A fibre is a natural or artificial thread that is usually used to make cloth or rope. Fibres come from the hair of invertebrates and mammals. Mainly from a Vacuna, Alpaca, Muskox, Merino sheep, Angora Rabbit, Cashmere goat, Camel, Guanaco, Tapad Llama, Chinchilla, Angora Goat, Huacaya Alpaca, or Ccara Llama.

Animal fibres are woven, knitted, or even felted to make clothes and other products. Once the fibres are ready, they are made into soft and warm jackets, wraps, blazers, shawls, ponchos, coats and other forms of clothing and accessories.

Wool is similar to animal fibres, also being able to make clothings. But wool has other purposes, like Insulator, Ferterliser, and you can even find wool in pianos softening the impact of the piano hammers.
Ambury Regional Park is a Farm in Auckland open to the public. It is a working farm, but also shares its milk with calves and pigs. There is public lamb feeding and cow milking between July and November and you can participate in community workshops.

The farm is on Ambury road in Māngere Bridge. Ambury Regional Park is 18.8 km north east from The Gardens School. It’s a 20 minute drive from The Gardens School.

For a term and a half my school has been preparing for a science fair. Finally we were all ready for the science fair, so we set everything up in the hall. Each class took turns entering the hall having a look around, but the expo was also open during after school hours and before school hours. 

As soon as I entered the hall the Kotuku’s table caught my eye, so that’s where I went first. There were lots of little games/contraptions like giant volcano chatter boxes and a fishing game. There were diagrams of volcanoes to show parts of a volcano. And clay objects to show their understanding of solids liquids and gases.  There was a QR code that led you to a kahoot about volcanoes. A new fact I learnt was that in a volcano the magma chamber is where rocks are created to make magma.

Next I went to the Tui table. There was a pottery station and a fabric station. I didn’t spend much time at that table but I learnt padded fabrics keep you warm, nylon keeps you the driest and cotton is the most flame resistant fabric. 

Afterwards, I visited the Kiwi and Kakapo table. The kiwis had lots of little experiments. They made rock candy and pinch pots. The kakapos had made lots of plant based things. They made leaf imprints and pressed flower art. I found everything really cute until Shabd and Almaan created a big mess with the experiments they weren’t allowed to touch.

The pukekos did a lot of edible science. The food experiments were all chemical reactions like hokey pokey. Some of the foods they made were cookies, butter, ice cream, egg in vinegar and more. I learnt that egg yolk is one of the only foods that naturally include vitamin d.

Now I can tell you about the intermediate Kahus. The’re presentations were a whole level up. There were realistic volcanoes on a mat that was a map of the north island showing where the volcanoes are based. On the volcanoes were pieces of paper showing information of that volcano and a QR code that takes you to a video on further information of that volcano. Something I found really cool was that they were playing a volcano song in the background. 

One part of their presentation were real life miniature houses made of wood and real materials you would use. The houses were showing insulation. There is a silent auction for the houses starting at $50. 

Some of the presentation was all about eating healthy and being physically healthy. There were laptops playing educational videos and posters of healthy eating diets and facts. 

Another part was about biosecurity, I didn’t understand much about it until I saw this part of the expo. There were lots of posters educating people about the animals. 

My favourite part was the survival table. It was a table full of survival knowledge. There was a display of a signalling kit and a first aid kit. There was lots of first aid information and tips and tricks on surviving in the wilderness. It reminded me of Bear Grylls. 

While visiting the science fair I noticed there were lots of little plays/clips that kept me interested.  I really enjoyed learning new facts and seeing all the cool creations. It ends at 4:30pm  Friday 25 November. Come by and watch the volcano erupt at 3pm on Friday. 

P.S. If you do come bring some cash because Mrs Davies and some volunteers are selling preserved foods in a jar made here by S.T.E.A.M. group and were selling some of Mrs Davies’s veggies from our school garden and eggs from our school chooks.

There have been many stories and theories about the Masquerade. Some say the Masquerade was created in a lab, or it is a mythical creature only visible to some. The truth behind the Masquerade may be a mystery, but I have actually met one before so I can tell you all about the Masquerade. 

The Masquerade isn’t a mix between any animals, it is its own kind. It It is a cute little furry creature. Its fur colours can range from baby blue, light grey, and a beautiful lavender. Along with their main fur colours, Masquerades also have patches of white in random places. Their hands and feet are similar to the humans’, with little fingers and toes that have sharp claws at the end. To keep the Masquerade’s balance they have a REALLY fluffy tail at the back of them.

The powers of a Masquerade are powerful and aren’t like any other. Behind all the cuteness, is a powerful and magical creatures. Their powers are to gain the abilities of the animal they last killed and ate, draining the blood and dna is the key to their power. There is a downside to it, they can’t obtain the abilities of an animal they ate if it wasn’t the most recent.

Masquerades can live in any habitat because they can quickly grow their fur to keep them warm from the cold, or if it’s too hot they can shave off their fur quickly. Because of its powers the Masquerade lives in plain sight not afraid to get caught. If it did get caught in its own shape it would freeze pretending to be a doll of some sort. 

There are many names the creature is called, from Troglodyte to creepy animal that gains abilities of other creatures (CATGAOOC).With all the names out there I like to call it the Masquerade. The name Masquerade means pretending to be something it’s not. 

Despite the cuteness and dark soul, Masquerades actually have some personality traits like us humans. Masquerades are smart enough to survive in plain sight on their own. But they are also loving and caring to other Masquerades. It’s not like they go out everyday hunting and killing like a monster, they eat 3 times a day and maybe have 1 or 2 small snacks. 

To all the Masquerade haters trying to kill Masquerades, you don’t need to do that. Masquerades are similar to lions or tigers, they are just killing to survive or for their families. I don’t think you would want to kill a tiger or lion (they would probably kill you first) so don’t go trying to kill a Masquerade. Masquerades are just doing it’s nature.

(I need a nickname or shorter name for Masquerade, because my hand and fingers are tired of writing that long name over and over.)

The day of my dreams arrived, but all I could do made me cry and cry.  All the hopes and dreams, my visions now seems shattered and defeated. Discouraged, disappointed, devastated, depleted, defeated, and depressed. All of my training, all of my dreams, all of my pain, destroyed in a day as runner after runner  passed me. I felt I let everyone down as all I could give them was a frown. I was happy for the other runners, but despair enveloped me. I will try again next year, but for now I will train harder, and run harder.

Servings: 1 

Ingredients

• 1 enemy 
• 1 cup of hate to be on your plate
• ½ of no shame
• 3 cups of rage you’ve kept in what felt like forever
• A pinch of pain 
• 1 cup of greed
• Add anything insane
• 3 tablespoons of fear
• 1 tablespoon of arrogance
• And a “innocent”  person

Method 

1. Pour all your hate, no shame, rage, pain, greed and arrogance, into your “innocent”  person and beat until it starts to turn hard.
2. Once your ingredients are nice and hard add  2 cups of insanity and mash, leave in the fridge to set. You’ll know it’s ready when it looks like a picasso painting and is cold to the touch.
3. Plate your dish and serve to your enemy. Enjoy as their face changes to pure shock from the bitter, spicy and so cold that it burns,  dish. 

Notes:

Make sure no guilt sneaks into your mixture. 

Nauru is in the Pacific Ocean, 37 miles south from the equator. Its republic is the smallest in the world. Not much is known about Nauru’s culture, as the culture has slowly faded away. Nauru still has a bit of their culture so let me talk to you about it. 

They still use national materials found on the island to make crafts and arts, these materials include; kokospalme wood, kokofasern fans, and screw tree sheets.

Nauru’s native language is dorerin Naoero. All of their traditional songs are all by Dorerin Naoero. 

Nauru has no native land mammals, but there are insects, land crabs, and birds that are native to them. Nauru’s native birds include; white tern, Black noddy, Brown noddy, and Pacific reef heron. 

Nauru, like its neighbours, consumes a lot of seafood and coconut in their diet. A known dish is raw fish (usually tuna) drowned in coconut milk with other herbs and seasonings. 

Nauru has really pretty landmarks like the Bauda Lagoon or the Anibare Bay.If you go to Nauru you could see a lot of ancient cultural things you can see in the Nauru museum.Like this old traditional clothing in the photo.

Australian rules football is the official national sport.Many island weightlifters have successfully won medals and beaten people from other larger countries.

Nauru was invaded by Germany in1888. Britain and Germany started mining the island’s phosphate together in the early 20TH century. Japan later invaded the island in 1942 and left the island in 1945.It became a country in 1968 and joined the commonwealth.

Nauru is a lovely tropical island that I recommend you visiting. Even when it’s winter, because winter feels like a warm shower! The weather is always good. And lastly I think it’s a good excuse to have 2 ice blocks every day!

The Nauru flag

Do you like to swim? I do, in fact I take swimming lessons. I think it’s an important skill to know or learn because it could save your life, it’s good for your health and fitness, it’s fun and enjoyable, and it’s fun to compete. 

Here’s an example of how swimming could save your life. If you were at a pool party or at the beach in summer and you were swimming, suddenly there was a rip pulling you in. It was too strong then next thing you know you end up in the middle of the sea. You see a boat and you’re trying to swim there. Since you knew how to swim you stayed alive.

Swimming is actually enjoyable because you can learn new things, make new friends and bonds, and also SWIM! I personally love swimming, I just like being in the water. I also find it fun when you learn this cool new skill then you can show it off  or help others learn the skill as well.

Swimming is also essential for your health and fitness.  It helps with asthma. Builds endurance, keeps your heart rate up, helps build strong muscles, and more. If you don’t like swimming but you like other sports, swimming helps you build strong muscles for those sports you do like. Swimming stimulates the release of a brain chemical called endorphins which reduce the perception of pain and as a side effect makes us feel happy and gives us this sense of a ‘natural high’, also known as the ‘runner’s high’, which is a feeling of relaxed euphoria, excitement and enjoyment, hence the wonderful feeling.

Did you know that the person with the most gold Olympic medals in the world is a SWIMMER! His name was Michael Phelps. You know there are 16 different swimming events, so if you wanted to beat Micheal Phelps you only needed to win all those swimming events at least 2 times. If you wanted to travel the world you could swim in lot’s of competitions. 

Those are my reasons why you should swim. It could save your life, help in health and fitness, fun to compete, and just fun in general! Now you have finished reading, go and start swimming! 

Think about something you have achieved. What did you think about? Was it finishing a marathon, or confronting your fears? Well, one of my biggest achievements wasn’t any of those. It was just surviving.

My day started off as per normal. I woke up, got dressed and arrived at my office (84th floor on the 2 WTC or known as the south twin tower in New York city) at around 7:15 in the morning. It was a particularly nice day with blue skies and an unusually warm fall. I worked at Euro Brokers for over 29 years, starting as a broker trainee in 1973. For the past 14-15 years I’ve been in management. 

As I said, I got to my office, grabbed my morning coffee and then got on with my daily work. I don’t recall anything extraordinary happening, until 8:46am. I heard a big THUMP! Or a BANG! I didn’t feel any vibration, but there was a very loud noise. “The entire area outside my window was filled with flames.” I didn’t know what it was at the time, but it was the fuel from the first jet hitting the North Tower after it had gone right through the building. 

I realised that a plane had crashed into tower one. We could see the damage was only  in tower one, so we weren’t too worried about evacuating. People did run to the stairs though, but I wasn’t so scared. It wasn’t the tower I was in. I called my wife “You know, you won’t believe this but Tower One has been hit. We are fine where we are. Relax, turn on the TV, there is a developing story there, and find out what’s happening.” Then the speakers announced “Building Two is secure. There is no need to evacuate Building Two. If you are in the midst of evacuation, you may return to your office. Repeat, Building Two is secure….”  Then they just went through the whole story again. 

I went to the west side of my office near the windows talking to a friend. It was about 9:03am, then I heard another CRASH! But that time I felt the vibration. The second plane hit the levels below me.. What was strange was that our building fell apart, a complete deconstruction  but no explosion. “I just felt my heart, oh my gosh, we’re going over.” 

For 7-10 seconds I thought it was all over! We swayed to one side. Then swayed back, we were stable again. I looked my friend square in the eye. I knew I was in a difficult situation, fortunately I had a torch with me. I switched it on, it wasn’t dark, it was sort of white from the dust or chalk from the debris from the ceiling. We didn’t know what happened, we didn’t even know it was a plane. 

I went down a pair of stairs with a group of people, about seven of us. They were behind me because I had the torch. Then we met a lady from the 80th floor. She shouted to go up, because there were too many flames down the bottom and it was too smokey. We couldn’t go up or down, we were trapped. Everyone was arguing about where we should go, up or down.

I heard bang, bang, bang, thump, thump, thump, “Help! Help! I’m buried. I can’t breathe. Is anybody there? Can you help me?,” a strange voice coming from within the 81st floor. I grabbed my friend Ron and said “Come on, let’s go help.” 

I pulled the trapped man from this hole I couldn’t really see – I found out later his name was Stanely. He leaped up and I got a better grip on him. He later said that I pulled him up like superman. I didn’t feel like superman, I felt like scaredy man. It was an exciting moment, it really was. 

Ron was now gone. I didn’t know whether he went up or down. He later told me he went up to the 91st floor, where he laid on the floor for 10 minutes until he panicked. He told me, “I had to see my wife. I had to see my kids at all costs. I was gonna make it out.” And he went to the stairway and went all the way down, following me, I guess, down the stairway. 

Stanley and I decided to carry on downwards. The first five floors were difficult but sprinklers were now on and helping with the fire. We made it to  floor 44, where we saw this man with giant wounds in his head. His phones didn’t work so Stanley and I ran downstairs until we found a phone, dialled 9-1-1 and made sure he had medical attention coming for him. 

I didn’t know that the building was about to collapse, in fact I told Stanley not to rush so we didn’t break an ankle. We ran down stairs until we finally escaped. When we got out there were firemen and policemen outside. They recommended not to cross the street as they weren’t sure if the building was going to topple over. I asked Stanley if we should cross, and so we went for it. We checked one more time, then we ran for it. We crossed Liberty St . There was no one there, no traffic, there were some emergency vehicles but that was it. 

We ran across the street, then the fire hall which was on the corner then up one more block and caught our breath . I saw a deli, I asked for some water and he generously gave some to me. In fact so generous he gave me a whole breakfast platter. He didn’t think anyone was coming to pick it up. He was a nice guy at the time considering the conditions. 

I carried it to Trinity Church St, where we met some ministers. Then Stanley broke down and cried to the ministers “This man saved my life”.  I was full of emotion too. Well everyone in New York was, maybe even others that were concerned. I said, “You know, Stanley, you may think I saved your life but I think you saved my life, too. You got me out of that argument as to whether I should go up or down. I’m here and I’m fine, and it’s because of your voice in the darkness that I made it.” The ministers had a quick prayer before telling us that the church was open if we wanted to go there. 

We nodded and made our way to the church. We walked up the street and as we walked up we could see the buildings. Stanley said “You know, I think those buildings could go down.” I said, “There is no way. Those are steel structures. That’s furniture and paper and carpeting and draperies and things like that that are burning.” But I didn’t finish the sentence when Tower Two started to slide down.

We were probably out of the building for about 5 minutes when the tower had collapsed. Oh I had a horrible feeling, well the whole escape was horrible but thinking we actually had a chance then realising reality. I knew that the  top third or quarter of the tower definitely had no chance whatsoever. We stared, no one was really running for their lives then a great wave or tsunami of dust came over the church. Everybody finally started running for their lives in fear of the debri and dust. But I knew nothing solid was going to happen to me, as the building hadn’t toppled over yet. But I still didn’t want to breathe the polluted air. So I ran.

I ran into that lobby, where the air was fresh and clean. I stayed there for half an hour, then finally realising that I still had the fruit platter in my hands. I just threw it on some table. The debri and ash settled down, it was about a quarter of an inch thick. No cell phones of land lines were working, there was no way of communication. I realised that Stanley and I had parted ways in the crowd of people running. I was grateful and fortunate again to have his business card. 

I walked up along the side of the island, thinking how I would get home to New Jersey in this fog filled of  dust and debri. Then I heard “Last call for the New Jersey ferry.”  I jumped on that ferry, not getting charged. We sailed around the southern tip of Manhattan. It was then that others and I realised that both towers were completely down. 

As we got closer to the island, I saw that the towers were gone completely! I was in shock! Disbelief! Then we didn’t know about the hijacked planes, so I was trying to figure out what happened, questioning everything that had happened in the past day. We were completely in the dark, but we could look off to the Trade Centre on our right and see that the building I had worked at for almost 27 years had now been demolished. Gone. Finito! People couldn’t believe it.

We sailed in silence to the Harbourside in New Jersey City and got off the ferry. I ran to a ticket booth and asked that lady if I could go on the phone. I called my wife whom I hadn’t talked to in almost over, I couldn’t remember but it was certainly too long. I think it was around 11:15am and the tower toppled over at 10am so she would have been beside herself for the past hour and 15 minutes.  There were a lot of people home so I could hear cheers of relief in the background. 

They wanted to come and get me but the traffic would have been too busy so I walked a mile to the train station. I hopped on the train and waited because there was a five minute delay. When I got to my train station I got in my car and was on my way home. When I got home I honked awfully loud, then an even louder group of people stamped out to the lawn full of reunion and tears. For the next few days people wouldn’t stop ringing. It was friends from all over the world, media and widows. (Not at the time as their husbands were only missing then.) 

From my side it was a long, tiring, horrific day. Full of emotions on a rollercoaster. I lost lots of people that day. People I loved, talked with,worked with, and had memories with. My achievement was surviving the 9/11 attack. But along the way I made new friends; I saved a person; I was saved by a person; I had the most hectic day and finally, I ran down 84 floors of stairs  for the first time.  My name is Brian Clark, and that’s my story.

What do you think of when someone asks you what a hero is? Most people would say, spiderman or ironman. But I like to think of a hero as someone who had integrity, determination, would do anything to help,  and can enlighten people about what’s right. A hero doesn’t need to be known or recognized around the world or even just the neighbourhood., but they need to know that they did something right. I think you don’t have to save someone’s life to be a hero, you could be a hero by just doing what’s right even without any recognition, you would be a hero. 

I’ll give you an example of a hero, well lot’s. Dame Whina Cooper was a leader for Māori and got Māori land rights back, but if we look deeper in what she did you would find that she wouldn’t have done anything without her followers or supporters! She couldn’t have changed Māori rights without all the signatures on the petition, and she wouldn’t have walked the march down to parliament without her followers. So you could be a hero if you supported someone, because you would make a difference or an impact. 

I was supposed to write about someone who’s a hero, but there’s so many people that aren’t recognised as a hero even though they are heroes, so I decided to just say what makes a hero. Your parents or caregivers are heroes, because you wouldn’t have been reading this without them. Even your friends are heroes (If they are good friends), because you would be lonely without them and they make you happy. You should really appreciate heroes. I hope that this can change your perspective on what makes a hero. 

Pearl Ng Shiu was born on 20 December,  2011 in Auckland Middlemore hospital, and grew up in Auckland. When she was three then got a little sister on 24 February,  2015 called Olive.Then she moved from 16 Flamingo Court to 25 Tuakura Way. Later she got a little brother called Max on the 27 March,  2017. Her mum was a family lawyer and her dad worked as an MSD. That year her parents would argue all the time but decided on 1 thing, that was to break up. Pearl’s dad moved back to Flamingo Court with his sister. Pearl went to The Gardens school and made heaps of friends throughout her years there. On the 11th of September, 2021 Pearl’s sister Ada was born.

Pearl had a passion for politicians, when she graduated from high school she moved to Dunedin with her dad and she earned a scholarship to Otago university and graduated with a bachelor degree in E.B. (environmental studies). Throughout University  years she worked as a volunteer at the hospice. Six months after she graduated, she sent in an application to join the labour party. The labour party liked her promises and her idea of what could change, they thought she could join them. She had figured out lot’s of ways to help the planet. She was always doing fundraisers for community clean ups around New Zealand. The labour party had no leader as their old leader retired. They needed someone new.

Two years had gone by, and Pearl was still working in government and going well. Soon it was time to vote for a new party and leader. People thought Pearl was good enough to become the new leader of the labour party, and she met the standards of leading them. She was selected as the new Labour party leader. Because the new leader was Pearl, the Labour party was selected as the government. Pearl only grew better at her job and figured out so many ways to help the environment, her biggest achievement was getting rid of plastic bags in the whole of NZ. She went on a mission to help other countries with their environmental problems. She went to meetings with pacific prime ministers across the pacific, giving them ideas and helping them with environmental problems. She went on her biggest beach clean up in Maui, Hawaii and lot’s help, but some did the opposite.

When she was cleaning up in Maui, people there didn’t like her and protested for her to go back to NZ. One night there was a BOOM, someone started throwing fireworks all over the place. Pearl immediately went to her helicopter and was on her way back to NZ, but a firework exploded  next to the helicopter. The helicopter crashed into a mountain and the crew including Pearl was found dead. Pearl’s body was sent back to NZ. There was a giant funeral in Auckland where her journey started. People all over NZ and some from the pacific attended. After her death, her siblings made a beach clean up club that fundraised money to clean beaches over NZ. The club was called PBC, Pearl’s Beach Clean ups. She inspired so many people.