“Is that a turtle?” Wow!!!

By Dan (age 11)

For the holidays, me, my three sisters, grandparents, my step mum, and my dad were going to Cape Reinga from Auckland. We got there via Whangarei Heads when we got to the bach we were staying at. We decided to go to the light house, and Ninety Mile Beach the next day. We drove up, and we messed around at the light house. At one point, me and my dad were looking at a bubbly part of water next to where the seas met. Suddenly, I saw something. No not the turtle yet, a grey shape in the water. We didn’t know what it was. Suddenly, a wave lifted it up… It was a giant shark! I screamed!!!

We then went to Ninety Mile Beach. We were driving along, then, my step mum shouted, “Is that a turtle?” We stopped the car on the sand, and hopped out. We thought it was dead. We looked and I asked if dad could flip it over. He did, and it moved. We got back in phone coverage and rung DOC. They went and picked it up, and flew it to Kelly Tarlton’s in Auckland. The next day, we rung DOC, and they said it was a dehydrated logger head turtle. It weighed 37kg! They had flew it down, then they took it to the Zoo. Sadly it died, but we will remember that [helping it out] was the right thing to do. We remember the nameless turtle.