I have lived in Cumberland my whole life. I was born in October, even though I wasn’t supposed to come until December. I’m lucky because Halloween is my favourite holiday, and every year I get a Halloween-themed birthday party. My mum is from Australia, and I have a bit of an Australian accent. We go on trips to see my mum’s side of the family, who still live there. They have mountains in Australia but they look very different to the ones here. My grandparents live across the street from a mountain full of gum trees and Bellbirds.
My other grandparents live here, on Hornby Island. I love to visit them, especially in the summer when it’s warm enough to eat ice cream everyday. I like going to Big Trib and seeing the blue ocean and blue mountains in the distance. My favourite beach is Little Trib. I can walk there from my grandparents’ house, past the cows and down the little lane. I like going when the tide is out, when I can walk on the rocks and look for nice places to sit down and put my feet in the water. I love collecting rocks and shells.
I go to Cumberland Community School. We can see the mountains from my school field. I often look up at them, and think they are very beautiful. I like to see the close-up trees and the far-away trees that don’t even look like trees anymore.
I was in the nature program in Kindergarten and Grade 1. We would go into the Cumberland Community Forest as much as we could. In Grade 1, we would hike up Mama Bear and our teacher, Ms. Whitehead, would read us a chapter of a book when we got to the top. I would sit on my backpack and get out my snack. It made me happy to be outside in nature.
In the winter I like to ski at Mount Washington. My friend’s dad works there, and my Aunty Zoë did too. I started skiing a little bit when I was six but really got into it last winter. I got a Rookie pass, which meant I got lots of lessons. I went from level 1 to level 4 in one season! My mum and I would go together and we would always get a treat at the end. My favourite thing is going really fast down steep runs. I love feeling the breeze, and it feels a bit like I’m flying. I can’t wait to try the mountain’s new zipline—then I will really feel like I am flying!
