Tasman on a Mission!

by Nettie Stow

Fun day of learning on Moturoa

Whenua Iti at Rabbit Island

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 gained points for completing activities so there was an element of competition with the winners gaining the most points. A balance had to be struck between racing round as many activities as possible and doing an activity properly to score maximum points. This certainly added an element of fun to the day!

It was fantastic to see such a wide range of providers such as Otago University, Bio-Char Motueka, Sport Tasman, DOC, WIO and Project Janszoon. The NMIT trainee rangers did a fun activity where students had to work out “Who did that Poo?” and Whitebait Connection had a portable stream for students to investigate.

Forest and Bird had a cool game where predators tried to steal the eggs of native birds which proved very popular. Another favourite was an oil spill management activity from the Coast Guard who even brought along their huge rescue boat! Motueka High School Enviro Group ran two fun activities and we were all impressed by the commitment, knowledge and teaching skills shown by these awesome young adults. Landcare Trust, Nelson Provincial Museum and TDC rounded of the list of eminent educators offering inspiration and knowledge to the next generation of leaders.

The day was filled with fun, activity, learning and action and we’re excited to announce we’ll be doing it all again next year – watch this space for more details

Thank you to all the schools, providers, students and parents who made the day possible.

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