The Big Trip

• Izaiah Hall, Grade 3, Dunedoo Central School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

One day a family from New Zealand travelled to Australia. When they arrived they stayed at the Banana Hotel in Coffs Harbour NSW. The next day the family travelled to Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The Saunders family went to their cousin’s farm for a week’s holiday.
That night a massive thunder storm rolled in with lightning. A lightning bolt struck a dead tree causing the spinifex grass to catch fire. When the youngest son, Andrew, went to the toilet he could smell smoke. Andrew went into his aunt and uncle’s room to tell them. He could smell smoke; his uncle went outside and saw blazes of fire, It looked like the farm property was in great danger.
Andrew’s father told his family to evacuate. The Saunders family got into their yellow car and drove to the Alice Springs Airport. On their way to the Airport, they saw lots of smoke and orange flames everywhere. Their cousins had to go and let the animals free. The family got to safety when the fire finished. They went back to the farm, but everything was gone.
The family had nothing left except for the clothes on their back. Luckily they had house insurance. They bought a new house and looked forward to a very good life ahead of them.
It has been one year since the fire. Andrew’s family have relocated the animals and they have planted new crops. On Monday the rain fell and the crops have grown. The family has donated food to the poor and other survivors of natural disasters.