Tiritiri Matangi

On Wednesday the extension group and I went on a trip to an open sanctuary. We boarded our shuttles at 8am and then we were off, arriving at Britomart we met people from D.O.C (Department of Conservation), who helped us and informed us about the trip, Where we are going, What we are doing, and how we can do things to improve the wildlife life in the island.

I walked down toward the Ferry, but suddenly stopped by a staff member. 'Is your shoes clean?' 'Yes' I replied, making our way to the Ferry we noticed that it wasn't only us, there were more people, I peeked up to the top ground and found a whole lot of people sitting on the top ground 'I guess were sitting at bottom' I mumbled to myself.  

Going to Tiritiri Matangi, is going to help us learn about the wildlife and the many species the live or came to the island, to learn about endangered species, and species that we never knew existed.

Finally we were at Tiritiri, we made our way out of the ferry to find a bridge across the water, it reminded me of when we went out camping at Kawau Island. Steadily walking across the bridge we were on the other side, us students were seated down just below a man and women who instructed us on what we are doing, where we are going and rules on the island.

Eventually after a lot of talking with Barbra & John we started our tour. Splited into our groups were taken into different tracks and started our guided tour. Our first stop was the Little Blue Penguin, there were 2 boxes shaped like rocks and a glass box inside laid 2 Korora. Our group struggled with seeing the Penguin’s so using technology *Camera we were able to see it clearly.

Along the tracks we learnt many things, we noticed that some tress had ribbon fastened on them. We asked our guide what it meant she said that the ribbons mean that someone is studying the specific tree, or the area.

From going on the trip I learnt the following things

• Nature is important.
  
• The lighthouse is the longest working light house
  
• We need to take care of birds and species for the future.
  
• That there are Weta motels.
  
• We may see birds that we may never see again.
  
• Birds like sugar with water
  
• Trees provide food.           
             

Before we headed back home we got the chance to play scanvanger hunt! The questions were very challenging and we had to use some of our own knowledge to answere these question.

Thanks you very much D.O.C, for the chance that you gave us to go to tiritiri Matangi!