Story and Illustrations by Luna (age 11) from KCC Wellington
Tuesday, 8th October, 2019
Dear Diary,
Today I had… [Hoki! Do you HAVE to walk on top of me at 5 o’clock in the morning, every day?!] Hoki is my kākāpō. She ALWAYS walks on top of me to wake me up so I can give her some breakfast. I gave Hoki some rimu berries. She LOVES rimu berries! When I’m not at home, Hoki hangs out with her kākāpō friend, Gumboots, to keep her entertained. I had roasted roots of bracken fern for breakfast. Bracken fern doesn’t really taste like anything. It just fills me up!
I got dressed, and asked Smartyfeathers, my kea, “What’s the weather like for today?” “Nineteen degrees… not bad!” I packed my lunch, including half a handful of my favourite snack- rimu berries, yum! I said “bye” to Mum and Dad, and my big brother, Clemente, then left on my haast’s eagle to school. Tiny is his name. I got Tiny as an egg. I found the egg on my way to kindergarten one day. Haast’s eagles are one of the biggest eagles in the world!
On our flight to school, a pair of huia decided to join us. What beautiful birds they are! Hopefully, no other creature or person from another world will come and invade Zealandia (which is the name of the continent which NZ was in, but most of it is now under water!) and destroy our land. The birds of Zealandia will either become extinct, or highly endangered! That probably won’t happen anyway!
School is from 10:00am – 3:30pm. How do we tell time without clocks, you ask? Well, we get taught to tell time with the sun. We can tell where the sun is, to know what the time is. But how can you tell time with the sun? It’s not that hard! The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west. Sometimes the sun setting and rising changes, but when you look east, and the sun is on the horizon, it means that it is approximately 6am! Or an easier way, get a long stick, and then put it in a sunny spot. It’s the same as a clock, except just with the hour hand as a shadow.
Once Tiny landed, I gave him some treats, and let him fly around the forest. I saw my friend wave to me. I followed her into our class shelter (not a classroom, a class shelter under a silver fern tree).
Charlotte (my year 7 teacher) said “Hello”, and I gave her my homework. We had to try and find a native bird feather. Or an egg shell. I found a moa egg shell AND a feather (moa feather). Our class went went on a field trip to see the eastern curlew that migrates to Zealandia.
First, we flew to the swamp where the eastern curlews were. They’re really cool birds! We saw them feeding their chicks! The chicks were eating mollusks. We were at a swamp for quite a while until, at 3:15pm, Charlotte said “It’s time to go back to school! Grab your haast’s eagle and line up behind Siberia!” (Siberia is one of my classmates). Wow, time DOES fly by when you’re having fun!
Once we rode our haast’s eagle back to school, Charlotte said that for homework this week, we had to teach one of our birds (in my case, either Tiny, Smartyfeathers or Hoki) a cool trick, then bring him/her to school and show everyone the trick!
After school, once I flew home, Tiny was so tired that he fell asleep as soon as he landed! As I walked inside, Mum and Dad said that we were having raw or roasted cabbage tree leaves for dinner. While I waited, I listened to the radio (or Smartyfeathers, he’s like a computer). Once the news at 4:00pm came up, it said that someone broke all five rules! These five rules are rules you MUST follow, otherwise you will be taken away permanently from Zealandia!
1. No killing animals of any kind
2. No resources from any other world
3. No bullying. This includes teasing, name-calling, etc. (this also includes animals, not just people!)
4. No stealing from any animal or person.
5. No cutting down/pulling out trees or plants (only if the are a kind of weed (or if you need it for food)).
I’m not kidding! Someone actually broke ALL FIVE RULES!! I’m happy that he will not be seen in Zealandia any more!
The law in Zealandia is cool. Every five years, we choose an adult who is responsible for the whole country. There are haast’s eagles around the whole country, circling around like vultures, watching everyone. I’m guessing one was watching me fly to school this morning! Anyway, if a haast’s eagle spots something bad, it’s trained to report it to the adult who is in charge. The haast’s eagle are like our police!
I fell asleep for sometime until Mum came into my room (which is a burrow under the ground) and said that dinner was ready.
Dinner was OK. Raw/roasted cabbage tree leaves are normally not my choice of dinner. My favourite meal is probably cooked supplejack berries. They taste like fresh asparagus!
After dinner, I thought who I should teach a trick to for homework. I finally decided that I would teach Smartyfeathers to sing. Smartyfeathers just copies what I say, so I sang a song, and he copied! That took me about half an hour, so I wanted to teach Hoki a cool trick! I taught Hoki to dance to the song I taught Smartyfeathers! This took me about an hour and a half. Maybe a little bit longer! So, whenever Hoki hears Smartyfeathers sing, Hoki dances to it!
Hoki is such a smart kākāpō! I got her when she was two months old. Smartyfeathers, maybe around three years old. He has to be trained to know all those things, like the weather forecast!
Dad came in half an hour later. He said that it was time for me to go to bed! What a day I have had! I wonder what adventure I will have tomorrow? Hopefully Hoki won’t walk on top of me tomorrow morning! I better get to sleep now, before dad comes back in! Good night.
Yours,
Luna.
