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For Geoff, Sarah and Mandy – PS
For everyone who felt the trauma inflicted by the dawn raids – BT
In memory of Fuimaono Norman Tuiasau, Inaugural Chair Polynesian
Panther Party Legacy Trust
While the events described and some of the characters in this book are based on actual historical events and real people, Jeremy McRae is a fictional character, created by the author, and his story is a work of fiction.
First published in 2026 by Scholastic New Zealand Limited Private Bag 94407, Botany, Manukau 2163, New Zealand
© Pauline (Vaeluaga) Smith & Brooklyn Taylor, 2026
ISBN 978-1-77543-981-3
Made with the support of a 2025 NZ Society of Authors research grant from Copyright Licensing New Zealand, and the Michael King Writers’ Centre Residency.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or stored in any information retrieval system, including electronic, photocopying or recording, nor may it be used to train any generative artificial intelligence technologies, without prior written permission of the publisher.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of New Zealand. 12 11
Publishing team: Lynette Evans, Penny Scown and Abby Haverkamp
Cover design and illustration: Minky Stapleton
Typesetting: Alice Bell
Printed in China by Hang Tai Printing Company Ltd
This product is made of material from well-managed FSC-certified forests, recycled materials, and other controlled sources.
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Wednesday, 11 March
wednesday, 11 March 2020
Today was weird. I was getting ready for school when there was a knock on the front door. I opened it and our dog was standing there (no, she didn’t knock) beside a police officer. The first thing she said was “Your dog farted.”
I was a bit surprised, and said, “Sorry, officer, I didn’t know that was a crime.”
She got a bit flustered and said, “It’s not a crime, I just didn’t want you to think it was me”.
I paused, then said, “Okay, thanks for letting us know.”
At that moment Mum came round the corner and said, “Oh, hello, can I help you?”
Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “She came to tell us the dog farted.”
Mum raised her eyebrow and told me not to be so silly. Thankfully the police officer jumped in and explained what had just happened.
Mum just said, “Oh,” then asked if there was anything else. And there was. It turns out a car was broken into on our street last night. The police lady wanted to know if we heard or saw anything and warned us to be careful with security. I thought it was more interesting that she busted our dog for farting!
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Our English teacher has ‘encouraged’ us to keep a diary. She thinks we should take turns sharing our entries in class. dOUBT IT! Anyway, I’ve decided to use it to record what’s happening in the world around me. My grandmother Sofia (a.k.a. Granfia) always talks about the importance of keeping a record of our experiences, I think she’ll be proud of me for starting this. So . . .
I’m Jeremy McRae. I turned 14 on the 1st of March and I’m in yea r 9.
thuRsday, 12 March
Spaghetti Bolognese for tea tonight. YUM! Plus salad – not yum.
d ie go was in bed early (he’s only 5) so we all played cards after tea. We haven’t done that for ages. We played Euchre. Me and Mum were a team and Ruby and d ad . It’s good now that Ruby knows how to play too. It took her a while to learn because she’s only 9 but she’s pretty good at it now. d id n’t matter though cause me and Mum blitzed them 3–0. Then dad s aid, “How about we play one more and losers make hot drinks and snacks.”
So . . . Mum made a platter with strawberries, crackers and cheese, and I made the hot drinks. I hate how that happens – we had been doing really well until there was actually something to play for.
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Thursday, 12 March
While we were playing cards, our dog Bell was asleep under the table. Ruby screwed up her face. “Yuck, Bell farted again.” Me and Mum looked at each other and cracked up laughing. dad and Ruby couldn’t figure out why it was so funny coz Bell’s quite old and she does that a lot. When we stopped laughing Mum tried to tell the story about the police lady. Every time she got close to telling it she would crack up again so I had to tell the story. Mum said she found it so funny because she could imagine the surprise on everyone’s faces while it was happening. dad and Ruby didn’t find it as funny – guess you had to be there. dad did try slipping in a joke, “Looks like Bell’s bowels are ringing again.” He laughed, none of us thought it was very funny, but we gave courtesy laughs coz dad likes that.
There’s been lots of talk at school and on the news about a thing called COVI d -19. It’s some kind of disease or something, and it’s killing heaps of people around the world. Yesterday the World Health Organisation declared it an official pandemic. New Zealand has closed its borders to foreigners. It’s making people do crazy things like buying all the toilet paper and canned food. Hope it doesn’t come here to Southland. I think we’re safe at the bottom of the world.
My friends are coming over this weekend. Gonna have a late birthday celebration as we were away on my real birthday.
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fRIday, 1 3 March
In English class today Ms Anderson asked us what we knew about keeping a diary. Our group suggested The diary of a Wimpy Kid. Another group said The diary of Anne Frank. Miss said they were good examples and asked us to share the features of each. We didn’t know a lot about Anne Frank, so she filled us in. Then we did a mind map to look at the similarities and differences between the diaries. Finally, we did a summary about the purpose of a diary. Our group thought diaries were to make your everyday life sound interesting and to make people laugh or maybe cry, then we decided they just need to make you feel or understand something.
Miss told us we did an excellent job at investigating diary features and comparing diary styles. She’s pretty clever at letting us figure these things out for ourselves. It feels like we’re always learning with her, and we don’t even notice.
She chose three of us to share an entry from our diaries. Of curse she picked me. I say ‘curse’ not ‘course’ because these things always happen to me. Jay went first, his was about smashing us on the game. Miss asked us to give him some feedback and feedforward.
Jason said, “My feedback is, you need to fact-check your information mate, and my feedforward is we’ll smash you next time!”
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Everyone made hooting noises and Miss smiled. We like her – she lets us be ourselves but keeps everyone in line in a good way.
Jimmy was next, his entry was about the view from his window looking at the piles of woodchips in Bluff Harbour. Miss thought it was almost poetic. I think Jimmy liked that. Me next, so I chose my first entry about Bell and the police. Everyone was laughing hard out when I finished.
Miss said, “No need to give feedback. The reaction from everyone was the best feedback you could get.” It felt good that everyone had enjoyed my writing.
She asked us to think about a title we could give each entry. I thought this was a good idea to give a clue about what’s coming up. So I called my first entry ‘The one with the illegal fart.” Stole that idea from the TV show Friends where every episode starts with ‘The one . . .’
Entry no 2: The one where dad and Ruby hustle us.
Entry no 3: The one with the curse to be chosen (that’s this entry).
I thought diary writing was going to be boring but so far, it’s been okay.
J-Club’s coming over tonight. Mum is making us chop suey and some snacks, hope it’s chip and dip. We’ll do gaming and stuff. We’ve also planned a secret thing, but I can’t write about it here because only the J-Club knows about it. Friday, 13 March
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This is who is in the J-Club:
Jay – his real name is Jayme, he’s the mysterious one who loves UFC, he’s always shadow boxing. We’ve been friends the longest. We started the J-Club at primary school.
Joshua – he’s in the First XI for football and cricket. He’s also smart and could be Head Boy one day, but he’s a procrastinator. (Good word, eh? I know it because I’ve been called that too.)
Jason – always jokes around. He knows how to get his friends to share their work with him – you’ll hear him say, “Can you just send that to me so I can blueprint it?”
Jimmy – we call him the Crown Prince of Bluff. His parents have a fishing boat and they’re really rich. Heard of Bluff oysters? In fancy restaurants I’ve heard they sell them for about $5 or $6 – just for one oyster!
Johnson – well, he is kind of in the J-Club. He was the third member after me and Jay but he moved to Auckland about three years ago. Not just him, his whole family moved for his mum’s job. We keep him in the chat but it’s hard for him to be part of things.
Jeremy – ME! The cool leader! Ha-ha, not really. I like music, gaming, sleeping and food.
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Sunday 15, March
sunday, 15 March
the one where a LOt h appened!!
Woah, A LOT has happened.
1. Mu m made a mean chop suey for the J-Club. There was chip and dip plus Twisties, lollies, caramel popcorn, and cheerios with tomato sauce and fizzy drink. The J-Club loved it.
2. We played Fortnite until we were sure everyone in my family was asleep. It took ages coz we were being rowdy and got told off a couple of times for swearing. Oops.
3. We snuck out! d ow n to the trees at the end of the street. All week we’ve been collecting rocks, sticks and logs, ready to make a campfire. We took the lawnmower petrol can so we had fuel for the fire, and the foldup chairs from the garage to sit on. We’d put them all behind the shed earlier, so we didn’t have to open the garage late at night.
We set the rocks up in a circle and made a base for the fire with the smaller sticks and a splash of petrol. Once it was going we added small logs, then, as the fire took hold, we added some bigger ones.
Everything was going great!
Then it wasn’t. The big logs smothered the fire then crazy hyper-guy Jason decided to add more fuel. There
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was petrol on the handle which made the can slippery, and as he tipped the can . . . HE dROPPEd IT ONTO THE FIRE!
There was a massive WHOOSH and next thing the fire was spreading everywhere – even the tree branches above us caught alight. We shouldn’t have built the fire so close to the trees, but we wanted to stay hidden. We started kicking dirt at the fire but it got too big too quick. We realised we needed to get out of there, so we took off. By the time we got back to our games room, jumped on our mattresses and pretended to be asleep, we could hear fire engine sirens.
We didn’t sleep very well after that. In the morning we pretended we hadn’t heard a thing. Mum told us she saw on the Facebook community page there was a fire in the trees down the road and most of the row had burnt as well as some fences.
Phew! Lucky we got away with that.
Jason looks a bit weird. I think he might have lost some eyebrows in the blast.
4. Some countries are going into lockdown which means people will have to stay in their houses to avoid spreading COVId -19. There are now six cases in New Zealand and people must go into quarantine for two weeks if they come to NZ from another country. This is bad – lucky we live way down south, far away from it all.
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MOnday, 16 March
Tuesday, 17 March
the one with BAD NEWS for the J-Club
BAD, BAD, NEWS. We are in SO MUCH TROUBLE. When we were escaping the fire, Joshua dropped his school sports hoodie with his name on the back. The firefighters found it in the paddock and took it to our school. The whole J-Club got called to the office coz the teachers know we do everything together. I don’t know who cracked first but I guess we weren’t letting Josh take the rap on his own. Our parents were called. News spread like wildfire. Ha-ha, see what I did there?! Probably shouldn’t be making jokes.
Mum and dad were SO ANGRY. They said we were ungrateful and reckless, and the J-Club would have to disband. (UM, I dON ’T THINK SO! I know we caused a lot of damage, but we’ve been the J-Club forever.) They said we gotta go see the farmer who owns the trees and apologise. tuesday, 17 March
the one where the J-Club are sorry
Our parents were called to a meeting after school. All the senior staff were at the meeting, including Ms Anderson. Because Joshua’s school sweatshirt was found at the fire we are all on detention for 2 weeks and have to write
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letters of apology to the Board of Trustees.
Jason smiled and said to Miss, “This is a good learning opportunity for English. Maybe we could write them in class?” Talk about badly timed jokes! The rest of J-Club sucked in air and glanced sideways at Jason. Sometimes I think he needs to read the situation better. Jason’s dad gave a sort of low growl, which made Jason pull his head in.
Then we were taken to the farm owners to apologise. They made us meet them at the ‘crime scene.’ There wasn’t much left of the plastic petrol can and just some twisted metal from the outdoor chairs. The damage to the trees and the fenceline was way worse than I had thought it would be.
It was awful, coz it wasn’t just Mr and Mrs McIntosh –their kids and the grandparents were there as well. I wasn’t expecting all those people, especially kids from our school. That was embarrassing. Mr McIntosh asked us what we had to say for ourselves. We all kind of mumbled “Sorry.” I was looking at the ground. Then the grandad said, “My father and I built these fences with our own hands. We even cut trees down and milled them to make the posts.”
That made me feel REAL BAd, I went bright red. Jason opened his mouth (I think he was going to crack another dumb joke like “Maybe it was time for some new fences”) but his dad did that growl thing and Jason shut up. Thank goodness.
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We all shuffled around a bit and then Joshua lifted his head and spoke, “We’re all very sorry our actions have caused this damage and we would like to make up for it. Could we help to clear the area and rebuild the fence?”
See? That’s why I think Josh will be Head Boy. He knows the right thing to say at the right time. Jason could learn a few things from him.
Mr McIntosh looked at his dad (also Mr McIntosh) and they nodded. Well, that’s a lot of work we’re signed up for: two weeks’ detention, a letter of apology and building a new fence. I hope we don’t have to cut down the trees by hand and mill them too!
Meantime, in COVId -19 news, 7070 people in NZ have completed self-quarantine and 2875 people are being monitored. Scary how the numbers are growing so quickly!
wednesday, 18 March
the one about COVId -19 worries
IT’S HERE! Invercargill has its FIRST CASE of COVI d -19! Some guy who had travelled overseas brought it back with him. I can see why Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has put restrictions on the borders. day o ne of detention sucked. We were given toothbrushes and told to scrub mould out of window channels in the Wednesday, 18 March
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classrooms. Is that even safe? I think we need a lawyer. (Mould or mold? Not sure which spelling is correct, must check that.)
Afterwards, the J-Club walked home. Jimmy was going to Jay’s to be picked up by his parents so we parted at the playground. I was going to ask Mum if they could all come over, but she’s still thinking we should disband so better we aren’t seen together.
thuRsday, 19 March
the one where we are MORe wORRIed ab out COVId -19
There are two more cases of Covid in Southland. What’s even more scary is that the guy announced with Covid yesterday has kids at our school.
*%#”&$# %!! (swear words)
There’s a list of all the places he’s been in Invercargill and the times he was there so people can check if they’ve been in the same places. They were:
- The Batch Cafe, March 16 at 8.30 a.m. and March 17 at 9.30 a.m.
- New World, Windsor, March 12, between 4–5 p.m.
- Waihōpai Football Club, Surrey Park, March 12, 5–6 p.m.
- Southland Athletics Championship, Surrey Park, March 14, 10–11 a.m. and 3–4 p.m.
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He seems like a sporty guy who likes food, ha ha ha. Actually, it’s not funny, people are really scared, and I feel sorry for his kids. They are all isolating at home now.
Granfia shops at Windsor New World.
The borders are now closed and we have to try to keep apart from each other as much as possible to avoid spreading germs. Man, everyone is buying hand sanitiser and washing their hands CONSTANTLY. Gatherings of people are being discouraged.
Wow this is very serious.
I heard Mum talking on the phone to Granfia. They’re really worried. Especially about my great grandparents, Mary-ma and Poppa – they live in Porirua, near Wellington and are in the high-risk category. I hope they stay safe.
satuRday, 21 March
the one with COVId
-19 Levels
Sleep-in day. Mum woke me at lunchtime but I think I could have slept all day. I blame it on detention and the toothbrush cruelty. It sucks having to scrape mould from the window channels, but what’s worse is having other kids at school seeing us do it.
While I was having my banana on toast for breakfast and lunch I listened to the government daily updates on the TV. They have introduced four alert levels, so we know how Saturday, 21 March
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to respond to Covid. dad said this is actual history in the making, so I have summarised what they mean here:
Le VeL 1: Prepare disease is contained.
• Persons entering NZ must go into a managed isolation facility for 2 weeks, or be quarantined if symptomatic or testing positive
• Contract tracing of any positive cases, with stringent self-isolation
• Physical distancing encouraged
• Schools and workplaces open, but must operate safely
• Face coverings required on public transport and planes
• Mass gatherings over 500 people cancelled
• Stay home if you’re sick, report flu-like symptoms
Le VeL 2: Reduce disease is contained, but risks of community transmission growing.
• Entry border measures maximised
• No more than 100 people at indoor or outdoor events
• People can connect with family and friends but must follow public health guidelines, e.g. physical distancing of two metres
• Schools early childhood centres and tertiary institutions can open with appropriate public health measures
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Saturday, 21 March
• Businesses and public venues (eg libraries, museums, cinemas) can open with public health measures in place for physical distancing
• Businesses start alternative ways of working (e.g. working remotely, shift-based, staggered meal breaks, flexible leave)
• Sport & recreation activities allowed, subject to conditions, contact tracing and physical distancing
• Physical distancing on public transport (e.g. leave the seat next to you empty if you can)
• Limit non-essential travel around New Zealand
• High-risk people (e.g. those over 70 or with pre-existing medical conditions) advised to remain at home
Le VeL 3: Restrict
Heightened risk that disease is not contained.
• Travel in areas with clusters or community transmission limited
• Affected educational facilities closed
• Schools can open but with limited capacity – children should study at home if possible
• People instructed to stay at home in their support bubble other than for essential movement – e.g. supermarket, medical testing, or for exercise (always maintaining physical distance and staying local, within 2km of home)
• Mass gatherings cancelled, and no more than 10 people allowed for weddings, funerals and tangihanga
• Public venues closed (e.g. libraries, museums, cinemas, food courts, gyms, pools, amusement parks)
• Alternative ways of working required, and some nonessential businesses should close
• Some procedures in hospitals deferred so healthcare staff can be reprioritised
Le VeL 4: eliminate
Likely that disease is not contained.
• People instructed to stay at home
• All schools closed
• Businesses closed except for essential services (e.g. supermarkets, pharmacies, clinics) and lifeline utilities
• Rationing of supplies
• No mass gatherings – limit of 10 people allowed only for weddings, funerals and tangihanga
• Travel severely limited
• Major reprioritisation of healthcare services
Later on . . .
We had a bbq dinner – lamb chops, salad with homemade condensed milk and vinegar dressing (my favourite) and new potatoes. After dinner, Mum and d ad t alked to us kids
Monday, 23 March _
about the Covid levels. They were trying to reassure us but honestly it made me feel more anxshus anxious, (haha, had to look that one up). They said if we get to Level 4 we will need to lockdown at home for 4 weeks!
Mum and Granfia have been talking, and they think we should lockdown on the farm with them. Well, it’s not a real farm, it’s a 10-acre block just out of town, but they grow tons of veges and have sheep, chickens and eggs (duh! if there are chickens, of course there are eggs).
I talked about it with Ruby, and she was VERY anxious too. I thought she was scared of getting Covid but it’s because she won’t be able to see her friends!
I wonder how we’re supposed to get food and stuff if we are locked down?
MOnday, 2 3 March
the one where things get serious very quickly
There were a couple of fights in the playground today. I think everyone is feeling edgy. The teachers had the TVs on all day, waiting to hear developments. And then it happened . . .
Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield (the health specialist guy) announced that NZ has moved to Alert Level 3, effective IMMEdIATELY! It means we have been ordered to stay at
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home and schools and non-essential businesses will be closed from tomorrow. We must stay in our ‘bubbles’, which means only the people in your home. Essential businesses are food stores, petrol stations, hospitals and stuff like that. Our parents are non-essential workers. Thank goodness their jobs aren’t classed as ‘essential’. dad works in forestry and Mum is a social worker.
There are now 102 cases of Covid in NZ – that’s 36 new ones since yesterday! Man, that’s moving quickly.
I’m sick of writing ‘The one where . . .’ New diary titles will be ONE WORd ONLY.
wednesday, 25 March
PanIC!
This has been the CRAZIEST day of my life, or as dad s ays, “ALL HELL HAS BROKEN LOOSE!”
At 1 p.m. the Prime Minister announced we are moving to Alert Level 4 and the whole of New Zealand is going into complete lockdown from 11.59 p.m. tonight. Level 4 means there is a ‘risk of widespread outbreaks.’ New statistics from around the world say 16,231 people have already died from COVId -19.
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thuRsday, 26 March
LOCK dOwn !
Today is the first day of the COVI d -19 lockdown. d ON , d ON , d ON . . .
We’ve moved in with Granfia and Grandpa. Everything feels so strange and uncertain. I can’t go to school, and Mum and dad are apparently working from home. It’s like the whole world has come to a standstill.
I never imagined something like this could happen, but I guess history is being made right now, and I want to remember it all. I’ll try to write in this diary as often as I can to capture what it’s like living through this unprecedented time. (Miss would be proud of big words like ‘unprecedented.’)
I do feel worried but it’s also exciting not knowing what is going to happen next. It feels a bit like a movie where everyone is ready to spring into action, but they don’t know what they need to do.
Hopefully this will take the heat off us about the fire. Hahaha – heat about the fire – that’s funny. At least we’ve been released from scraping mould detention.
So, this is what happened on the CRAZIEST day of my life when ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE!
Mum and dad flew into action. We had to pack everything we needed to stay with Granfia and Grandpa for 4 WEEKS. And I mean EVERYTHING: computers, toys, clothes, Bell Thursday, 26 March
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and all her gear and school stuff. (Though I’m hoping we won’t have to worry about schoolwork.) Mum was in charge of packing while dad b oosted to the supermarket and bottle store.
The government has been telling us not to panic buy, but I guess when something like this happens people lose all their sense. dad described it as apocalyptic (great word, dad!). He said you couldn’t move at the bottle store. It got so crowded and tense that the staff opened a side roller door and brought out pallets of beer to the carpark to make distribution easier. They brought out a mobile eftpos machine and served people right there in the carpark.
There were two small car crashes, some people yelled at each other, and a couple of people cried. He said it reminded him of the movie Titanic when the boat was sinking and everyone was holding on to ride it down, some screaming, some crying and some silent and stunned. (Bit dramatic, dad!)
But if he thought the bottle store was bad, the supermarket was worse! Shelves were stripped and there was no toilet paper, flour and very few cans of food. dad had a list, but he couldn’t get lots of things, so he ended up buying weird things we don’t usually have like jumbo bags of lollies and dried fruits. Was pleased to see the lollies but don’t know what he thinks we will do with the dried fruits. Mum just sighed and kept packing.
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We put all the pot plants into the bathtub and filled the bottom with water then we left.
Granfia and Grandpa have a big old cosy farmhouse. Luckily there are tons of rooms, so I got my own. Ruby and diego want to share. As everyone is feeling a bit unsure, it’ll be nice for them to be together. Granfia has the comfiest beds in the world. It’s like sleeping on a cloud and the duvets are fluffy and light but the best thing is, she always has soft flannelette sheets – summer, autumn, winter or spring, it doesn’t matter. I love this! If we have to lock down anywhere, I’m glad it’s here.
fRIday, 2 7 March
uh -Oh
We had the first COVId -19 d EATH in NZ today. Now everyone is worried. Specially because Mum has a scratchy throat, a temperature and a headache. She was so worried she had Covid she rang the Helpline. They sent her to the testing station in town. dad took her but had to wait in the car. Mum said it was horrible; a person came to the car and gave her a mask to put on. She had worn her pjs because she thought they did the test while you sat in the car. When she got inside the testing station, everything was covered with white plastic, even the floor. She said it looked like they were going to spray paint the whole place. Friday, 27 March
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Everyone had to keep well apart. The test sounded awful, they put a swab (like a long cotton bud) right up her nose and way into the back of her throat, which made her gag and tears ran down her face.
The worst part was she had to wait till the next day for them to ring with the results. She had to stay in isolation while she was waiting, so dad moved into my room for the night. Mum kept saying, “What if I’ve got it and I’ve given it to all of you?”
I’m not going to lie – we were all terrified. It was a long night, and I know everyone was a bit tearful at different times. It was such a relief when we got the phone call to say she was in the clear. Granfia said this was a good wake-up call for us to all be vigilant about hygiene and keeping in our bubble. I hadn’t been taking this very seriously but now we’ve had a close call, I will be. I know dad was rattled as he was quiet all day.
satuRday, 28 March
Chicken two ways (there was no way I could do a one-word title for this one)
So, for lunch we were having Granfia’s chicken chow mein – her specialty. SO YUM. While we’ve been here, d ie go’s job is to feed the chickens and collect the eggs. Suddenly, he goes, “Hey Mum, there’s two types of chicken, eh? One,
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Sunday, 29 March
the chickens that I feed, and two, the chickens that we eat?”
There was a pause, then I snorted and Ruby started to correct him but Mum stepped in and said, “Uh-uh-uh.” Ruby went “But . . .” and Mum repeated in a stronger tone, “Uhuh, Ruby – leave it.” Then she said, “Eat up, everyone, then we‘ll find a movie to watch.” dad and Grandpa really, really wanted to laugh but they had to hold it in so they were doing a sort of wobbly shaking. dad couldn’t handle it, so he left the table while Mum was giving him the death glare.
I guess diego will figure it out eventually, but good on Mum for leaving it for now. She didn’t lie, she just didn’t correct him, so I guess that’s okay.
We all agreed to watch Toy Story. Think we will watch them all while we’re here.
sunday, 29 March
d ust-fest
I woke at 8 a.m. so got up. I usually sleep late on the weekends, but I must be rested enough from being in this lockdown bubble. I heard dad and Grandpa making plans to move piles of dirt or something, so I snuck back to bed with my toast.
Then Granfia asked if I could help her with some jobs. She wanted to make the most of us being here to help her lift stuff out of the loft so she could clean and reorganise it.
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We used to play up there a lot, but it had got full and dusty and there were spiders, so we didn’t really go up there anymore.
Not being rude, but it’s not like I could say no to Granfia. After about the 20th box I wished I’d gone to shift dirt with dad and Grandpa. It wasn’t just lifting boxes down, we had to take them all the way to the garage where Granfia had set up tables to lay it all out on. Old people collect A LOT of stuff. I’m going to be a minimalist and will never ask my grandkids to eat this much dust.
We got sidetracked with the boxes of photos and spent most of the afternoon going through old albums and tins of loose photos. The funniest thing was mullet haircuts. I’m not kidding, Granfia and Grandpa both had mullets, and Granfia’s was permed as well. Then there were photos of Mum and Aunty Nina as kids with a mullet style too. Looks like the mullet’s been going through each generation. I said I hope it skips this one!
“We’re a bogan family at heart ,” said Mum, “so I doubt it.
Find the box with Grandpa and Granfia and all the old cars and you’ll see.” Well, that was a surprise. I couldn’t imagine Granfia and Grandpa as bogans.
Granfia disagreed with Mum. “Salamasina Mary, don’t fill the kid’s head with nonsense. We just loved cruising around in our cool car – that doesn’t make us bogans, does it?” Mum shrugged and smiled. Granfia doesn’t usually use
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Mum’s full name – wonder if she was annoyed by the bogan comment.
We did find the ‘bogan’ box and they looked very cool in their jeans. Granfia even had a crocheted tank top. Grandpa used to drive an old Chrysler Valiant and told us he never should have sold it. But money was tight and they were raising a young family so he made the call. I could tell he was sad about that.
“Once we get out of the bubble,” he said, “I might buy another one.”
Granfia snorted this time, then said, “Whatever makes you happy, dear.” I hope he gets one – that would be cool.
Old photos are fun. Granfia has done a good job of keeping them all in order. She even has an album for each of us kids. I think I’m the favourite coz my album’s the fattest. When I said this, Ruby got pippy. Mum sighed and said not to fight about that, just enjoy the memories. I think because Mum was on the brink of death last week, she has become wiser, so we all listened to her.
MOnday, 3 0 March
Burnouts
Such a FUN day!
Grandpa decided to return to his bogan days and got his old hack car out into the paddock and said we could all Monday, 30 March
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have a go at driving. He set up some hay bales and we got to have turns driving around the circuit. Ruby was really good. Mum had to put cushions on the seat and behind her so she could reach the pedals, but she did awesome. Everyone had a go. Even d ie go sat on dad ’s lap and did the steering – he loved it and thought he was driving.
Each time I went around I got gutsier. I even did a bit of slide one time. Grandpa said I would be doing reverse doughnuts next!
When Grandpa was putting the car away he did a burnout on the concrete driveway! Way to go, Grandpa – AWESOME!
The washing that was hanging on the deck now smells like burnt rubber! I thought Granfia would be angry but she just laughed and said, “Okay, let me have a go”.
Then she did this MASSIVE burnout – which made the washing even worse!
Turns out Mum is the one who wasn’t impressed. I couldn’t believe it when Granfia did that. Mum told her off and said it wasn’t safe, but Granfia wasn’t worried. Who knew my grandparents were so cool!
We have to do schoolwork tomorrow. Everything is coming to us online. Sucks.
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Tuesday, 31 March
tuesday, 31 March
Online
It was so weird doing school online. Miss emailed us with instructions and a link to get into a thing called Zoom. Once in, we all showed up on the screen in little boxes. Miss told us the rules which were:
• Mute your speaker. Only unmute it when you are speaking. (Heaps of kids forgot this so there were always people waving their hands and cupping their ears.)
• Keep your cameras on. (Miss said this was just good manners and that ‘kanohi ki te kanohi’ was very important. We know this because she is always talking about the power of ‘face-to-face’ interactions.)
Anyway, we didn’t have to be on Zoom for too long. Miss told us that most of the work would be emailed to us, and we could work in our own time to get things done. I like this style of schooling. She said the most important thing was to look after ourselves and each other as these were very “unprecedented times.” d arn it, I wish she hadn’t used that word too – now she’ll think I got it off her.
She sounded a bit like Jacinda Ardern, who has been telling us all to be kind. She asked how our diary entries were going and encouraged us to keep these up. Then she gave us our new task, which was to outline significant dates
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in Aotearoa’s history. We can choose whichever dates we like and present it in any way we like.
Jason messaged me while Miss was talking: Shall we do a picture of an inferno with the date of our fire and call it the hotspot?” He’s so loose, I laughed, lucky we were on mute.
I guess with Covid and lockdown being so big, Miss is thinking about other big dates in our history. We’ll have time to work on the assignment after the holidays but she said to start thinking about it and researching now. There’s only 2 weeks till school holidays, but it already feels like we are sort of on holiday, and I know I won’t be doing any schoolwork in the holidays.
thuRsday, 2 April
Brandy snaps
Granfia showed us how to make brandy snaps from scratch. I had no idea people could actually make these as we only ever buy them in packets from the supermarket. They were so good!! The ones from the supermarket are hard and need cream in them for at least half a day to soften them up. But homemade ones are thin and light and crispy and we could eat them as soon as they were cooled and filled with cream.
We followed the recipe from Granfia’s ancient Edmonds cookbook, then spread teaspoonsful on the baking tray.
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They spread quickly and got all bubbly when they were in the oven. But when they came out was the fun part! We had to work quickly to roll them on to metal tubes before they went hard. It was tricky and we left a couple too late, so they had to be served flat with the whipped cream on top but they still tasted great. I wish we’d made more as I could’ve eaten at least 10 on my own!
Everyone raved about the brandy snaps at dinner, and we all talked about our favourite foods. Mum and dad love the TV programme My Kitchen Rules, so they suggested we start our own lockdown MKR. There was lots of talk about who should be on what team, but in the end we decided it would be:
team 1: Granfia and me (we will win - Granfia is the best cook ever)
team 2: Mum, Grandpa and diego
team 3: dad and Ruby
We each have to make a two-course meal and the others will judge it. I’ve already decided me and Granfia will make brandy snaps for dessert coz I know we’ll get 10/10 for those.
satuRday, 4 April
Cough (that’s me eating more dust in the loft)
More boxes from the loft. At least d ad h elped this time. Still a lot of dust to eat. I moaned about working in the Saturday, 4 April
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school holidays but d ad reminded me that Granfia does so much for us – and I know he meant I should be happy to help her.
Anyway, Granfia is turning out to be a very interesting person. I found a box and on the lid it had a sticker of a panther looking like it was ready to pounce, labelled:
PRIVate PRO P e R ty
Well, that made me interested! I thought I’d just have a peek, but snitchy pants Ruby shouted, “Jeremy’s looking thorough your stuff, Granfia.”
“I was checking which pile it should go in,” I lied.
Granfia was really nice about it. “Thanks for checking, dear. You’re welcome to have a look in it.”
“Even if it does say PRIVATE PROPERTY on the lid?” I asked.
She giggled. “Oh, I wrote that when I was young and being mysterious. There’s nothing top secret in there so go ahead and have a look.”
Turns out Granfia kept diaries when she was young, starting at age 13, so no wonder she’s keen for us to do the same. Mum started reading some of them. Seems the young Sofia was obsessed with getting a pair of go-go boots at the time. She says she still has them in a box somewhere in the dust pit. We didn’t know what they were, so we googled ‘go-go boots’. Ruby is very keen to find them.
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Sunday, 5 April
The other stuff in the box is mostly newspaper clippings, flyers, brochures and some badges. d ie go loved the badges – he pinned them all on his top. The one I liked best had a picture of a panther with ‘Power to the People’ on it.
One of the clippings had a picture of people protesting. Granfia pointed to a young girl and very casually said “That’s me.” Wow. She was famous.
sunday, 5 April _
facet ime
The first MKR team is Granfia and me and we’re cooking tomorrow. We made a menu tonight so our designated shopper (Granfia) can go get the groceries tomorrow. Under Covid rules, only one person per family can go into the store and they must wear a mask and stay 2 metres away from everyone else. Mum thinks she or dad should go so Granfia stays protected but everyone is a bit protective of Mum too, since her Covid scare, and we don’t trust d ad after the dried fruit fiasco.
Menu: Gourmet boil-up and (you guessed it) brandy snaps.
We LOVE Granfia’s gourmet boil-up. Well, technically it’s not hers, she saw it on a cooking show, then googled it. I’m stoked we’re on the same team.
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Tonight, we FaceTimed Aunty Nina and Aunty Alice. They live in Christchurch. We used a couple of laptops so everyone could see the screen. It was hard at first because everyone was excited and kept talking at the same time. It was kaos chaos. We need to use the rules Miss set up for our class.
I feel sorry for the aunties coz they live in a small apartment. They don’t have kids so it’s just them and their cats Frida and Kahlo. When we stay with them, they set up beds in the internal access garage for us kids (they have carpet in their garage!). They said they were loving lockdown and had been doing some redecorating and artwork in between working from home. They said it’s bizarre walking around the streets with masks on and crossing the road when people come towards you to keep a safe distance. Aunty Alice said they stopped to talk to some elderly neighbours the other day but had to move on quickly as the neighbours weren’t wearing masks and they kept getting closer and closer. She thought they were a bit lonely. That’s sad.
We told them about our MKR competition and Aunty Nina said “I’ll put my money on Jeremy.” Everyone got a bit shouty about this and Aunty laughed, but she’s probably right coz I have the secret weapon, a.k.a. Granfia. Maybe that’s what Aunty really meant.
I told A. Nina about the photos and the mullet haircuts.
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Monday, 6 April
She thought mullets were having a comeback, and she might try it again. A. Alice didn’t look very impressed.
After a bit we left the chat so Granfia and Mum and the aunties could talk. We watched another Toy Story movie, and they missed the whole thing!
MOnday, 6 April
fight Club
Well, we need to rethink who goes to the supermarket coz Granfia got into a bit a scuffle! This is how she tells it:
The shelves were still a bit bare, but luckily she got the last pack of toilet paper. Then, while she was filling a bag with fruit, someone pinched it out of her trolley! Granfia had been keeping her distance from others and was shocked that the lady had got close enough to take it. She marched over and took it straight back. They were exchanging some angry words when one of the staff came to break it up and remind Granfia to keep the 2-metre distance. When she tried to explain that the other lady had started it, the staff just repeated, “Please keep the 2-metre distance.” Things got a bit heated though Granfia didn’t tell us what was actually said, but . . . she was asked to leave the supermarket!!!
She was still fired up when she got home so we are going to do our meal tomorrow now.
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Notable Book, Kirkus Best of the Year List (USA), ALSC
Notable Book (USA)
Life in Auckland’s Chinatown during World War 2.
Also in the series from Scholastic
Other titles in the My NZ
Other titles in the My NZ Story series:
Winner Best First Book NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards, Storylines Notable Book, The infamous ‘dawn raids’ executed on Pacific Islanders in the 1970s.
The Canterbury earthquakes of 2010-2011.
Book Awards, Storylines Notable Book, Kirkus Best of the Year List (USA), ALSC Notable Book (USA)
Life in Auckland’s Chinatown during World War 2.
Finalist NZ Children’s Book Awards,
Storylines Notable Book
It’s 1862; Mary disguises herself as a boy and treks to the Dunstan goldfields to try to find her father.
the Dunstan goldfields to try
In 1988, Cyclone Bola was considered to be the worst and mostly costly disaster to have ever hit New Zealand, when it decimated the North Island’s East Coast and Gisborne.
206
(Previously titled A New Song in the Land)
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards and Esther Glen Medal, CLFNZ Notable Book
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards, CLFNZ Notable Book
culminating in the Tangiwai
Life in 1950s Napier, culminating in the Tangiwai train disaster.
Finalist NZ Children’s Book Awards,
Storylines Notable Book
Finalist NZ Children’s Book Awards, Storylines Notable Book
It’s 1862; Mary disguises herself as a boy and treks to the Dunstan goldfields to try to find her father.
It’s 1862; Mary disguises herself as a boy and treks to the Dunstan goldfields to try to find her father.
(Previously titled Enemy at the Gate)
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards
The polio epidemic of 1937.
(Previously titled A New Song in the Land)
Winner Best First Book NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards, Storylines Notable Book, The infamous ‘dawn raids’ executed on Pacific Islanders in the 1970s.
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards, CLFNZ Notable Book
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards, CLFNZ Notable Book
Life in 1950s Napier, culminating in the Tangiwai train disaster.
Life in 1950s Napier, culminating in the Tangiwai train disaster.
(Previously titled Sabotage!)
The sinking of the Greenpeace
The sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior by French spies.
16/04/25 2:07 PM
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards and Esther Glen Medal, CLFNZ Notable Book
Life around the time of signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Life around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
Castaway_2025_FINAL.indd
The vicissitudes of life during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 will provide an interesting comparison with the recent coronavirus pandemic.
The vicissitudes of life during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 will provide an interesting comparison with the recent coronavirus pandemic.
(Previously titled A New Song in the Land)
(Previously titled A New Song in the Land)
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards and Esther Glen Medal, CLFNZ Notable Book Life around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
(Previously titled Sabotage!)
The sinking of the Greenpeace ship Rainbow Warrior by French spies.
(Previously titled Enemy at the Gate)
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards
The polio epidemic of 1937.
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards and Esther Glen Medal, CLFNZ Notable Book Life around the time of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
(Previously titled Sitting on the Fence)
(Previously titled Sitting on the Fence)
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards
Finalist NZ Children’s & YA Book Awards
The Springbok rugby tour that split the country in 1981.
The Springbok rugby tour that split the country in 1981.
The vicissitudes of life during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 will provide an interesting comparison with the recent coronavirus pandemic.
The vicissitudes of life during the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 will provide an interesting comparison with the recent coronavirus pandemic.
