President Kathy showed the meeting a video of Taita College students visit to Great Barrier Island recently. She provided the following report.
On Saturday night 15 October 2022 a group of 18 Year 10 Taita College students met at school to start their week-long trip to the Hillary Outdoors Centre at Great Barrier Island. The students were dropped at Wellington Railway Station to catch the overnight bus to Auckland. Arriving at Auckland Airport early on the Sunday morning the students then flew in 2 separate small planes across to Great Barrier Island.
The kids had to do lots of new things like pitching a tent, sleeping on yoga mats with no pillow, cooking food on a camp stove as well as 2 days of sea kayaking and snorkeling, rock climbing and abseiling. They also did a 2-day overnight tramp. Team building and growing resilience were the aims for the week, along with giving the students opportunities to experiences they may not otherwise have. There were quite a few students that had never flown in a plane before.
On the following Friday I had the privilege of picking up the students from Wellington airport in the school van and transporting them back to school for collection by their parents. They were all exhausted but so positive and excited about what they had done over the last week and the volume and laughter in the van was fantastic. This trip wouldn’t have been possible without the financial support from Eastern Hutt Rotary Club. The club applied for a grant to the Chenery Memorial Trust and received an amazing donation, which along with a member donation was forwarded onto the school towards the trip costs.