A brief overview of what's been happening in the Faculty in 2021.

Geography and Tourism

The Geography classes were out and about a fair bit during Term 1. Year 11 Geography students ventured from the beach at Kairaki to the Waimakariri Gorge looking at how sediment size changes along the length of a river. The day was capped off by a demonstration of incredible acrobatic manoeuvres while swimming at the Ashley Gorge and over 100 students helping out the food retailers in Oxford by purchasing lunch.

Year 12 Geography students experienced roasting coffee at Switch Espresso in Birmingham Drive in Term 1. Former Cashmere High student student and owner of Switch Espresso, Hamish Evans, took them through the roasting process before sampling some coffee. The Year 12 Geography students also ventured south to Mt Dobson ski area for their temperature and altitude measurements and to Aoraki-Mt Cook to look at the tahr eradication happening at the national park. Like the Year 11 students they also managed to get aquatic with some epic swimming at Lake Ohau and Orari Gorge.

Year 13 Geography students rolled over to the Buller District and managed to complete their coastal Geographic research. They too plunged into the water at Tauranga Bay and ventured to the foggy heights of Dennistoun to see the old coal workings. The Year 13 students also had Johnny Gibson from the Nostalgia Festival speak to them about the complex issue of organising a music festival.

The Tourism students have also been out and about. In early April Year 13 Tourism students visited the historic Oruaka Pa site near Birdlings Flat, the Okuti Garden Ecostay in Okuti Valley, Little River Café and Store for morning tea before a ferry ride across Lyttleton Harbour. Year 12 Tourism students concluded Term 1 with a lovely visit to Akaroa and a boat ride to the Akaroa Heads with many dolphins sighted on the voyage.

Nick Moyle

Head of Faculty

Akaroa History and Senior Māori Noho Marae Trip

We started our 2021 Year 13 History trip at 7:30am, yawning and bleary eyed--but our tiredness was almost immediately forgotten when the bus started. Over the course of the trip, we visited a wide range of fascinating historical sites on the Banks Peninsula, including Little River, Takapūneke, Ōnawe and Akaroa. A definite highlight was the night we spent at the Ōnuku marae, where we received a delicious meal, listened to evening stories in the whare, and attended what was, for many of us, our first pōwhiri. Also enjoyable was the final-day visit to Okains Bay Museum, where we got to explore a variety of replicas of structures built by early settlers. This was an amazing experience for everyone who attended. For those Year 12 students who are considering taking History next year - I can highly recommend it!

Louie Howell (Year 13)

Entrepreneurs in Action

For the first time ever, a New Zealand secondary school has five students selected to attend the National Business Competition ‘Entrepreneurs in Action.’ This is a Young Enterprise competition that sees 78 students from across the country compete in newly formed teams over a 48 hour period. The students are paired up with one of the thirteen company hosts such as Air New Zealand, Xero, Sharesies amongst others and are given an industry challenge to solve. They have a day to research, ideate and present their solution to a panel of judges, and there are two challenges during the weekend! Cashmere Alumni Eddie Hogan and Eva Thornley were part of the winning teams in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Congratulations to Year 12 students Liam Crawford and Archie MacDonald, Year 13 students Oakley Inkersell, Emilia Dybka and Jayden Rosanowski who will be representing Cashmere for a second year. Good luck!

Neil Quigley Visits CHS

In Week 8 of Term 1, we had the opportunity to listen to Neil Quigley, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Waikato and Director of the Reserve Bank, share his knowledge and experience with us. His talk covered a variety of interesting and relevant topics, including monetary policy, the housing crisis and advice for the future. Of course, because of his inside knowledge, he couldn’t comment too much on the details of future Reserve Bank policies, but the economic side of what he could talk about was very informative.

As Vice Chancellor of the University of Waikato, Neil was able to answer many of the concerns and questions from the Year 12 and Year 13 students regarding life after high school. He told us that you can never be sure of what the future will hold, as he himself studied Geography at University and ended up becoming an economist. As Neil was a former Cashmere pupil, it was great to have him come back to inform and inspire some of our students.

Charlotte Kelly (Year 13)

Classics visit Teece Museum

On Thursday the 15th of April both of the Year 12 Classics classes visited the Teece Museum in the centre of town. Here we saw many Greek artefacts and vases which were carefully curated by the UC Classics Department. There, a woman named Teri helped explain to us the history and myth behind these amazing relics as well as provide us with a broader and more hands-on experience to help us with our first internal assessment. She talked us through the different images on the vases, had us look for different sculptures and gave us a deeper understanding of ancient Greek life. Overall, it was a great experience and was an awesome way to end the term.

By Bella Whyte and Laura Phillips

Year 12 History trip to Dunedin

On the 16th and 17th of March, Year 12 History took a trip to Dunedin to find out more about Chinese Miners in New Zealand and the Parihaka prisoners who were taken there after they were arrested for protesting the surveying of the land Parihaka sat on. We started our trip with a long drive down to Dunedin, stopping in Oamaru to look at some Historical buildings. When we finally arrived in Dunedin, we had lunch outside the Train

Station, next visiting Toitu, the Otago Settlers Museum. We were incredibly lucky to have been able to listen to presentations from Seán Brosnahan, which was followed by a tour of Lan Yuan, one of the only authentic Chinese Gardens outside of China. We got to learn about its history and design, and its significance to the Chinese Miners. We then went to one of the Dunedin Cemeteries, where we saw a Parihaka memorial and the Mausoleum of William Larnach, which helped to show the scale of wealth earned during the Gold Rushes.

Finally, we finished off a busy day with a visit to the Dunedin Jail, where we saw the conditions of cells the prisoners of Parihaka were kept in at the time, and learnt some interesting stories about the jail and its prisoners. We later settled down at the campground after a pizza dinner and prepared for another busy day.

After the night at the Dunedin campground we took the bus to visit the Monument outside of the caves in Dunedin where it was thought that Parihaka prisoners were held. For years this was believed until Seán Brosnahan, the historian who talked to us at Toitu, did research on the Caves and found evidence that that was not accurate. But we still have a monument here as it is a figurehead of the hurt and hardship the people of Parihaka went through. After this we went and got a tour around Larnach castle. This was because it was built during the Gold Rush and owned by William Larnach. Then we left Dunedin and came back home. This trip was very helpful for us to find evidence on the topics we were doing for our 2.1 91229 assessment where we collected evidence for our focussing questions. We would like to express our gratitude to the teachers and tour guides who let us have this opportunity.