What was the best part of our trip to Arataki?
Remember to use the word BECAUSE!
What new facts did you learn?
What new facts did you learn?
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| Arataki Visitor Centre |
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| First stop - a session with Bronwyn in the classroom. |
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| Bronwyn got us to complete a puzzle on the life cycle of a plant. Then we had to try and trick our friends. |
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| We watched a cool DVD on seed dispersal. Then we got given some sycamore tree seeds to throw in the air and watch them glide to the ground like a helicopter! |
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| Our next stop was the nursery. We could see tray after tray of native seeds. They were getting them ready to put into some soil to grow into a big, beautiful trees. |
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| When the seeds are planted they are put into a seed tray. They have a very interesting watering system set up. |
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| Once the seeds sprout and become seedlings they are then potted into individual pots. This gives them more space to grow. |
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| They are then repotted into even bigger pots and put into a separate room. I think they called this the toddler's room! |
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| You can see the size of the next pots! The black ones in the middle of the picture. They are still covered at this stage to protect them from the weather. |
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| The final stage of the plants nursery life is out in the big tree area. They have no protection from the weather. This is to get the plant ready and hardy for when it is planted in the bush. They stay here for about a year. This is so they won't die once they are planted in the bush. |
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| We were then able to plant our very own Pohutukawa tree. We had to fill the container up, leaving about a 1cm gap from the top. Then we used our finger to make a hole and poke the little Pohutukawa into. |
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| Our potted Pohutukawa waiting for their first watering. We watered it with a soft, misty spray. This was so the tree didn't get washed away. We watered it because plants need water so it can grow and survive. |
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| After lunch we had time for a quick photo in Waitakere Ranges photo frame. The back row had to use team work to help each other to stand up on the frame. |
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| The first set of Junior Rangers. Their job was to ensure nobody went past them when John stopped to tell us one of his interesting stories. We needed Junior Rangers because there are already 6 people who have been lost and never found in the Waitakere Ranges. We didn't want to be number 7! |
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| If you are ever lost in the bush, follow John's 5 'S' steps to survival. Sit down Stay put - don't move around Stay calm - don't panic Shelter - keep warm and dry if you can Signal - call out for help The Junior Rangers helped us to not get into this situation. |
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| The orange ribbon shows us that there is a tunnel nearby and a pink ribbon told us that there is poison around. This is an animal identification tunnel. The animal walks through the tunnel. Inside the tunnel is an ink pad. The animal steps on the ink pad and then steps onto the card inside the tunnel. It leaves its footprints so the Ranger can then see what animal it is by the footprints left. The Ranger will then lay bait to poison that particular animal/pest. |
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| Jumana is setting off a possum trap. This was to show us how dangerous these possum traps are. We learnt not to ever touch them. The possum trap works by breaking the possum's neck when it tries to eat the apple in the trap. The possum trap is yellow so we can easily see it. The possum traps are shown by using a blue ribbon. John surprised us by pulling out a real possum out of his bag. He was a great story teller so we believed it was a real possum! It was only the fur of a real possum. It was sooooo soft! |
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| The end of the bush walk. John was asking questions to see if we had remembered everything he had told us. We had a fabulous time at Arataki. |
