Akomanga Tuawhitu's day trip was an engaging way to kick start their Astronomy main lesson and great introduction to next term's Navigators main lesson.

Akomanga Tuawhitu had a great day out in Te Whanaganui-a-Tara on Monday. We took the train early in the morning and headed to the Capital. Our first stop was the Wellington Museum for a workshop about traditional Pacific and early European navigation. The ākonga had the opportunity to identify how some pūrākau are oral traditions that contain key information about navigation.

Our second part of our hīkoi was a trip up the cable car, the mechanics of which we will reflect on when we get to our mechanics main lesson later in the year .

At the top of the cable car we went to the Space Place at the Carter Observatory and participated in a workshop on how the star path is used for traditional Pacific navigation. One on the presenters, Matua Kurt, had been on a trip to Tahiti and back on a waka hourua, navigating by the stars. He was able to describe the journey from personal experience and answer any of the questions the students had.

Finally, we raced back through the Wellington Botanical Gardens to catch our train home. We had great weather and a fun day out. Overall, the students had lots of opportunities to learn about traditional Pacific navigation skills; to compare this to early European navigation methods; about how the stars have been and are used for navigation; and the importance of Matariki, Puanga, and Maramataka for living in harmony with the environment. This was an excellent way to kick start our Astronomy main lesson and great introduction to our Navigators main lesson next term.