Like humans need encouragement and care, the earth needs trees. By planting a tree, we hope to encourage you to care for the earth.

An eager group of students from Westlake Kaitiaki and Rotary travelled to Smith’s Bush on Monday, 12 June to take part in a tree planting initiative organised by the former. Despite the threatening grey skies, the team, joined by former student Enviro Prefect Anja, kept in sunny spirits, and the sound of enthusiastic rapport quickly filled the air as we made our way to the plating site. Unfortunately, as the bush is undergoing repairs for the damage it has sustained as a result of recent weather events, we were unable to walk through it. Therefore, we met a local park ranger, Anna, who briefed us on how to properly plant a tree and a little more about the bush’s biodiversity as well as the significance of native plants near the planting site.

It was all go as we started to plant native trees such as manuka and cabbage trees. We dug, learned, and laughed while planting in our groups, and in no time at all, we had managed to plant 60 native trees and remove multiple harmful weeds under the watchful eye of a curious piwakawaka (fantail). Muddy but satisfied with the work we had done, the sound of spades clinking came to a stop, and we finished for the day with smiles on our tired faces.

Of course, this trip would not have been possible without Ms. See, Mrs. Bhavsar, and Ms. Wilson, who generously gave up their valuable time to supervise. We would also like to extend our thanks to the Rotary Leaders for helping us encourage more students to take part in this initiative and to Kaitiaki Leaders Kenzie, Abi, and Elsa for organising the event.

By Diya Kansara