Te Point Reptile Park

On 9th November Room 3 went to the Te Point Reptile Park. Ivan (owner) gave us a tour around the park. First he showed us the two different types of lizards that New Zealand has, a skink and a gecko.

After that he started to lead us around his park. First we got to see all the lizards in their

enclosures. Most of them were camouflaged and were hard to see.

Then we kept walking down the hill and past lots of enclosures labelled things like "Blue water dragon" and the "Leopard skink".There were even two Capuchin monkeys called Harrison and Sam. After that we kept walking until we came across the Alligator. Ivan tried to feed it some old possum but it just hissed and shut its eyes.

We kept walking past enclosures for about another half hour and eventually we came across the Chameleon enclosure. Ivan got a bug and held it out about 40cm in front of the Chameleon. The Chameleon curled up its tongue aimed and fired. In a split second the bug was gone.

Then we walked up the path, said thanks to Ivan and went to our camp.

We all had heaps of fun.

Photography and illustration by Luke.

leigh

We started from Seafriends and we walked along the Cape Rodney Road and dropped down into the Leigh Harbour. We walked in huge lines and it was quite tiring walking all that way.

When we got to Leigh Harbour we went for a swim and others went and explored the rocks.

Then we walked through the bush to another bay and we all had another swim.

Then we continued to the Leigh Wharf. We waited while the parents went in a car to collect the other cars so we could get a ride back to camp.

We were all tired but it was a great walk.

Remo

SNORKELLING!!

On the 11th of November Room 3 went to Goat Island and went snorkelling. When we were at Seafriends we got fitted for a wetsuit so we could go snorkelling .

Then next day we went to the beach and got on our wetsuits and got fitted with flippers, snorkel and a yellow hat.

Then we walked down to the beach backwards because we

could brake the flippers.

After all that we got to go in the water.

When we got in we got to go deeper and deeper, we swim all the way to the Goat Island and went along the side of the island.

We had never swam so far in the sea but it felt safe because we floated in the wetsuit.

Some people saw an Eagle ray, then when we had a break we saw lots and lots of snapper. Some were BIG and some were small. The instructers picked up a kina and waved it around then a huge school of snapper came. We were looking at the snapper and they were looking at us - it was awesome.

On the way back Luke saw Monkey face which is a big snapper with a funny face.

We loved snorkelling it felt like we were fish too.

By Holly and Cara

Lee fisheries

On Thursday the 11 of November Room 3 went to visit Leigh fisheries.
When we arived at Leigh fisheries we put on these white suits and a lady gave

us these blue shoe covers because we might have plant stuff on our shoes or

something.

Then the lady took us into the fishery building and showed us some of the

fish. There was snapper, crayfish, marco shark, swordfish, school sharks

gurnard, guts of a tuna and sea basse

When we first walked in it really stank and Korbin said"This place smells like fish."

They were packaging the fish really fast into large polystyrene boxes, then they put ice into the box, wrapped it in plastic and it was ready to send to fly to Japan, Taiwan, Australia, or Vietnam .

It was amazing to see the fish being chopped up, they were so fast and the fish were icky.

By Shane and Sean.

On our way back from camp we went to Mathersons Bay
When we were there we did a rocky shore study.

It was exciting rushing from one rock pool to another, you never new what you would find. Shannon nearly fell in, Larissa and Samantha found a little cave that you could walk in.
We found a purple rock crab,cats eyes,surf barnacles,hermit crabs,pebble crabs,brittle stars and lots lots more.

Korbin went crazy rushing around finding everything and he got so close he was nearly in the rock pools!

There was 45 things to find Hollys group won.

Then we had a sandcastle competition Larissa made a whale, Shannon made a turtle, Luke made a whole medieval village!, Holly and Rebecca made a fantastic mermaid, Ethans group made an enormous Butterfly Bus that they could all sit in, Jack and Kiarn made castles with moats.

Everyone won a lollipop for the sand castle competition cause they were all so unique and creative and Vanessa couldn't choose a winner so we were all winners!

We had a treasure hunt,I was in Shannon's group. For something that looks like a fish we got a rock and for something you could eat but haven't, we found an old piece of cucumber on the playground.We found an old rusty knife for a piece of junk. There were 19 things to find and we found 19, other people couldn't find a feather.

It was fun.

Larissa C, and Shannon.

KAYAKING

On Wednesday we went kayaking in the ocean at Goat Island.

First we got split up into groups.There was group one and group two. I was in group two with my friend Jen.

We wanted to be in the same kayak, but unfortunately there was only four double kayaks so we had to go in seperate kayaks.

All went well at first, but then a huge gust of wind that

blew my paddle under my boat, which caused my head to go under water.

Luckily, I didn"t fall out. The man in the boat came to tow us while we were in our kayaks because we couldn't paddle back to shore as the wind was too strong with the big gusts.

Jens kayak flipped as well as Shanae,Larissa and Samanthas kayak.

Then the man towed us back to shore to Goat Island. We were stuck on Goat Island with Liz the instructor. Liz told us to huddle together cause we were freezing. The man in the boat took us back to shore in groups but we had to jump out of the boat and swim to the shore so he could go back fast and get the rest of the kids.

Mrs Dunn and Mrs Stevens helped us out of the water and Greg drove us up to the camp were we had a hot shower, hot drink and cake.

It was scary but we were OK.

Rebecca and Jen

On the 16th of October Tomarata school had a calf club day.
Cara Doggett brought her Braford calf Doodar.
Doodar got me two 2nds.
There were lots of calves and they were all succesful.

By Cara and Holly