ANZAC Day

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ANZAC day means a lot more to me this year, but only because my Brother joined a military school. And on ANZAC day, they did a march. In memory of the brave soldiers who sacrificed their life for New Zealand, it was special.

My family had to wake up really early, it takes two hours for us to go all the way to where the march was going to be. I couldn’t believe my brother did that every day he went to school! We woke up at 6, and needed to be there by 8. When we got there my brother went to the other “cadets” he called them. But they’re really just his peers. 

My dad bought me an ANZAC biscuit, it tasted really good, you could tell it was fresh because the biscuit was still warm. I heard a bell and the cadets came and marched, there was also Navy seals there and other soldiers. People were singing the national anthem, it was beautiful.

The Thing Down There…

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By: Miya Botha

I go down in the malodorous sewer,

The wind whistles through the drains..

And my palms start to sweat.

TIP TAP…

As my feet touch the ground,

I feel that it’s wet.

As wet as a River, 

Soon I hear a sound.

And then I met…

The creature that could never be found.

Oh no,

My heart drops low.

I feel as lost as a deer,

RUMBLE GRUMBLE…

And I hear something that people fear.

The creatures eyes were Ice,

And its teeth were like a million Knives!

My flashlight soon dies…

Past of Polyfest

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Polyfest is a national festival that happens in Auckland, New Zealand. It first started out in 1976 as a gathering of students that had talked about, and celebrated their cultures, but it soon grew to be so much more to people.

Mata (Te Kii) Raela & Micheal Rollo, and along with a few teachers had come up with the idea of Polyfest, and soon realised the potential of how it can bring people closer together. They had invited 3 colleges to perform at the first ever Polyfest, and it was a big hit! 

The people loved the performances, and embraced how unique cultures can be, and soon people looked forward to the festival each year. More schools performed and more people came, ranging from Chinese, to Korean, Indian, Tongan, Niue, and so much more cultures!

Polyfest isn’t just a festival, it’s a way to show off how amazing your culture is, and so other people can have a better understanding of it. It’s a way to bring people closer together, and connect on a different level. 

Into Space

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As I hear the countdown that places a blanket of dread over me

The rumbling begins.

My palms sweat as I take breaths in and out, one to three.

This heavy suit is killing me…

Soon the big titanium rocket takes off,

We head into space.

Its beautiful, but I start to cough…

Darkness overtakes my vision,

And my heartbeat starts to pace.

But soon…

Lightness starts to take place.

Digital Art <3

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On Tuesday the 27th of February during middle block, we did digital art! When Kahu first did digital art I was away at a softball tournament, so it was my first time. Apparently, they did it on canva the first time, but on Tuesday we did it with the keynote app; I have used Keynote before many times so I was pleased to hear those magical words, “Keynote”. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

The theme was all about me, and let me just say.. I can’t really fit all of me into one presentation, there’s too much going on. I’ll just have to try, I guess… Luckily, there was a template to start with. I would have hated having to make up a whole new thing! 

For some reason I had like.. A theme to stick with. Yellow, White, Pink. Let’s just say I added some.. Spice? I’d say shopping and just in general money is something that I deeply love, so I knew I was going to HAVE to add that. Also I’m obsessed with cats, so that was automatically in my brain to put in the template. In the process of making it though, I got really confused. I didn’t know how to right click, Mrs Kelly was on my side though and came to the rescue. Thank you, Mrs Kelly. 

Everything I added is all a part of me, and you’ll see some big shapes and small ones, that just means how much of it relates to me. For example, there was a huge radio in it because I love listening to music on a speaker, but there are also tiny little headphones because I sometimes enjoy music that’s not aloud. But of course I had all kinds of things, art, sports, money, food, money, technology, money, money, mo- I really like money, you get the idea.

I’ve enjoyed doing digital art and I really hope that there will be more sessions of it. Thank you to the Kahu teachers for making Kahu this year, awesome.

Cats in Egypt

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It is mostly common knowledge that cats used to be worshipped in the ancient Egyptian times. But I wondered if anyone knew why they were worshipped? Have you?

Cats weren’t really “worshipped”, the idea that they were came from the Egyptian goddess Bastet. She was a goddess with a cat head! Of course she wasn’t the only one with a cat head, but she was definitely the most popular. Some people have said she’s the goddess of cats just by looking at her, but she’s actually the goddess of fertility.

The ancient Egyptians mostly kept cats for their good hunting skills, they would often kill pesky rodents like snakes and scorpions. Another reason is that apparently the ancient Egyptians thought cats were magical creatures and brought good luck to them, although the only information to back this statement up is the mummified cats. Yes, they were mummified.

Oftenly, rich and wealthy families would dress cats up in gold necklaces and even earrings! Those cats were fit for royalty, and quite spoiled. Somehow even more spoiled than me. Cats were known to be sacred animals and a cool thing is that they were actually mummified as offerings to Bastet! It’s sort of like offering to a god or something greater than yourself.

Sometimes mummified cats would even go into the same tomb as their owner. While we’re on the topic of.. Death. The penalty and or consequence for killing a cat, even by accident, was death. Seems fair enough judging by how high status cats were. But alas, those days are over. But will they come back?

My first few days in Kāhu

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My first few days in Kāhu was very… stressful. I was worried about who my teacher was going to be, and who would be in my class! But, luck was on my side, and I got the most amazing teacher, Miss Smith!

We had a lot of rotations and we even did a writing test. Most of the rotations helped us mark our test on a rubric sheet, ranging from R1 – R6/7 (Depends on the subject). Even though I had no idea what was going on Barleen was very helpful to me.

House games were a favourite of mine, as the Kāhu students were in their house and competed for house points. We did just dance and some super cool relays. I was awful at both, but at least they were all fun.

Normally when the school day is almost over we do a game called “Picnic”. But soon we can hopefully play Mafia, or as Miss Smith calls it “Werewolf”.