On the 5th of November Abby, Valerie, Tui, Katisha, Doris, Jaidan,Julayna , Sasha, Erika and Aaliyah went to the travelwise festival.

It was all the way out in the city! We took a ferry from Gulf Harbour all the way there. The weather was nice and sunny and a crew member told us we might see dolphins! We didn’t in the end sadly, but the water was smooth so the ferry gilded gracefully past Matakatia and many other beaches. 

We reached the wharf and with a few minutes of walking, we were at our destination... Spark Arena. We got cookies, popcorn and a piece of fruit, then we were ready to go in. We got told every time there was going to be an announcement we were going hear "Walking on Sunshine". We got to stand up and sing. Time to move on to prize-giving, there was about twenty minutes of talking to friends. The first one that got called was bronze, not us. Then silver, still not us. That could only mean one thing… We got GOLD! It meant we had done the most for our school. 

After lots of talking, a safety briefing and where to put rubbish, we could go and do our first activity. We had to go around the place finding QR codes. Then we’d scan them and work out the clues that they gave us. Once we had the answer to the clue, a letter, we would write it on our sheet. For example, what is the beginning of eternity and the end of space. That one is E so we would put it on our sheet. Once we finished we had to sit down and eat lunch. A message rang out over the speaker. ICE-CREAM!  Then we got to go have carnival rides!, including a big bouncy slide and a road safety game. After the carnival we got to go on the ferry and back home. 

By Valerie Year 6