Day One-Going To Matainui

Day One

Today we drove down to Kawhia harbor to catch our Grumman HU-16 Albatross sea plane to Matainui (our classes Matai Island).Everyone was very excited and nervous at the same time, especially Mr. Woody. As we boarded the plane we were told that our fellow student Samuel Brennan was going to be our pilot of the Grumman HU-16 Albatross. As soon as I heard this I went straight to the cockpit and said to Sam "you better not crash,"in reply to my comment he said " don't worry man, I'm the best man for the job," At first I didn't believe him but as I saw him fiddle with some the buttons and switches I realized that he probably was the best for the job and left the cockpit and returned to my seat.

At first I thought that the Grumman Albatross wouldn't make it out of the water let alone to the Matai Islands but eventually it got out of the choppy waters (although we couldn't tell till we were well above the water because of all of the spray).

As we got further out to sea a dark group Cumulonimbus Clouds that covered as far as the eye could see. As we headed in the noise of the engines slowly disappeared and all was silent, then suddenly everything went black (we could see inside thanks to the row of lights down each side of the cabin). Then everything started to float up like we were in space or dropping extremely fast. It was quite odd, floating in the cabin seeing people scream and yell but not actually hearing their pleas for it to stop or for their mummy. Then suddenly everything fell and the roar of the engines returned as we burst out of the clouds heading straight towards the ocean about 100 meters off the coast of Matainui. Just as I say to myself "well, at least it can't get any worse," Sam our pilot screams " I DIDN'T PASS MY TEST!". As I realized it was indefinite that we were going to hit the water I found myself grabbing my bag and scrambling towards the airlock so when we crash I can get out quickly.

When we crashed I heard a lot of screaming and yelling. There were also a few bags floating around me as I started to swim back to shore with my backpack. Once I got there I noticed that some people didn't have their bags and that some people weren't even on shore at all.

As we gathered together some of us noticed James, Mac and Malik Heading back out towards the ocean so we went over to see what they were doing. "What are you doing?" asked Andrew "were just going out to see if there is anything left to salvage from the plane," replied James. Just after they set off me Sam and Leon decided to go out and see if we could get anything as well.

By the time we got there James and Mac were already there and Mac was planing to go under and go in the hatch (because James had said that he thought that there must be an air bubble in the tail of the plane for it to be able to stay afloat). I was quite out of breath from swimming 100 meters against the tide so I was happy to let Mac go in first. After a while we were starting to think that Mac had drowned in the plane so Leon went down to see if he was okay. A couple of minutes later Mac came up and James hauled up the bag he came up with, the Leon just made it up and fell unconscious shortly after james and me hauled him up with his bag. As we propped him up against the plane on Grayson's bag that he got out of the plane just as James went down and came back up with a ripped parachute which had come out of its bag. Next I went down and got a parachute bag from on the inside wall of the plane. Seeing as I saw what had happened to James's parachute I made sure not to pull the ripcord. Just as I got out James and Mac started to swim back to shore with the bags that they had got. Sam was the last to go down so there wasn't much left only a parachute and and a bag which no one new who's it was so Sam grabbed a parachute and a swiss army knife from the bag in there.

Seeing as leon was only just gaining conscious so me and Sam had to swim back with him on Grayson's bag.

By the time we had got back the others were already asking what they had found in the plane and what they had taken. Then they asked us what we had got and we gave James and Mac a parachute because if we hadn't gone with them we wouldn't have got anything.