My Story

I was sitting at home watching tv when I heard my mum run down the hallway (she sounded like an elephant). When she got to me she said  ” Nanna has died George!” We need to go up to Wellington for Naana's funeral. We will be going on the ferry up to Wellington.    

I couldn't wait to go on to the ferry because it was the first time that I have ever been on the ferry before. When I looked on the ticket it said that  the boat was departing Lyttelton at 8:40 p.m on the 9th of April 1968 and arriving in Wellington at 8:00 A.M on the 10 of April 1968, which was two days away. As twelve year old I was sad about my Nanna dying but I was also excited about going on the ferry.

Me and my family got a taxi to Lyttelton Harbour where the ferry was waiting. It was huge! The docks were really busy with people loading the boats and people getting dropped off. It was a really cool atmosphere. It took half an hour to board the boat because there was a really big line. When we got on the boat we went to our cabin. It was really dark and There were two lots of bunks. Me and my sister were on one bunk and mum and dad were on the on the other one.

We left Lyttelton harbour at 8:40 on the dot and if anyone was late they would be left behind and the boat would`t stop. Luckily no one was late. It was really dark when we left. I was even more excited when we were going it felt like we were going really fast but we weren't. The trip was going really good until we got to the top of the south island we hit a storm when I was sleeping. I woke straight up and though what is that I got up and went onto the deck. There was huge waves as big as my house Hitting the boat it was really scary I kind of felt worried until my mum said that these boats are meant to withstand these type of waves and then I went back to sleep. When I woke up half an hour later And when I went outside it had got worse the waves were bigger and there were people vomiting.

When we got to the entrance of the Wellington harbour captain H G Robertson decided to enter Wellington harbour even though the weather was really bad. When we got into wellington harbour it was worse then cook strait it was way winder and the waves were even bigger. The captain said that the boat has foundered on Barrett reef. everyone was really scared at that moment. Then everyone was rushing to the lifeboats and some people crazy even jumped off the boat. I was lucky me and my mum were pushed into a lifeboat but lots of people died because there was not enough lifeboats and they couldn't swim. lots of people on the shore helped us off the lifeboats and keep us warm. There were lots of emergency vehicle helping people. We watched the boat tip over. When we went to hospital we were glad to see my sister but we never saw my dad agian.