On Monday, 17th May the Level 1 geography students travelled to the Atarau Sanctuary better known as the ‘Kiwi Crèche’ for a morning of learning about the great spotted kiwi and the efforts the good people at the Paparoa Wildlife Trust go to in protecting them. 

We started our morning with a brief talk on the purpose of the sanctuary, then with the help of Kaleb Poulton we tracked down a teenage kiwi (it was unsurprisingly grumpy having been woken up and dangled by its legs). Once found Ray and Kristy (Paparoa Wildlife Trust workers) proceeded to weigh the kiwi, complete a health check and attach a new radio transmitter with duct tape. 

‘Trees that Count’ have donated several hundred trees to the crèche. We spent an hour planting over a hundred of them in the southern area of the park. 

To finish our visit we looked at the traps laid on the outside of the sanctuary. A big thank you to Ray Beckford for making the trip happen and to Mr Bermingham for stepping in as a last minute driver. As you can well imagine, the students in geography class held themselves well and learnt so much about how important preserving our national icon is.