Top 3 fun facts about New Zealand.

The West coast is sometimes called Te Tai Poutini. This is because in Maori legend a taniwha called poutini resided there.

Pounamu (Greenstone) was apparently made by the taniwha Poutini. He stole a lady called Waitaiki and turned her to greenstone. This happened up the Arahura river. Waitaiki's husband chased Poutini down.

Stewart island is considered the anchor of te waka o maui, the south island. It is called Te Punga o Te Waka a Maui, as in the anchor of the waka.

Informational text breakdown.

Exotic Paradise Response.

Purpose for reading: we are learning to identify the features of an
informational text.

Text: Exotic Paradise

Put n, v or adj next to these words to show which are nouns, verbs, or adjectives. Then choose five of these words and explain their meaning in your own words.		Answer the questions below and record your answers for posting on your blog. Write in complete sentences. Try to use some of the rich vocabulary from the list.
N Continents ADJ Predatory N Mammals N Prehistory N Fossil V Pattered N Molar N Catalogue N Palaeontologist N Sediment N Palaeolake N Notion ADJ Archetypal V Evolved ADJ Complex ADJ Prolific Globally Predatory Bottleneck Complex Genus	ADJ Terrestrial N Vertebrates N Fragments ADJAncestral V Dwarfed V Unearthed ADJ Undisputed N Genus V Burrowing N Exodus V Recolonising ADJ Evolutionary ADJ Bottleneck N Hubs ADJ Globally	How long ago was the Mesozoic era? The Mesozoic era was 65 million years ago. Name three animals that lived in that time and three that did not. They were flamingos, penguins and asbills. Humans, chickens and dogs were not alive then. According to the article what happened to tropical plant species during the Pleistocene era? during the Pleistocene era all the tropical plants froze during this time. What new species arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand at the time of the Pleistocene ice ages? The ancestors of the Haast eagle, Takahe and the large laughing owl.	Explain, in your words, the theory behind the Gondwana supercontinent. You may need to research first. There used to be one supercontinent called Gondwana but shifting plates and erosion split it up and after a couple of million years the continents split further apart. Name three animals that have been discovered at Lake Manuherikia that we definitely do not have in Aotearoa/ New Zealand today. Giant bats, Moa and Tiny Kiwi. If Lake Taupo has an area of 616km², how big is Lake Manuherikia? Lake Manuherikia is 5544 km squared. Why are there so many gaps in our terrestrial fossil records? Complete the response to Informational Text as found in your literacy folder.
Create a quiz about the article “Exotic Paradise” using google forms. How to make a quiz.

Globally means world wide or all around the world.

Predatory means acts like a predator. If something is predatory
it acts like a predator and is mostly a predator.

A bottleneck is a place where two walls come close together forcing
animals together and sometimes smothering them.

Very complicating.

Genus is a type of genre of species.

NZ bush speech by Arly.

Kia Ora ladies and gentlemen.  Swinging bridges, towering mountains and
not a speck of litter to ruin it. This is one of the positives of inaccessibility to
the NZ bush. Most people consider the New Zealand bush to be untouched
and full of hidden gems. This is because it is untouched by litter.

Recently I went tramping with a family from Dubai and they commented on
how unpolluted our bush is.  So naturally I started thinking about why that is
and my first thought is what I am talking about today. Get ready for it…. It’s
because the New Zealand bush is largely inaccessible to most people.
 You may ask how people go tramping there if it’s inaccessible to most people
and that's a fair question. I’m here to inform you why the NZ bush is
inaccessible to most people and the positives of the bush being inaccessible.

The New Zealand bush is inaccessible to some people because they are
obese. If you are obese then you probably can’t go tramping into the bush.
Studies show a shocking 32% of adults over the age of 15 are obese.
That's ⅓ of the population. If you picked three random people off the street
chances are that one of them are obese. That's pretty bad. So that makes ⅓
of people in New Zealand inaccessible to the bush because they are obese.

Now I know that there is probably someone in the audience who is going to
say, “Well I know someone who is obese and goes tramping.” and to that I
say, Great! That’s awesome for you. Anyway if ⅓ of people can’t go tramping
because of obesity, how many people just can’t tramp for some unknown
reason. Well originally I was thinking ⅙  of people in nz go tramping but I was
way off, I looked through websites and did the math and figured out that only
9% of New Zealanders go tramping in national parks.

Now we know how many people go tramping.  What are the other reasons
the bush is inaccessible to people? Sometimes it’s too dangerous to go
tramping. Many parts of the NZ bush are inaccessible because of rainfall or
just plain danger. Rivers can get in your way and so can mountains. Also the
weather can change instantly. I was tramping once and It was so hot we were
in singlets. We walked for ten more minutes and were hit by cold temperature
and winds. Most people look at the weather and only pack for that. You should
pack for all weather whether it is hot or cold.  Sometimes inaccessibility is a
good thing though.

There are many positives to inaccessibility. For example less litter and less
plastic appear in the bush. This is because if a person is too lazy to put their
rubbish in a bin then they are probably too lazy to go tramping. If the bush is
inaccessible, some endangered species in the wild can live without being
disturbed by humans. Humans kill the most animals by polluting their habitats
and disrupting them. Animals also eat human food and get majorly sick from it.
If you drive through Arthurs Pass you’ll see signs saying DO NOT FEED THE
KEA! This is because the kea become beggar's and don’t hunt for food. This
sets the whole food chain wrong and as we know this has disastrous
consequences. If humans can’t get to the kea in the first place this means
that the kea can’t be disrupted. Those are all the reasons that inaccessibility
is good. Though, some people think that national parks should have a road
going through them.

Case in point is the Haast to Hollyford road. To go from Haast to Hollyford
track it takes 7 hours! People who want to cut that time say that we should
have a road straight through Mount Aspiring national park. That would cut off
more than half of the trip. I understand why people want to cut a road right
through a national park but 45 different native species of birds live there alone.
If you let cars drive straight through the park then people are going to throw
their rubbish and plastic out of the window and pollute the national park. And
here I am thinking that the whole point of national parks is to keep them safe.

In conclusion I believe that inaccessibility is big in New Zealand bush and
that inaccessibility is an amazing form of conservation.

Bibliography.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/99088942/tourists-outnumber-new-
zealanders-on-the-great-walks--and-the-gaps-growing

https://www.health.govt.nz/nz-health-statistics/health-statistics-and-data-sets/obesity-statistics

                           

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10115763/Hunting-doubles-gun-number

https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/math/fraction-to-percent-calculator.php

https://www.doc.govt.nz/about-us/our-role/managing-conservation/recreation-management/visitor-
statistics-and-research/national-parks-visitor-statistics/

Sea week poem/artwork.

For sea week my class had to create a poem and a picture for a line of a poem called sea fever by John Masefield. The line I chose was "To the call of the running tide" And so I drew this.

My poem went like this.

Flying fish leaping high over waves

“I can’t catch this.” fisherman John raves.

A big giant oarfish writhes around.

Fisherman Johns small boat runs aground.

Salmon flopping up a swift stream

Majestic Dolphins swim, hunt and dream

Beautiful ocean, vast and deep

lots of curious people want a peek

Hermit crab poem/artwork

Our class was researching hermits and hermit crabs. We had to create a poem and a picture of a hermit crab.

Hermit crabs live. small and smart

In the ocean in the dark

Rivers too, long and winding

Pollution means it's dying

Humans helping, cleaning out

Beautiful again for trout

Water Safety Accidental Immersions.