It has been a cracker week to end Term 3 2019 with a visit to Forest Water Farm in Haruru for all three of our #DreamPartner primary schools. We were able to arrange three consecutive day trips through the amazing generosity of farm owners, Betsy and Ray Duncan and I Have a Dream Gold Supporter Kay Howe who kindly paid for the buses. These incredible people enabled over 90 students from Totara Grove, Tikipunga and Te Kura o Otangarei primary schools to experience real farm life for a day – many of which, had never stepped foot on a farm before.
On each day, there was great excitement as the very big buses drove up, the students got on and their adventure began. Upon arrival at the farm, our hosts provided a sumptuous morning tea in their huge barn. Then it was straight into learning about all the wonderful animals and insects that inhabited the farm. First up, Kay Howe taught the students all about honey bees, including reciting a great poem about this most important insect. The students were even able to have a close inspection of some honeycomb straight out of the hives. Next, it was out to feed the cows some hay and check on how many eggs the chickens had laid that day. A real highlight for many of the kids were riding on quad bikes for a tour of the farm. Then it was into the shearing sheds to watch some sheep being shorn. The students were invited to get stuck in and sort the wool, making sure the clean wool was put into the right bag. Betsy kindly let us take home a bunch of wool so that we can make our very own ‘sheep’ back in school. The farm dogs were beautifully natured and got into the spirit of things by fetching balls from the pond. However, old mother swan wasn’t too impressed to see dogs in there with her babies, so she fluffed by all her feathers making herself look huge and attacked the dogs. Needless to say, on that occasion, the dogs weren’t too keen to go back into the pond. After all these activities, we were then treated to lovely lunch spread, again supplied by our incredible hosts.
Each day really was an amazing and unique adventure for our tamariki. There were so many positive remarks from the kids but the greatest comment from one Dreamer was “This is the best day of my life!”.
An enormous thank you to Besty, Ray and Kay who created a truly awesome end to what has been a pretty incredible Term 3. Kia mihi!
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