The day had finally arrived. On the 17th of May 2023, Rooms 22 & 25 had an important job to do - we would save the trees. With the Trees for Survival programme, we took the bus to a farm in Clevedon to plant the seedlings Point View School had grown last year. We had to plant curiously shaped plants for about roughly 2 hours.

To get to the planting area, we had a tiny “ferry ride’ on hay bales positioned on tractors. At the planting area, a bunch of diminutive plants that were planted in rectangular soil patches in pulpy bags were scattered all around. Everyone buddied up and soon spades were flying and we were diligently at work. The digging part was probably the toughest for most people, including me. After holes were dug, we would carefully take the plants out of the bags and place them up straight in the trenches. The next step was covering it up. I was not prepared for this part - I didn’t have gloves! I was lucky I had a buddy to count on. After surrounding the plants, it would be time for the last step. The pūkeko test. Our instructors explained that pūkekos would try to pull up the plants, which was why we had to do a tiny tug on the end of our plants, to see if it was foolproof. Our tough work paid off.

At the end we had an all you can eat buffet. Hot dogs, soup, cookies… Ahh, the memories. It was an awesome day at trees for survival, and the result was that we planted 500 trees! I had an epic time! 

By Daniel From Room 25