We are on a remote island off the coast of New Zealand. We came here to shoot a tuatara. Um, I don’t mean kill, I mean film these reptiles.

My family runs a nature show called Periwinkle. We travel around the globe filming nature. Mum and Dad haven’t found a tuatara yet.

It is funny we are like the family of the ‘Wild Thornberries’ except that I can’t talk to animals like Eliza. Also, I have three siblings — Isabel, 16, Chelsea and Ruth, who are twins are 14, and I am the youngest, 12.

Isabel has gone to boarding school. We have got a parrot named Peprica and a caravan for a home.

Peprica or Pep and I went to the beach looking for the tuataras. Pep doesn’t really know what a tuatara is but pretends to look for it. Chelsea and Ruth joined. While I was taking pictures of the sea and Pep, I heard Chelsea scream.

We rushed to her and asked, “What happened?”

Ruth said, “She lost Dad and Mum’s last chance of filming a tuatara. We had found it but Chelsea screamed and scared it away.”

Chelsea said with a hurt expression on her face, “That was not Mum and Dad’s last chance.” Then I took off my sneakers and wrestled with Ruth on sand. We wrestled until we almost choked on the sand that filled our mouths and our lungs.

I slipped my feet into my sneakers and felt something squirming inside it. It was a tuatara. It looked like a lizard.

I called for Mum and Dad. Finally they’d got the tuatara on film.

Mum said that tuataras were almost extinct. What a pity — they were so interesting, especially when one scared Chelsea.