KEY POINTS:
At a glance, it was a typical school playground at lunchtime.
A grinning 5-year-old schoolgirl held one end of a skipping rope, her giggling girlfriends leaping in the air as it passed at their feet.
But beside them at the sunny hilltop setting of Devonport Primary School on
the North Shore, a New Zealand flag was blowing in the breeze at half-mast.
Around it, dozens of tributes - colourful cards taped to the school's playground bars, filled with the innocent outpourings of the friends of Erina and Travis Rowles.
Erina, 8, and her brother Travis, 5, died early on Anzac Day in the boating tragedy in the Hauraki Gulf.
Standing beside the memorial at Erina's "absolutely favourite spot for playing", Devonport Primary principal Shirley Hardcastle described a "quiet and sombre" atmosphere among the school's students.
Erina loved playing on the bars, and the area, now overflowing with cards and flowers, was where she would wait for her little brother before the pair walked home from school every day, Ms Hardcastle said.
Travis also enjoyed the peaceful spot beside the school's basketball and netball courts.
"He liked being here but he loved running and playing everywhere.
"This is where they would meet up after school. Erina was a very motherly little girl, looking after her little brother, looking after him and making sure he was okay. She always met him here."
Ms Hardcastle said students were asked when they arrived at school yesterday if they wanted to write messages to Erina and Travis.
"I am sorey you diyd," one student wrote.
"Dear Erina, I hope you never forget me. It feels so much like you didn't drown. I will never forget you," another said.
Another student wrote: "You were a quiet little girl but you had the biggest smile ever."
And another: "You were my first friend."
Other messages, wishing the children well in heaven and ask-ing why they had to die, filled many cards.
Some children had drawn pictures of Erina and Travis on boats. Others added love hearts and smiley faces to illustrate their thoughts.
Several noted that Erina was "happy, helpful and hard-working".
Travis, who was described as "shy", was remembered by pupils who said they played rugby and slid down the poles, or played marbles or "Star Wars" with him.
Helped in her writing by a teacher, another student, a girl, said: "We played girls-chase-boys with Travis."
Children at the spot spoke to one another, saying they were sad at what had happened.
Some said they had cried when they heard the news.
Ms Hardcastle said she had not yet spoken to Erina and Travis' parents, who were not at home when she visited the family's Devonport home with baking yesterday.
There was no sign of movement, but a bouquet of flowers with a card lay behind the front fence under the letterbox.
Teachers and staff held a "brief talk" with pupils yesterday and a special assembly was held later in the day to discuss the tragedy.
The school had created a three-page newsletter entitled "Managing students' reactions to loss and grief", which was available in the office for parents to take home.
Ms Hardcastle said the pupils' tributes would be given to Erina and Travis' parents later.
