Kapiti College Marae Visit

Tuesday 29 october  2013

On Friday the 25 of October 2013, the Te Aramoana syndicate went to Kapiti college marae where they spent the day learning about Maori protocols.

The syndicate arrived by bus and walked around to the maraes front gates. They were greeted onto the marae as they made their way over to the wharenui. As they reached the whare everyone had to hongi before entering the whare.  Once everyone was seated, Matua the main speaker, gave a whaikorero ( which was all in maori) about our tipuna, about how grateful he was that we were there and how the marae came to be. After the speech three people from waikanae school, Marcas Dean and Manarki  gave a speech of how thankful the Te Aramoana were to be there. After the speeches had been given, the Kapiti college kids sang a wiata and then the Te Aramoana syndicate sang one back. Waikanae schools song was lead by some people from room 18. They were Ava, Grace and lily. After they finished their song everyone headed into the whare kai where some of the college kids did the haka while everyone else was eating their morning tea.

After the morning tea break the kapiti college kids performed the kapiti college haka to the waikanae school kids. The college kids told them what they would be doing and off they went. They were split into 2 groups ( since Te Aramoana is a big syndicate). One group stayed in the whare kai to learn the haka and the other went outside to learn about the carvings and the history about the marae. At about half time the 2 groups switched around. The haka was quite a challenging haka but it was fun at the same time. Learning about the carvings and the history of the marae was really interesting and it taught us a lot about the times back then. After the two groups had finished their second activity they were allowed to have lunch.

After the lunch break competition begun. The two groups were split into six groups and had to perform the Kapiti school haka they had just been learning. The group that won would get to share out a block of chocolate between them. The competition begun. It was hard competition because each group knew it so well but one group stood out more than the others. After the winning group was named it was time to start to head back to school. Everyone wanted to stay but the buses were waiting. They said their goodbyes as the adventure came to an end. As there were leaving the kapiti school kids did a goodbye haka.

What a great day everyone had. They all had a great time and learnt lots, they said it was really fun and they want to go back again.

By Hannah