I shivered. It was so cold in Palmerston North International Airport. I glanced at my watch. It was 1.30pm. I shivered again and pulled my blue beanie over my messy blonde hair. Suddenly, a thunderous sound roared over the roof of the airport. A gleaming white and red jumbo jet landed softly on the concrete outside. QANTAS AIRLINES was clearly written on the side of the plane. The automatic passenger door speedily opened and a humungous crowd of people tumbled out.

The last person to emerge from the plane was a boy wearing a Hawaiian t-shirt and green sandals. He briskly strode out onto the frosty concrete. It was Tony, my cocky Australian cousin. He paused, wrapped his arms around his body, and awkwardly flip-flopped inside. "Hi," I whispered nervously. Tony ripped off his dark sunglasses, revealing a blue face and a startled expression. "F-f-freeezing!" he choked. "Welcome to New Zealand!" beamed Mum. "Did you have a nice trip in the..." — she turned to look at the tag on his suitcase — "first class compartment?" "Yeah," mumbled Tony absent-mindedly. Annabelle, my little sister, tugged on Dad's baggy sleeve. "Can we go now?" she wined, "I'm starting to freeze!" "Come on," coaxed Dad, "Let's go."

The next day, I woke to the beeps and buzzes of Tony's PSP. "Hooray," he cheered, "Level 3974!" I poked my sore head out from under my duvet. My throat was dry. "Good morning," I croaked. Tony didn't move. His thumbs kept on tapping. I slid out of bed and tip-toed down the stairs to fix myself some breakfast.

No one else was in the kitchen. I poured some orange juice into a glass and spread peanut butter on a piece of toast. As I sat down and ate my toast, Tony staggered lazily into the living room and flopped onto the sofa. He picked up the remote and flicked the television on. Spongebob Squarepants was on. Tony surfed through at least 200 channels until he found some Aussie Saturday morning show. "You want some breakfast?" I asked. "Shut up," said Tony, "I'm watching TV." When the show finished, he opened the fridge and drank the rest of the orange juice from the bottle. "Do you want to drive the go-carts?" I queried. "No," snapped Tony, "Your go-carts are boring. My ones back at home have motors and I win the go-cart champion racer trophy every year."

"Trampoline?" I asked. Tony glared at me. "Your go-carts are boring. Your trampolines are boring. Your family is boring. Your country is boring. And you are boring!" I saw red. I ran outside. Tony ran after me. "Boring, boring, boring, boring!" he mocked.

I slipped into the old garden shed that belonged to my great-grandfather. I slid the door closed and sat down on an ancient Indian carpet. I didn't want to cry but the tears kept pouring out. Suddenly the carpet lifted off the ground. I screamed. It buckled and sped toward the door. I gulped and closed my teary eyes. CRASH! The carpet smashed through the metal and flew off over the fence.

As the wind rushed past my ears, I opened my eyes and saw that Tony was clinging onto the carpet, his face white as a ghost. "H-h-how-w?" he whispered. I stared as Palmerston North loomed closer and closer.

The magical carpet whizzed over a large red building. I pointed down. "This is Te Manawa," I explained, "It's where people learn about all sorts of scientific things." The flying carpet landed outside Te Manawa and Tony and I strolled through the doors.

"Hi," I said coolly. The lady behind the desk chewed her bubble gum and stared at us. "Got a pass?" she snapped. Suddenly, without me knowing, my hand reached into my pocket and fished out a double pass to Te Manawa. I slapped it on the desk and the lady pointed toward the corridor. "Go on," she urged, her eyes bulging scarily. Tony and I could hardly believe our luck. We inserted our two entry coins into the twisting rail and strode into the main building. At Kidzone, Tony spun a pulley wheel at lightning speed and a few foam bricks were lifted up. I spent most of the time in the secret unlit corridor behind a cool bookcase.

Afterwards, we strolled outside. The magic carpet had obediently waited outside. We clambered onto our ride and it automatically zoomed into town. "Look!" I exclaimed, "It's Gingi's, the Mongolian all-you-can-eat restaurant!" The carpet floated down to the ground and Tony and I burst through the doorway. I slammed another mysterious double pass on the counter and showed him the food. He drooled and piled up his bowl to the ceiling. I gave my bowl to one of the cooks and then saw the food ssiizzlliinngg on the grill. Tony and I ate and ate and ate. It was so good! After that, with full stomachs, we were cruising away from Gingi's.

"There's Splatter Zone and Datona!" I cried. The carpet screeched to a halt. We tumbled inside. At Daytona, Tony sped around the track, beating me in every race. At Splatter Zone, I shot Tony umpteen times with my paint ball gun and I won the game. Screaming with laughter, Tony and I raced back towards town on the magic carpet. We landed outside the Palmerston North Sports Area and raced inside. There, we played soccer, cricket, and netball, even though we both sucked at netball. We bought snacks to eat on our way to our next destination.

The magic carpet zoomed over lush green hills and lots and lots of cattle and sheep. "Here we are," I cheered, "Te Apiti Windmills." Tony gasped. The carpet landed and we sped off to see the windmills. "They're massive!" cried Tony. "I know," I replied. Tony raced up to one of the windmills and arched his neck as he stared up to the very top of it. After we had nearly been blown away by the wind, Tony and I climbed onto the flying carpet and I whizzed off. The carpet paused beside a green and orange and yellow and purple building. "It is Aokautere School!" I said. We landed softly on the concrete outside room four. "Is that a fort?" shouted Tony gleefully. "Yup, let's go and play on it!" I replied. Tony and I slid down the pole and climbed up the rope web. We played tag for a few minutes too.

"There's a flying fox as well!" I added. We galloped across the field towards the small, round plastic seat connected to a long wire cable. Tony slid onto the seat before I could stop him, and "Wweeeeeeeeeeeee..............!" Tony giggled gleefully as he passed the seat to me afterwards. I had my turn, but by the time I had landed on the ground, Tony was curiously eyeing the revolving comet beside the fort. "Hhhmmmmmmm?" he murmured inquisitively. I took his hand and showed him how it spun round and round and round. He looked dazed and very dizzy after his turn on it. I yawned. "Let's get back to my house," I mumbled sleepily.

After that, the magic carpet zoomed back to my house and quietly hovered into the old shed. Tony and I crept back to my house, covering our mouths to muffle our giggles. I softly opened the front door and we flopped onto our beds.

"Should we tell them?" choked Tony. But I couldn't answer. I was already dreaming.