Year 5 on Kaumau Taurua

Last week on Thursday the Year 5 children headed out to the wharf at Portobello. We were excited to climb aboard the Albatross Express. Many children looked like they had packed for a month long camping trip! They struggled aboard with their huge bags!

With the wind in our hair and excitement levels high we headed over the narrow strait to Quarantine Island - Kaumau Taurua.

We hiked up the hill on arrival and hauled all of our gear and food up. We settled into our bunkrooms and headed out for an explore around the island. We were amazed at how beautiful and rugged the island is and how far away from it all we felt, even though Harriet's family could see us from their house!

We walked around the island with Mr D and John, the Island caretaker. We learnt about the history of the Island.

The island served as the Quarantine station for Otago from 1863 until 1924. It was one of four in New Zealand. When ships arrived in Otago harbour with infectious diseases, passengers were quarantined for that disease, usually one to two weeks, but sometimes longer. The few passengers that were actually sick were treated in the hospital on top of the island. In total 41 ships were quarantined at the island. Of about 9,000 people quarantined about 70 died. There is a small cemetery on the island where they and some of the keeper's family are buried.

We had yummy burgers and mac cheese for dinner with a side of coleslaw. Thanks Corey and Mrs W for staying back and firing up the slow ovens while we explored!

Walking outside and exploring on the Island was heaps of fun.

We ate and stuffed full of delicious baking and headed off to bed for a sleepless night! Mrs Ward set an alarm for 10:30pm to attend the girls midnight feast (by special invitation) only to find the girls sound asleep! The boys on the other hand...

A morning of packing and exploring the rocky shaw was next. We found so many marine animals including rockfish, sea stars, heaps of huge crabs! Back on the boat we waved goodbye to John and went to the Portobello Marine Science Centre to learn more about our harbour through a programme. called "Supper in the Sea". It was awesome to find out about predators, sea weeds, plankton etc in our neighbourhood.

All of that learning worked up a big appetite and it was off to the Portobello Pub for a fish and chip lunch. Sadly the rain put a damper on our Future Forest walk and we came back to school and had a movie and snack time in the classroom!

Year 5 Camp was fantastic! Thanks so much to Mr D for all of your hard work organising camp for us and Mrs Ward for inspecting our cabins so well (read terrifying!)

What an amazing time for us all! It was great to be together. Thanks so much to Lyndon, Corey, Sally and Miss Knight for coming along to help and to all of the parents who helped with transport too. We really are grateful for helping us to get out and about together in the beautiful place we live.

By Molly and Mrs Ward