Day 1

Well what can I say, it's taken one whole week to prepare for this trip, our class trip to Matainui. Matainui is a small secluded island off the coast of Kawhia. As we traveled in the bus I heard Marek singing the wheels on the bus go round and round, in his normal cheery attitude. The atmosphere on the bus was a pleasant one although I had a really strange feeling, something wasn’t quite right.

As we arrived in Kawhia (after I assured myself everything was fine) everyone was in awe of how bright and sunny it was and boys being boys rushed down to the wonderful, black, west coast sand and played (while of course getting dirty). We finally got all of our gear together and headed for our transport in this case a Grumman H-16 albatross (a seaplane by the way). Everyone rushed aboard trying to get the best seats. I sat with Jordan chatting about how great this trip was going to be, but for some absurd reason that statement felt hollow.

Before I knew it over the intercom came a familiar voice. “Hello this is Sam your captain speaking”. Wow, really, Sam an eleven year old piloting this big heavy flying piece of metal through the air. I felt pretty worried, but after going through all the safety procedures I felt a little reassured but only a little. The engines roared to life making a pulsating hum through the air shaking my senses to the core. The violent splash of the waves against the hull rattling my bones. Suddenly I felt all of the weight disappear. We’re out of the water safely Sam but can you fly this thing, I thought to myself. Luckily for us we made it out of the harbor with our hearts still beating. We were all singing, laughing, sleeping (Mr. Woody of course) and how can I put this going a little crazy. I took a quick look out the window and all seemed well, bright blue sky clear as the water below us. Quickly as the blink of an eye it turned grey than completely pitch black and if that wasn’t weird enough we all started floating as if someone had turned the gravity off. People were screaming from left, right and center as I blacked out. This class trip had just turned out to be our worst nightmare.

A sudden jerk snapped me back to reality. Wow that was weird, the darkness had gone, all seemed fine for a minute so Jordan and I were wrestling and I accidentally undid his seat belt and as soon as that happened we started to plummet towards the deep blue.

Jordan went flying, I couldn’t help him anymore I had to save myself for now. Andrew had just been to the toilet before we plummeted and he flew past me screaming and landed in an awkward position as the crack of bone broke the silence. Girls screamed, Boys screamed like girls everyone seemed to have panic in their eyes as Sam gave a reassuring call over the speaker “I never actually pasted the test”. Nearly five seconds from the ocean everyone braced themselves for the crash. The plane swan dived into the water, the wings breaking like twigs. The plane bobbed back to the surface as people started trying to find a way out of the wreck. Mac managed to open the door and swim out the rest of us followed, I looked around for Jordan he was nowhere to be seen. I felt so guilty but I must make it to shore. Where is shore? I turned around and not even 100 meters from where I bobbed was our final destination the island of Matainui.

I had a quick look around the plane or what was left of it for my bag. Unfortunately I couldn’t find my bag. The water was freezing I couldn’t stay in one spot for one second without being chilled to the bone. So I started the long swim to shore, and I could feel something staring at me from the supposedly uninhabited island.

I kissed the warm sand as I vowed to never get in any form of transport with Sam ever again. I searched the beach for my camp group members to see if they survived the horrific crash. Josiah, Sam and Leon were all huddling in a group trying to think of what we should do. We decided that Josiah, Sam and Leon would go back to the wreck to try and find equipment while I went along the rocks looking for my bag. As I walked along the massive rocks I heard a cry for help I rushed along as fast as I could trying to find the source of the call. And there he was, Andrew with his broken leg washed upon the rocks. He must’ve been stuck there for hours. Suddenly Andrew starts to cringe as his broken leg starts to mutate into a tentacle, his head elongates and all of his teeth fall out except for one which grows into a fang. I quickly pull him out of the water thinking it must be radioactive and start to dry Andrew off. I examine the extent of the damage, he has suckers on his arms as well as everything else. I help him back to the camp and we arrive at about twelve at night I take him to his tent and let him rest. What a life changing day.

I can’t get to sleep so I decide to go outside to see if that’ll help. It’s a starless night and right before my eyes a silver light passes across the sky and stops right above the island than disappears as if it was never there. Tiredness takes over my body as I drift off to sleep. I just survived the first night on Matainui.