Brook Waimarama Sanctuary Visit - Conservation Week

On Thursday 17th September, Room 5 went to the Brook Waimarama Sanctuary, in Nelson. We learnt all sorts of interesting facts throughout the day about looking after and protecting our environment. We went to 6 different stations, doing fun activities at each one.

Station 1 - Pests

Here we learned that 700,000 tons of trees are eaten by possums each night! Did you know that it's the people of New Zealand that have made Kiwi's endangered? We are the ones that start bushfires and we are the ones who make rubbish holes, but we can do something about it. We learnt this through playing games called Possum Picnic and Kiwi Shuffle.

By Hayden, Anton, Casey and Eden

Station 2 - The Beech Tree

Here we learnt about how important it is to have Beech Trees. The trees produce Honey Dew which gives the birds and insects food. Also the Beech Tree re-uses its own Honey Dew by sucking it back up once it has dropped to the ground. Listen to our sony about the Honey Dew.

By Karna, Natalie, Jade and Georgia

Station 3 - Brook Stream

At the stream activity we got to look for bugs. We found Mayflies and Stoneflies. Mayflies and Stoneflies only live in clean water so that means the water was healthy. We learned the long fined eels can climb up very long steep walls with water running down them.

By Tom, Sam, Callum and Jason

Station 4 - Birds

At this station we learnt about sounds that we could hear in the Sanctuary from far and near. We heard bird sounds like the Tui and Bellbird. We then went into a big room with lots of fake birds and below them there was a button. When you pressed the button it would make the sound of the bird above.

By Brooke, Holly, Hannah and Sophie

Station 5 - Whales

Did you know? That a Blue Whale can grow up to 22 metres long! Also that the Blue Whales heart is the size of a Volkswagon Beetle! We learnt about Whales making sound waves and it reflects off something solid to help them go from one place to another. If it doesn't rebound off something they can get stranded like on the beach. Also if you play whale music they could get stranded.

By Connor, Sheridan and Jack

Station 6 - The Bush

We went for a little bush walk to a small opening. This is where we learnt about the different types of bushes that was around us. There was the Bush Man's Leaf (our favourite), Jasmine, Ake ake and the lemon leaf. We also went in pairs and blind folded each other and went to touch something. We touched some things like stuffed stoats, moss, leaves, a bird nest and a feather.

By Thomas, Josh, Robert and Chris