Read Noah and Tiata's account of their trip to Quail Island

We left school at 9:00 am on Friday, to go onto the bus that would take us to the Lyttelton Harbour. When we got there we waited for 5 to 10 minutes so they could get the boat ready. When we were allowed on there were comfortable seats downstairs and an upstairs area where they had concrete seats with cushions on them. Most of the people went upstairs and some people stayed downstairs. The people who were downstairs were eating some of their lunch because they were hungry. There were parents to help supervise and they took some pictures of the boat ride and the island. The people who were upstairs were watching the water and chatting with their friends. They were watching the jets push the water out to make this cool pattern with white foamy waves. The boat started to slow down as it reached the Island dock.

When the ferry reached the dock the doors opened and everybody walked out. We waited until all our belongings and people were out so we could start walking to the huts where everybody could eat. We then got to play for 30 minutes, some people went to go hunt for crabs and to pick them up, some people decided to play rugby, and the rest of the people were exploring and chatting with friends or eating more food.

After everybody played for 30 minutes we then got into our groups. Most of the groups had parents as the group leader and some of the groups had teachers as their group leader. We started to walk to the hut on the other side of the island. We climbed through the middle of the island which was approximately 89m up. At the top, there was a pou whenua that signified a boundary for the local iwi and displayed a significant story with the amazing carving. When we got to the top of the mountain we went down the other side going all the way down until everyone got to the hut on the other side of the island.

We arrived at the hut and ate lunch. After everybody had their lunch we went back up the hill just a little bit then they took a different track that took us to the original hut and toilets.. Everybody got to play and have free time for 40 minutes. Some people went back to finding crabs and some people played rugby again and some people were just kicking a ball around on the beach. When the boat came 2 parents called Reanna and Melissa made the word Bromley on the grass with shells from the beach so that the next people to go to Quail Island would see the word. Everybody walked back on the dock to go onto the ferry so they could go back to Lyttelton harbour. Once everybody got their belongings and everybody was on the boat, we left.

Once everybody was on the boat most of the people who were downstairs on the first trip then went upstairs and then the people who were upstairs went downstairs for the boat ride back. On the boat ride back it was raining so some of the people who went upstairs came back down. Most of us were tired so we just relaxed and tried to sleep. When the boat got back everybody hopped off and then went back to the bus so we could return to school. Some people also tried to go to sleep on the bus!!