Beyond the story

October 10, 2011

I hear the slapping of the water hit the ship in the cool morning air. My captain Mauro Balomaga was steering the Rena ship. Mauro left the controls to me. My name is Leion and I’m the navigator. We decided to take a shortcut close to Astrolabe Reef to try and save money on fuel. We took several short cuts on the trip in order to make it to the Port of Tauranga on time. “Creeeeaak!” the ship slowly stopped. I felt my body jolt as the boat slowed to a stop. Rena was stuck on the reef. I saw everyone running around. Watching the containers crash into the water, everything tipping. Saying to myself, “S**T, this is all my fault!” Helicopters came swooping in, rescuing everyone on board.


Mauro and I were arrested the next day. Watching everyone sitting in the courtroom, some of the ladies had tears rolling down their cheeks and had to leave the room. We were jailed for 7 months. We go to our prison cell. The dark room with two beds and a toilet sat in the empty room. They slam the gate behind us. Mauro and I left here for 7 months. Sitting here, tears roll out of my eyes. Thinking, what did I do? All I wanted was to be in my own bed and with my family but instead I’m here.


Long nights and days we sat in the prison cell. We got a newspaper every week. I was too ashamed and scared of reading them so there was a pile in the corner of the dark room. But one day I decided to read a few to see what my mess had down. Headlines ‘Rena’ as I read I was trying to hold back the tears.

‘No one else has been able to move the container ship. Halfway through January the ship broke in half’ Watching the black, gooey oil drift through the water onto the golden sand. The clear water turning into dark. Big containers from the ship floated to shore or sunk,” said the lady who had come to Tauranga for a holiday and was truly disappointed that this had happened.


A few months later still sitting in the empty cell with Mauro. All my facial hair growing. Every night I have problems sleeping. I wake up yelling or sweating from nightmares about the night and that thinking I am a bad person. I read another newspaper from when the accident happened.

Headlines: Rena destroying wildlife

“The big containers came crashing onto the beach. Broken into bits. Bits of driftwood floated ashore. On the 13th October the beaches were closed due to all the oil, containers and driftwood. Public volunteered to help clean up the oil and rubbish along the beaches because it affected a lot of people. 2,500 birds died from this incident. Penguins, birds and fish were killed. Oil getting into their lungs and gills and stopping them from breathing. The oil getting stuck in the penguins lungs and all of their wings not making them able to fly”.

Not only had I had ruined the ocean and the ship but I had ruined the nature and wildlife of the beach. Gushes of tears come run down my cheeks. I rip up the newspaper and throw it into the corner with all the other newspapers.


May 2012: Mauro and I are out of jail and set into the world again. Seeing the bright light blinded me. Just seeing all the colours made me smile. Being in the dark dirty room just made you sad and lonely. I regret doing what I did and know my decisions were stupid and thoughtless. The Rena is still out in the water but most of it has sunk. Some of the birds and animals were helped which I was happy about. They were set free at the beach where the public could watch all the penguins waddle into the ocean. I went down to the beach. I sent out a penguin and watching it waddle to the ocean and gliding on its stomach just made me smile, knowing that I did my time and now I’m ready to start over.