Yesterday Team 5 drove almost all the way to Turangi to look at weeds... We had 4 people come in to help us learn all about threats to native plants and the general environment. Their names were Didymo Dave, Ian, Shirley and Piri. At the start they all explained about animal pests. Mrs Taylor even showed us a dead possum that she had caught the night before. We also saw some dead rats and stoats, which was pretty disgusting! Afterwards we split up into groups and my group's teacher was Didymo Dave, he was very animated and passionate about the environment, which did mean we strayed off the main path and got quite lost for half an hour... However, it was a good opportunity to identify some less common weeds, and some comon ones, like blackberry. Our group could've made a pie with all the blackberries we ate! In the end we sat down and did some bookwork and finally Piri came and saved us. To top it all off, we went down to the beach and had a swim and a splash at the lake. It was near a eustary so there was also a pool in the river we could paddle in and a stunning view of Motoutaiko. It was a great day out and Team 5 can't wait until we go back there again! But first we've got to go to Wahi next week for school camp, fingers crossed I don't get eaten by a shark!
BY HUNTER VAN DER JAGT