Latest News

Civil Defence Students Get Involved on the Flood-Hit Coast.

By Bree Arnott | August 6, 2021

Students on the Civil Defence Emergency Response (CDER) Programme with Whenua Iti Outdoors have just had an amazing experience on Te Tai Poutini/West Coast where they have spent the week connecting in with volunteers, LandSAR & Buller Civil Defence to learn first-hand about the huge coordinated response that is underway to the devastating flooding that […]

Adventure Holiday Programmes Sought After

By Bree Arnott | February 19, 2021

Whenua Iti Outdoors have just had the busiest summer holiday ever, with a total of 137 children through on 11 different holiday programmes that catered for ages from 7 right through to 18, all with a focus on adventure-based activities that provide positive learning experiences in the outdoors.  The same experienced staff who deliver our core education programmes throughout the school […]

Tasman Mission a Hit!

By Bree Arnott | November 30, 2020

Tamariki had a blast during the Tasman Mission event held on site at Whenua Iti Outdoors. Primary Schools from around the district arrived on a sunny Friday morning to take part in a fun event organised by the Tasman District Council that coordinated various ‘stations’ where teams faced fun environmentally-themed challenges to tackle together. This is the second time the […]

Win a prize with WIO during Get Outdoors Week!

By Bree Arnott | November 12, 2020

Get Outdoors Week runs from 14th – 22nd November, and to celebrate getting outdoors, Whenua Iti are giving away a Macpac pack for your next adventure. From the 14th of November we will be hiding 3 caches around some of our favourite outdoors spots in the Motueka area that can be accessed by families so […]

WIO Finalists in Sustainable Business Awards

By Bree Arnott | September 15, 2020

WIO are thrilled to be among the finalists in the NZ Sustainable Business Awards! Whenua Iti have been named as finalists in 2 categories. The Social Impactor Category, which recognises businesses that bring about positive change for their environment & communities; and a new award for Resilience in Crisis that acknowledges the ability for businesses to pivot in […]

New Obstacle Course at Whenua Iti!

By Bree Arnott | August 25, 2020

Next time you visit Whenua Iti there’s a new Obstacle Course to tackle! We are excited to have our new Obstacle Course open for action. With thanks to funding from the Tasman District Council and the generosity of locals who donated materials for construction, we now have a fantastic course for programme participants to tackle […]

Inspiring Future Leaders at WIO

By Bree Arnott | August 13, 2020

Our future leaders were brought together in the school holidays from across Nelson and Tasman to attend an Inspiring Leaders programme at Whenua Iti Outdoors.  This was the first time the programme has been run, thanks to the funding from Tasman District & Nelson Councils who gave Year 12 students from around the region the opportunity to develop their leadership skills. The students were identified by their schools as having the potential to […]

Biodiversity the Focus of New Programme at WIO

By Bree Arnott | May 26, 2020

Whenua Iti Outdoors has designed the new ‘Predator Control & Conservation’ programme for secondary students to teach the importance of biodiversity management in which students will get to participate in practical, field-based community conservation projects.  The first Predator Control & Conservation Programme is set to kick off in Term 3 as part of the funded Trades Academy […]

WIO Ways to Wellbeing

By Bree Arnott | April 10, 2020

During our time of lockdown, most of you will be finding it a bit harder to do the things you would normally do to take care of yourself. I know that for most of the team at Whenua Iti Outdoors (WIO), that is most certainly true, given our love of the outdoors! But there are still lots […]

GO WILD at home!

By Bree Arnott | April 10, 2020

> View all the Go Wild at Home Challenges Friday’s Challenge: Knot Skills Learn how to tie some knots for using in the outdoors, or around home too. Have fun with this – it’s your last challenge for the week!To register and send your photos please email [email protected]. We look forward to seeing the photos! […]

Keeping informed about Covid-19

By Bree Arnott | March 18, 2020

Our site is open, and programmes are running again with some changes to adapt to current restrictions. Trades Academy programmes will recommence on 25th May. Enrolments are open for our mid year Trades Academy programmes. We will continue to keep you informed about any changes to our programmes – see below. FOR HEALTH AND EDUCATION […]

Shantel Thilman - Tour Aotearoa 2020

The Ultimate Bike Ride to raise $ for WIO

By Bree Arnott | February 11, 2020

Shantel Thilman fell in love with New Zealand when she first came here 10 years ago. Now she has returned to ride the length of our country as part of Tour Aotearoa 2020 and avoid winter back home in Oregon! As part of her best winter-avoidance tactic yet, Shantel is aiming to raise money along […]

Top 5 Things I’ve Learnt From My Students (v.2)

By Bree Arnott | December 6, 2019

Kia Ora Whānau Joni Here.  I’m back again with my yearly blog post! You may remember that I wrote a blog about ‘The things that I’ve learnt from students as an instructor’ where I reflected on the work of 2018. I wrote about how lucky I was to help facilitate growth in our amazing young […]

WIO win Business Award

By Bree Arnott | November 26, 2019

It’s fair to say we were a little bit chuffed to be the recipients of the Nelson Tasman Chamber of Commerce Mediaworks NZ Medium Business Award for 2019. As a charitable trust in the field of education, we are not often perceived as a ‘business’, yet we need to run effectively as one to achieve positive change in […]

experiential learning activities

My Manaaki Tāpoi Journey – A Student’s Voice

By Bree Arnott | October 29, 2019

I have been privileged enough over the last three years to have graduated from the Manaaki Tāpoi Level 2, Level 3, and Level 3 Extension programmes. The Mānaaki Tāpoi programme is a 4-week block course run by Whenua Iti Outdoors for senior kura tuarua students from Te Tai o Poutini and Te Tau Ihu o […]

community involvement in motueka, nelson, richmond and tasman

Motueka Vocational Pathways is Launched

By Bree Arnott | October 17, 2019

As of November 2019, WIO will be running the first Motueka Vocational Pathways (MVP) Programme on behalf of Vision Motueka, as part of their initiative to create a more youth-friendly Motueka. MVP has been established in recognition of the challenges of transitioning into the workforce that face a number of young people once they leave […]

Tasman on a Mission!

By Nettie Stow | May 28, 2019

Fun day of learning on Moturoa For many years, our local councils have been running a fun day of learning on Moturoa (Rabbit Island) with a huge range of activities offered by inspiring Environmental Educators. This year, the event was organised by TDC, hosted at WIO and renamed the Tasman Mission. During the day, students […]

WIO WIT WIF ExpedNZ – confused? Let us explain!!

By Nettie Stow | April 19, 2019

Here at WIO, finding the funding we need for our programmes certainly keeps us on our toes – we try to be as adaptable and creative as possible looking for opportunities wherever we can and also looking for ways to make what we do sustainable in the longer term. Currently we apply for grants and […]

Measuring our Impact – what do we know?

By Nettie Stow | March 25, 2019

For many years Whenua Iti Outdoors has been held in high regard by the people who participate in our programmes or maybe their families and others in the community who for some reason come across our work. We have heard many tales of how “my son turned a corner doing a WIO programme” or “WIO […]

To the Scared Abseiler – a message from your tutor!

By Nettie Stow | February 26, 2019

If you come on a Whenua Iti Outdoors programmes you will find yourself facing all sorts of challenges and each person on the same programme faces a different set of challenges – some physical, some mental, some emotional – sometimes all 3! One of our tutors, Kathryn, has written a letter to everyone facing a […]

school kids kayaking in the Abel Tasman National Park

It’s a WRAP

By Nettie Stow | December 21, 2018

Looking back, looking forward…. 2018 was a big year in the WIO story in so many different ways. We delivered 10,201 participant days of activities – we’re pretty sure that’s our first year over the 10,000 mark with 3,433 individuals on our various programmes. 3,139  credits were achieved by secondary students towards their NCEA and […]

Who’s Learning from Who? An Instructor’s Perspective

By Nettie Stow | November 28, 2018

I’m sure you’ve all heard us wax lyrical about all the wonderful things the students have learned in their programmes – but what if you flick that round and look at that from a different perspective? Our super woman instructor, Joni Tomsett, shows us it’s not all one way traffic on the learning front! The […]

WIO in the Shadows……

By Nettie Stow | October 8, 2018

Earlier this year two of our Whenua Iti staff (Pip Rees and Kieran McKay) spent 6 and 12 days underground on an expedition to try to extend the known length of the 76km long Bulmer Cavern, NZs longest cave. Kieran made a 36 minute movie about this expedition entitled ‘Once Again Beneath the Mountains’ It […]

tower abseiling at whenua iti outdoors

Safety Issues: who is to blame?

By Amy Dalton | May 15, 2016

A few weeks ago we posted on Facebook a Nelson Mail article about a driftwood beach hut being fenced off by the Nelson City Council because of perceived safety issues.  It caused a huge furore, not only from our supporters but all around the country.   Comments such as “Definitely red tape gone too far” and […]

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