On Wednesday 1st November, Rooms 6, 7 and 8 travelled to the Viaduct Harbour to hear Heloisa Schurmann talk about her family's sailing expedition and their initiative "Voice of the Oceans".

The family are circumnavigating the globe and as part of the Clean Seas Campaign, they aim to raise awareness of plastic and micro-plastic pollution, as well as search for innovative solutions. This visit has linked in well with our Inquiry unit of Kaitiakitanga (guardianship of people and place) with a technology focus.
As well as listening to Heloisa speak, the children had the opportunity to learn about the Sea Bins that are placed in the Viaduct Harbour Marina and to look around the Maritime Museum with a focus on the materials used for the many innovations in the museum and their properties.
This opportunity was organised by Guilianna Silveria together with The Latin America New Zealand Business Council (LANZBC), Viaduct Harbour Marina, Education NZ, CAPE LATAM as well as both the NZ and Brazilian Embassies. 

Thank you to everyone who helped organise it, and the parents who gave their time to come along and support us. 

Voice of the Ocean-Mathilda S, Rm 8 🙂 🌊 ⛵

This term our school theme is kaitiakitanga, guardians of our people and our oceans and land. So we got to go to Voice of the oceans, to see the Schurmann family, a family who decided to dedicate their life to the oceans.

At 8:30 we all arrived in our school uniforms, comfortable running shoes and most of us were wearing our school hats. Then we started walking at 8:50 and got at the ferry terminal at 9:15 with 73 children, that's right we didn't lose any one!

We boarded the ferry at 9:45 because there was a 5 min delay and arrived at the city around 10 am. It then took 5 minutes to walk to the Maritime Museum and another 5 minutes to get in and be welcomed . Then finally it was Morning Tea. Did you hear me, food! WE all hungrily ate and when I had finished I was still smacking my lips. Then they said the 3 groups. We all waited with bated breath.

Once we were in 3 groups we went to our rotations. The 3 activities were looking at seabins that collect rubbish from the water, looking in the galleries or listening to the Schurmann family from Voice of the Oceans speak about themselves and what they do.

First my group went to the seabins . There were 3 seabins placed on the wharf/jetty. 1 by the entrance 1 in the middle and 1 by the end. A person from the museum talked to us about what the seabins were and what they did. Their job was to suck in any rubbish that was near it into a little net in the bucket . This is how it worked, a bucket that had a net in it that had tiny holes so that the rubbish would stay in but the water would go out . The seabins had a sucker at the bottom so when the rubbish got sucked in, it would move into the net so when you pulled the net out of the bucket, the rubbish would be in the net then you would be able to put it in Recycling, where it would be able to transform into something new.

Next my group went to the Voice of the Oceans talk. Heloisa Schurmann talked to us about her life and what they did. She talked about how she and her family travelled the world for the first time seeing not a single piece of rubbish in sight because there was no such thing as plastic. Then she told us how 15 years later they went for yet another trip around the world but they saw rubbish everywhere .Sometimes when they went somewhere and they would see no plastic because all the plastic was too small to see . When she ended her speech she ended it with “we can make a change together”. Then with that the bell rang and it was Lunch.

After we finished a lunch we went back to our 3 groups and headed to the last rotation, the museum. My group headed over to the galleries . They were filled with amazing treasures and exhibitions. First we went to an exhibition that was about travelling boats, and the people on them. Then we went up a level and found an old ice cream shop. I was a bit disapointed that there was no real ice cream, but I managed. After we finally walked away from the ice cream shop we headed down a level. The first thing we saw was this game . It was this rectangular screen with a steering wheel at one end and 2 engines on either side. We quickly found out what to do . We took turns steering until the cannon signalled it was time to go back so we all started walking back to the hall.

 We then picked up our bags and started walking back to the ferry terminal . We boarded the ferry in pairs and found seats of 3 . When we were all seated the ferry took off and in about 15 minutes we were back at the ferry terminal . 

Our parents came to pick us up and we drove away, but Heloisa Schurmanns words We can make a change together spun in my head the whole way back .