Yesterday we were having a Ki o rahi tournament. It was happening after morning tea and I was so pumped up! When I looked on the list,
we were in teams of our houses, Rimu, Rata, Totara and Kauri. I was playing for Rimu. When we were watching the house teams play, it was Kauri versing Totara. There are two teams in Ki o rahi, Kioma and Taniwha. The Kioma team has to run and touch a Pou or two and try and score a try. It was also our first time to do a Kio rahi tournament. For the Taniwha team, you have to chase and rip the two tags of a Kioma person. The only way to score a point is to throw the ball / ki at the Tupu / rock.
It also counts when the Kioma guardians touch the tupu. The referee was coach Trey, I was benched for the first round watching. I was thinking which team would win and which team I would cheer for. When it was the first round, Kauri won, now it was time for me to play. I used all of the tips and tricks I know to play the 1st game. When it started, I was on the Taniwha team. The other team was on Kioma so they started first. There were 2 room 8’s in the enemy team and in my team there was 1 year 8 person so it was clearly rigged and a little unfair. One of the things that I notice is that my sister was not there.
The strategy I saw the enemy team use was that the person kicks the ball to the guardian. Then the guardian passes it to the person who kicks the ball or if they are blocked they pass it to another person. This strategy is really good because sometimes you can’t predict what’s going to happen. When I tried to block, I did not know who the guardian was going to pass to. This made the game really easy because their team is stacked with good people and ours was only a little.
Later at the end of my match, we lost but we tried our best. The following score they got was 17 points and I got 15 points. After all of those matches it was lunchtime now. I was crying after my 1st match because the game was too unfair and I didn’t want anyone to notice me crying so I went to the toilet and washed my face, trying to make myself calm down. I was really lucky because I had self control and I felt so much rage that I almost made myself think that I will punch them for revenge.
Meanwhile at lunchtime I had calmed down and ate my lunch. After I ate my lunch I practiced to block the key from hitting the tupu and hitting the key at the tupu. I also practised how to step or dodge people from ripping my tags. I also had a 2nd match which made me happy. After lunchtime I was talking to my friends and watching the matches, (my match was the last match.) When it was my last match, one of the teachers, told me to put my tags on the hips, that way when I spin no one can rip my tags off.
I was Taniwha again, this time I knew what strategy Totara was doing. I went and blocked off the room 8s in their team. They went and touched 1 – 2 pous, we tried to rip their tags off but they touched the ground. It didn’t matter until my team and I got the ki. We tried hitting the tupu but they blocked it. When I got the ball I threw it under and for some reason it hit and I got a lucky shot. When it was my team and it turned out to be Kioma, we got so many points, I was also playing for Kauri. After that match we won and I finally got revenge. When it was the points for the house teams, Rimu and Rata were 3rd which made me feel useless.
When Totara was 2nd I was so happy because I wished for them to not be 1st, and the 1st one was Kauri. I was so happy because I was happy for them. I was thinking, maybe it was luck I gave them because I gave luck to my friend in Kauri. It was the end of the day and I needed to chill out there but there were too many problems we had to do in class. But I hope you liked this long story!
