Go share Haylee's peach tree then. Guys, here is your dinner. If you are unhappy with the quality of the food, please don't complain." I said while I grew myself a huge pear tree bearing tons of ripe pears!
After eating about ten pears, I went to bed and slept.
Day 10
I woke up and saw Maddi hovering just above my head eating an apricot. "Can we go explore some caves by the lake today?" Maddi asked between mouthfuls.
"OK. Sure, I'm happy to." I answered.
So once we had a breakfast of apple crumble using the Granny Smith apple tree, we flew in the capsules to the cave by the lake. We landed and walked out of the capsules into one of the cave entrances.
After walking for about an hour, we saw an inscription on the wall which had five amulets, identical to ours, which were clipped together. "Let's clip our amulets together like the indentations." said Kieran.
When we clipped our amulets together, a HUGE light lit up the whole cave and Maddi walked over to some more indentations. "Hey guys look at this!" Maddi said pointing to some strange symbols on the wall.
The symbols said:
You must dive, to sapphires home,
Each of you must use your own.
Deep deep down, by the bright star stone,
A light must fall, from the unknown.
Yellow sparkles in the heart,
Each of the jewels must do their part.
From the crater, land will arise,
A place of anguish in disguise.
"Hold that ankh thing from Day 1 over it guys." Maddi said so we held the ankh over it and the writing turned to English. It read:
You must dive, to sapphires home,
Each of you must use your own.
Deep deep down, by the bright star stone,
A light must fall, from the unknown.
Yellow sparkles in the heart,
Each of the jewels must do their part.
From the crater, land will arise,
A place of anguish in disguise.
"Let's each remember 1 part of it so Dilshen you remember the first bit, Kieran the second, Haylee the third bit and Maddi you remember the last bit." I said leading everyone to the capsules and flying off. We arrived back at the mountain and I said "Let's try to figure out the riddle now OK guys.So it said:
You must dive to the sapphires home,
Each of you must use your own,
Deep deep down, by the bright star stone,
A light must fall from the unknown,
Yellow sparkles in the heart,
Each of the jewels must do their part
,
From the crater land will arise,
A place of anguish in disguise."
"Lake? Amulets? Mountain? Let's finish it later, like tomorrow." said Maddi.
"Guys, what could I use to make us clothes?" I asked.
"I know, you could grow hemp or cotton plants." said smarty-pants Dilshen.
I spent the rest of the afternoon growing cotton plants and weaving them into fresh clothing for my group.
At dinner time, I grew some spices and some vegetables and had Kieran start a fire and Haylee boil some water to make a yummy gourmet meal.
"I feel bloated, I'm so going to bed now." said Dilshen using his wide range of vocabulary.
*YAWN* I woke up with a start. "Guys, what do you want for breakfast?" I asked.
"Ummmmmm? Toast with strawberry jam?" wondered Maddi.
"Coming up!" I said and made some toast and strawberry jam.
Maddi made an air bubble and flew us to the lake. "We need to go down into the lake." said Maddi.
So we went down into the lake. "Look, it's a cave type thing. Let's go in it." I said.
"OK, what do you think it will have. Maybe that star that I saw fall into the lake." replied Dilshen.
When we went into the cave, we saw a concrete table with a topaz sitting on it. I walked up to the table and placed my amulet down. In a second, my big amulet had split into five different amulets! Everyone else did that to their amulets. But then, the cave started to rumble and shake like it was about to collapse. Maddi grabbed one of her mini amulets from the table and made an air bubble around the rest of the amulets and flew them towards us. I grabbed mine and made some vines hold the cave up while Maddi made an air bubble for us and flew us through the water.
"Well, guess what? We have done the first few bits of the riddle. Now, Haylee you go to one side of the lake, I stay here and hold your amulet up." I instructed so Haylee swam to the other side of the lake and held up one of her amulets.
What we saw amazed us. A big mountain broke the surface and I screamed. "Let's find a way in." Kieran said.
"Ok." Dilshen said and we followed the boys into the mountain with Haylee following from the other side of the lake.
When we were inside, we went down a long tunnel which led us to a small room with a glass window showing an operating table with Mr Woody strapped to it! Then we heard some foreign voice speaking in a different language so we quickly ducked under a table just as two aliens emerged into the viewing room.
We watched as Mr Woody had a tube connected to his chest with green liquid flowing through the tube. Mr Woody started wriggling and then turned into a alien mutant thing with twelve tentacles and other freaky stuff. "Let's try fight the aliens," I said "Attach your mini amulets onto your chains we found in the cave."
"Only one of them goes on. Try doing one of each persons amulet." Maddi said.
We connected our amulets and then jumped out from under the table. Maddi made a bubble around an alien filled with fire. I made some vines strangle another but then the aliens called more so Maddi made us invisible and led us out of the mountain.
That night we camped on the shore of the lake.
Day 12
"Wake up" said Maddi.
I woke up and yawned. I got dressed in a emerald green halter dress I made myself with some ankle length beige leggings. I made a quick breakfast of muesli and then we decided to train our powers.
We spent the whole day on the edge of the lake, practicing using our powers and getting familiar to what we can do with our amulets.
In the evening, "We should stop now, I think we are good enough to rescue Mr Woody. We also need to be well rested to have the energy to rescue Mr Woody." I said so we all went to bed.
Day 13
"Rise and shine, it's Thursday time! I think." I said to wake everyone up. "Let's try get to the mountain before the aliens can do anything else to Mr Woody."
So we had a big breakfast of apple crumble to keep us going and then Maddi swam us to the mountain entrance and we went inside. There were no aliens there yet so we figured they must have been asleep. We spotted a well disguised door from the viewing room to the operating room. We went in and found Mr Woody.
We spent some time untying the ropes but in the middle of it, some aliens walked in! Dilshen and Kieran went to fight the few aliens there while me Maddi and Haylee kept untying the ropes. Once the ropes were undone, we used them to tie up one of the aliens. I held one of my five amulets over one of Mr Woody's eyes so that he was human again. I disconnected the tube from his head and we all ran out of the mountain dragging an alien and pulling a tired Mr Woody.
When we got back to the shore of the lake, we went straight to sleep.
We woke up, had a wonderful apple crumble that Mr Woody made for us. We searched the island and took everyone back to New Zealand. Every mutant, we turned back to human by making them look into an amulet. We discarded the kidnapped alien and flew everyone, but Jordan C, back to NZ. When we got back to school, Mr Woody gave all my group A+s!
THE END
Thank you for reading Matainui Adventures
