Moth Pod Celebration Outing to PARADICE

 Every year we enter the HOWICK LOCAL BOARD MOTH POD COMPETITION. 

Every year we have huge school-wide interest in this event and tally up a massive number of these invasive weeds. 

This year was no different; with nearly 60 different students and teachers helping collect up and bring in pods and many students helping to count them at lunchtimes. 

We loved the addition of finding a GOLDEN pod this year!

All our hard work paid off - not only did we have a huge, positive impact on the environment removing these invasive weeds but we came SECOND school! 

To celebrate we had a fun outing to PARADICE MINI GOLF with our top 4 most active 'podders'. 

PARADICE supports our enviro initiatives at school by regularly donating vouchers for laser tag, mini golf and ice skating. 

We had lots of fun trying out all the unusual parts of the mini golf course. We also enjoyed some treats to keep us going while we played! 

Moth Plant Pod Celebrations!

At last the day had come; the day we find out where we had placed in the annual 

MOTH POD COMPETITION! 

For the last few months not only had our awesome team been out weekly collecting pods and roots but the whole school community. This year we had a record of 56 students and staff that brought pods and roots in for our school team! 

  

Moth pod is an invasive weed with a very long vine that wraps around trees and strangles them. The flower sap kills butterflies and bees before growing into a pod that contains hundreds more seeds. 

We were very keen to go and remove as many as we could find! 

Our goal: 10,000 pods and roots... Actual number: 15, 909 

nervously waiting to find out the result... 

The prize giving this year was at Bucklands Beach - a beautiful setting. 

We were very excited to finish SECOND school behind Howick College! 

We received some prize money and everyone in our team received an awesome pin badge. 

We also received certificates for being first at the halfway point and being the school team
that pulled out the most seedling plants. 

awesome pin badge

Moth Pod Season!

 Students have been asking me for weeks... 

'When is the moth pod competition starting?' 

And it's back! Our 6th year in a row entering it! 

We have already made a fantastic start collecting over 1000 pods so far with over 30 students helping by bringing pods in or being part of our fantastic 'podding team' that has been out removing pods after school and at weekends!  

These invasive weeds are a real PEST! 

Their vine wraps around trees strangling and smothering the tree so it dies!

 The sap is an irritant and stains clothes so we have to be careful when removing the pods; gloves, glasses and old clothes on! 

Before...

After! Now we can see the actual plant!

WOW trip to Motuihe Island

 On Sunday Aimee. Aurora and Miss Long visited Motuihe Island as part of a prize for collecting so many moth pods earlier in the year! 

We travelled there on a very old boat - Ethel - she was built it 1896! There were 4 other boats too. 

These are the other boats 

 

We sat out on the deck and enjoyed the ride! It took quite a while! On the way we saw some little blue penguins in the sea. 

Aurora helped put up the sail

To get ashore we had to go on a little boat called SEALEGS - it grows 'legs' (wheels) when it reaches the beach!  

When we arrived we heard about the history of the island and how they have made it PREDATOR FREE and now lots of rare native birds live there - including KIWI! There's also Tuatara living there - we saw a tail of one as it disappeared down a hole! 

Sadly Miss Long spotted a few moth pod growing! Even here! So it really is getting EVERYWHERE! 

We need to keep up our work removing this pest weed. 

We went on a big walk exploring some of the island

We saw big tree weta in here

This seagull had made a nest here and had 2 eggs

Huge thank you to... 

PEST FREE HOWICK WARD 

CLASSIC YACHT CHARITABLE TRUST 

MOTUIHE TRUST 

for making this awesome experience possible! 

Thank You Paradice!

 In the school holidays we got together to celebrate our success with the moth pod competition by going to play mini golf! 

Our top 4 'podders' of the season came along to the morning of mini golf. 

Paradice have supported our school by giving us FREE VOUCHERS for a number of years now so it was great to go together and use some of these; and buy ourselves some yummy treats while we were there! 

Moth Pod Prize Giving: 2nd School

 This week we attended the enviro schools meeting where the moth pod results were finally announced! 

This competition is organised and supported every year by Howick Local Board. 

We are regular competitors; we have now entered the competition for 6 years running and continually placed in the top 5.  

We had a great team supporting us this year with 46 different families or community members collecting and bringing in pods for us.  

Aimee, Aurora, Emily, Charli, Charli's Mum and Mr Earl came along to this event. The girls have been our top collectors this year and been out on many after school and weekend missions collecting pods. 

We were excited when they started announcing the results and we found out we came...

 2nd SCHOOL! 

We received a certificate, some prize money and took our photos with the cute native soft toy creatures.

 

    

Moth Pod Mania!

To help rid the Howick area of pesky weeds we have, again, entered the 

HOWICK LOCAL BOARD MOTH POD COMPETITION. 

This is always a very popular event with our students who love to get behind this initiative; it's great to see the number we have collected going up and up! 

This year we have already collected over 10,000 pods and roots! 

This is a great environmental action that gets you outside and exercising as well as helping the environment! 

More than 1 in 10 of all our students have brought in moth pods.  Many, many more of the older students have been actively involved in searching for them at lunchtime, counting them and clearing them away after. 

before...

after!!