This term our students have been on two exciting adventures.

On 4 August we travelled to the Arion Farm Education Park located on McLeans Island to spend a day as volunteers. This was a wonderful opportunity for our students to see, touch, feed and interact with many domestic animals. Here are some students' comments:

Sachi – “It was the first time I had been to a farm. There were lots of animals like rabbits, cats, chickens, ponies, pigs and sheep. My favourite thing was holding rabbits. I didn’t like animals before coming to New Zealand.”

Ryo – “We cleaned the paddock because there was a lot of pony poop. It was nice, smelly and hard work. We had to use a wheelbarrow. I had a lot of contact with tiny bunnies, we could catch them just with our hands and they were so nice and fluffy. My favourite thing was the peacocks. The male peacock has very beautiful feathers and their body colour was cool. I really enjoyed it!”

Wakana – “We saw the ponies and I strolled with the pony then I took pictures together. After that, we cleaned the ground as a farmer’s job. I was surprised at this job. I didn’t think it was such a hard job. I experienced things I never would have experienced in Japan!!”

Ririn – “The most enjoyable part was the pigs because I touched them for the first time. They were so quiet and their skins were super-duper dry. I tried to ride a pig.”

Tomoka – “At the farm I also saw a peacock. This is an animal I have never seen before. I was surprised to see it because it has beautiful feathers. The peacock became a fun memory for me.”

Lio –  “The most fun thing I saw was lots of rabbits, there were many types. They had babies right through to adults. I touched the baby rabbits and also a big black rabbit. Both were very fluffy.”

Otone – “I gave milk to the baby goats. This is my very good memory. Goats are so cute and they were hungry so they were powerful. When we went near that place, baby goats started bleating and couldn’t stop bleating. But really cute!!”

Hinata – “The last animals we saw were pigs but they were not normal ones. Their faces were facing to heaven from the chin. Their faces were really ugly but cute. I don’t know the name but I like these pigs more than normal pigs. In all, I had a really, really great and awesome day.”

On 28 August we spent three hours on the Kaiapoi River in rowboats with KORE (Kiwi Outdoor Resilience Education). We launched the boats at the Butchers Bridge in Silverstream subdivision and, with two students and a tutor in each boat, meandered downstream to the Mandeville Swing Bridge, near the Kaiapoi Town Centre. This was a new, exciting and fun experience for our students and on the way they learned water awareness, boat safety, how to dodge white baiters, and paddle and row, while enjoying our local fresh natural waterways.