The Astonishing Trip Urupukapuka

In Te Ngahere the year six’s went on an amazing trip to Urupukapuka one of the islands in the Piperi. We went with the Project Island Song team and they showed us the islands and made us understand how to keep the pest away from these islands, because the animals living on the islands can get extinct by the pests like: rats, stoats, possums and red ants. These pest kill the birds and the insects that live on the islands. Before we began our journey by ferry, two people from biosecurity checked our bags and we had to scrub our shoes to prevent the entry of any ants or pest to pest free islands. It was so exciting to be on board for such an adventures trip, Ria our host gave us booklets and clipboards to find the islands on the map. After reaching the island we were divided into two groups to do two different tasks, one group built trapping for pest and the other went up to hills to plant trees. After lunch these tasks were swapped. When we were climbing up the hills we saw cute sniffing dogs to smell the pest in that area. We also got to learn about different types of trees, the two trees that i liked the most were “Hanuka” & “ Manuka”. I liked their rhyming names. Difference between the two is “Hanukkah” has spiky leaves but no flowers whereas “Manuka” has spiky leaves, flowers and seeds. The most amazing and surprising part of this trip was Dolphin watching when we were near the boundaries of Paihia.

Have you ever been on the Urupukapuka Island???