Day #4: Swimming with the Sharks
By the end of Day #3, you have seen a lot of the north island of New Zealand. Hopefully, you have enjoyed it and you’re excited for the next phase of your journey – the ferry trip across the Cook Strait from the bottom of the North Island to the top of the South Island. You will spend the next two days exploring the South Island before you head back up to Auckland, via Wellington (the capital city of New Zealand).
Activity 1:
When you arrive in the South Island, Curious Kiwi rents a shuttle van and drives your group from Picton (the town where the ferry dropped you off) to a beautiful beach on the opposite side of the island. The beach area is called Golden Bay and, at one end of the Bay, is a stunning area called Farewell Spit.
Farewell Spit has been in the news recently as a number of whales accidentally swam into the spit and became stuck on the beach. They were unable to swim back to the ocean because the water was too shallow. Many local people tried to save the ‘beached’ whales. Please follow this Farewell Spit link to learn more about what happened. On your blog, describe what the local people did to try and save the beached whales.
My Description:
At Farewell Spit there were so many whales stranded on the beach. So people who were locally around volunteered to help keep them alive and living. But all they could do was to use everything they had to pour buckets or bins of fresh seawater onto each whale. As they helped along they also had to make sure that every single whale was getting an equal share of help.
At the end of this amazing helpful deed from locals, I think they all were proud of what they did and happy that all the whales could successfully live in the ocean again.
Activity 2:
After a morning of learning about beached whales in Golden Bay, you and your group are driven to a nearby town, Nelson, to watch a special movie called ‘Whale Rider.’ It is a famous movie about a young girl who was born and raised in New Zealand. Watch the following movie trailers for Whale Rider: Whale Rider trailer #1 and Whale Rider Trailer #2 and then write a summary of the movie on your blog. What is it about? Be sure to also give the movie a rating out of 5 based on the trailer [1 = bad movie, 2 = okay movie, 3 = pretty good, 4 = good movie, 5 = excellent movie].
When ‘Whale Rider’ finishes, you and your tour group enjoy a delicious meal in downtown Nelson before heading back to your hotel. You need to go to bed early because you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to travel back to Farewell Spit to see a group (pod) of Hector’s Dolphins. It is going to be an early morning!
My Completed Work Below:
Bonus Activity:
Hector’s dolphins are a very special native animal found only in New Zealand. They are the smallest dolphin in the world measuring 1.5 meters long and they are quite rare. Sadly, many Hector’s dolphins are killed every year when they get caught in large fishing nets and can’t escape. Some people have argued that fishermen shouldn’t be allowed to fish in Farewell Spit in order to protect the dolphins living there. What do you think? On your blog, tell us whether you think that fishing in Farewell Spit should be banned (stopped).
My Work Below
Kia ora Mikaela,
ReplyDeleteThank you for creating three such interesting, informative and engaging DLOs for Day #4. It is the hardest day on the journey because it requires us to think very carefully and critically about some complex issues. Like you, I believe that we should do something about the fishing in Farewell Spit. The number of dolphins is declining rapidly and, without an intervention, they will continue to decrease until they become extinct one day. That would be awful, wouldn't it?
Thanks for giving us all something to think about, Mikaela, with this post.
Keep up the great work!
~Rachel