Intrepid journeys to Otongo School

Intrepid journeys to Otongo School

I am one of five children. My brother, sisters and I lived with our mum and dad in a new suburb in Rotorua called Tihi o tonga, which means the ridge to the South. Our primary school, Otonga was new too and before there were enough children for a school bus, most families walked (or drove) their kids to school, along Mokoia Drive, Old Taupo and Springfield Roads about 2.5 kilometres in total.

There was a quicker, more adventurous way to get to school and that was to take a shortcut across the farm.

The farm was wonderful, there were gullies to find mushrooms in autumn, frost in the winter, lambs in the spring and even plums to pick in the old tumbledown orchard in the summer.

We weren’t supposed to get too close to the stock and although I used to want to jump on the horses and gallop around bareback like a North American Indian girl, I didn’t (well only the one time).

The animals we really didn’t want to get too close to were the cattle, especially the bulls! They were huge, black muscular beasts that head butted each other to prove dominance. Their hooves thundered as they spun around with their horns locked and they made a phenomenal noise. It started with a low growl and then rose to a high pitch.

The best thing to do to get to school without being gored was to not stare at the bulls, walk quickly and as close to the fence as possible in case you had to jump over to get out of the way of those nasty horns.

I’m happy to say no one ever got impaled, and as a consequence we all got quite good at sprints and hurdles!

I'm Susan Hutchinson-Daniel, the Wellington Co-ordinator for Feet First.

Further information: Susan Hutchinson-Daniel, susan.hutchinson-daniel@gw.govt.nz.