Childhood Memory

The coming of summer is reminding me of the summers I used to experience as
a child. Wiremu and I would always go down to the lake and catch koi-koi fish
with nets that we had made out of flax. Wiremu would always scare the fish away
by splishing and sploshing through the water making noises that went 'splish-splosh'
Our family had a bach in Poriri, just north of Maitangaturou and I loved climbing
up the ngitaronui trees and looking out at the great forest which expanded further
than I could see. My little sister, Aroha always wanted to climb the trees to but
mama wouldn't let her. "You're too young", she said, "you'll hurt yourself".
One day Aroha did climb up one of those trees but slipped bumped her head
on the way down. 'Bump'. She died instantly. I also loved the birds there.