Rudy the white kiwi

Rudy the White Kiwi

By Isabel Paul and Mia Graham, ages 10

Room 12 Hamilton East School

Rudy is a kiwi, but not just any brown kiwi that you’d find in Aotearoa, Rudy is a white kiwi.

Rudy lived with his mother and his eight brothers, in a burrow under a tree.

Rudy was different, and he was treated rotten for it.

“Hey sparrow skull! Why the pale face?” His brothers would sneer, even his mother didn’t appreciate his individuality.

“Stay out of the burrow,” she would say, “you’ll attract predators!” Finding food out of the burrow wasn’t much of a problem, because Rudy was smarter than the others.  

After dark the mother would take out all her children out of the burrow to play, she did this every night and never had a problem, until that one fateful night, “can I play too mum?” Rudy asked politely,  “of course not! The possums will see you! Your white feathers are too shiny!” His mother responded, Rudy wondered why he even still asked, his mother had aforementioned this so many times, will she ever change her mind?

“Dasher, Vixen, Dancer, let’s play!” Comet called out, “Cupid, Donner, Blixem, hurry up!”

Rudy watched them wander off into the distance, with their mother supervising, Rudy stuck his head out of the burrow and glumly watched his brothers play, when suddenly, something fell on the top of his head, something cold, something…

Wet.

It was just spitting, but that spit turned into a rain, and that rain turned into a pour, and that pour, turned into a storm.

Rudy heard his brothers panic, and his mother shout “Hurry back to the burrow!”

They scampered as fast as they could, but it was already too late, lightning struck a tree next to the burrow with a deafening CRASH! The tree creaked and started to fall, Rudy panicked, he tried to run towards his family, but before he could, the tree slammed into the ground right in front of the burrow, Rudy was stuck.

Rudy dug, pecked, and scratched, over and over using all his might, but the tree wouldn’t budge, once Rudy had used up all his power he fell asleep.

The next morning, the tree was gone, and so were his family, he panicked, although Rudy had slept he still felt tired, kiwis aren’t supposed to stay up when the sun’s out.

Suddenly, Rudy heard something coming from the bushes nearer, and nearer it came, but only when Rudy saw what it was he knew… It was a someONE, a man wearing a fluro orange vest and a hard hat came out from the bushes. At first he didn’t notice Rudy, until he looked down at the burrow under the tree, he immediately noticed Rudy, and tried to reach out to Rudy.

Rudy pushed himself against the walls of the burrow as far back as he could go, in an effort to hide, but to no avail. The man picked up Rudy gently in both hands, Rudy cried out shrilly, “shhh, it’s ok,” the man said comfortingly, Rudy was a bit more relaxed, “we’re taking you to a safe place, nobody’s going to hurt you there.” The man smiled comfortingly. Rudy was taken to an animal protection reserve all the way at the top of the north island, there he was protected, everyday children would come and watch Rudy in awe, “look, look! That one’s white! So cool!” They would whisper, Rudy was loved by everyone who came, he was known and loved all over Aotearoa, and he was happy to be him.

THE END

Rudy is a kiwi.

But not just any old kiwi,

Rudy, is a white kiwi.

He is different from the rest of his kind,

and this is his story.

Isabel's blog