Ripapa Island Re-Opening!

Yesterday we went to Ripapa island. At the Island there were Fore Hidden cannons. We went on the black cat cruise and the wharf had a limit of 30 people at a time. I was on tv. You could see me on tv about 5 time we had lunch and morning tea before we went on the trip. I saw avet We went into the tunnels of the Bunker. It was dark scary and epic. We arrived back at school about 15 minutes late. The Minister of Conservation was there too. It was cool.!!!

By Paahi

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to go to Ripapa Island. A little island halfway up the harbour, the space is very special to Māori and Pakeha, the Māori because it was once their land.

Nowadays it's got a European fort. Let's go a bit deeper into that.  When you go inside the “tunnels” You get the sense that you are trapped inside them, it's dark creepy and generally scary.  Deal with 4 cannons, two 6 inch cannons and two 8 inch canons, they were all hidden cannons.  In the tunnels, it was very dark. There were little rooms off to the side with bars and it was like a very old jail. That's probably because it once was but at the most it only had ten people at any one time.

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When we got there at first we stayed on the boat because only 30 people could go on the wharf at a time.  We got off when the other people got off the wharf.  We got on to the onto the island entrance.  We were met and a karakia was said to make sure we were safe.  When we finally on the island we heard some speeches in Maori and in English. When that was over we went into the “tunnels.” They were lit in a funny way, creepy doorways were in places they would not be, little cells with jail bars and concrete walls. Can you imagine dark well-working guns, loud gunshots echoing it’s something that had to be done by someone. Anyway, we looked around and had an explorer of the ̈tunnels ̈ and looked at the canons. They had two six-inch cannons and two eight-inch cannons, DOC is hoping to restore them. Well, the ones that they have most of the parts for not the one that the barrel is out of, the hidden place (where they meant to be).

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When that was done we herd story and then went to look in the torpedo house there was some info and a few rooms one of which had an old bed and a table that is mostly we experienced.

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A few of the people that went got in the paper or on T.V

By Mila Blundell