Letter to refugee

Frimley school

Frimley road

Frimley

Hastings

4120

22nd August 2017

Please (that's hello in the language, that's our Māori),

Welcome to Aotearoa, (that's New Zealand in te reo). I hope you had a great trip here and you weren’t too nervous because Aotearoa is a great place to live.

I would like to introduce myself.  I go to Frimley Primary School and my name is Riley.  I was born in N.Z and have lived here my whole life.  I hope you like it here as much as I do.  I play rugby for HRS (Hastings rugby club).

I have traveled throughout the North island of N.Z and my favourite place so far is Aukland.  There’s places like the Sky tower (with awesome views), Rainbows end (a theme park) and many other fun places.  Here in Hastings we have Splash planet and tons of other cool things.  Our summers here are molten hot and our winters are freezing but only in the mornings (mostly).

Us kids here love to play rugby, soccer, ride scooters and bikes.  Usually around 8:00 - 8:30 is rush hour for school.  Some kiwi favourites include hokey pokey (vanilla ice cream + crunchy sweets), mixes from the dairy, fish and chips and macca’s (Mcdonald's ; a restaurant).

Tēnā koa and Kia ora are just some of the ways we greet each other.  We say tons of different greetings here because we have a mix of different cultures such as Pakeha, Māori, Phillipian and many others.  You’ll pick up on the language in no time.

Anyway welcome to Aotearoa.  I hope you settle in quickly.  Do you miss you're home that much?

Kind regards

Riley