Working with Wairakei Primary

Exploring Rangatira Point

We absolutely love exploring Rangatira Point with school groups, and recently our coordinator had the pleasure of joining Wairakei Primary School for a walk all the way to the flat rocks. The students were thrilled to see hundreds of cave wētā, and they had fun searching for a māhoe skeleton leaf along the way. They even spotted a stoat in a trap—great to know our efforts are making a difference!

A big thanks to Predator Free Taupō for looking after this beautiful spot and helping to make it safer for native birds. To make the walk even more fun, we've added new scavenger hunts to our website. Check them out here and plan your own adventure at Rangatira Point!

Learning about our Special Native Flora and Fauna

The children were inspired by their bushwalk and were learning about what it means to be a kiwi kid for their inquiry work, so they invited us in to talk to them about our unique flora and fauna. After this talk, the students asked us to come back and talk about the introduced predators, so we did that too!

Introduced Predators and Tracking Tunnels

After the predator sessions, the Wairakei School student leaders really impressed us when they made and set up tracking tunnels in their school gully. In just one night, they collected a bunch of prints! We’re pretty sure we spotted mice, rats, and hedgehog prints, but we're wondering about one large print circled in the photo below. Could it be from a cat? Or maybe a possum? Any ideas?

Wairakei Primary School's Twilight Gala

We also had a fantastic time at the Wairakei Primary School twilight gala, teaming up with Predator Free Taupō to spread the message about the impact of introduced predators. We had fun building traps, and it was great to see so many going into local backyards to help with pest control. Next term, we will be helping the student leaders to build traps and put them into the school gully.