MERC Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Recreation Centre

 

What is your favourite memory from the senior camp at MERC? See if you can post a comment...

Senior Tryathlon / Swimming Sports / Survival Skills

 

Yesterday was our senior school tryathlon / swimming sports / water survival day at the Morrinsville Recreation Grounds and Olympic Pool. The 10 year olds cycled 2 laps of the field, ran 2 laps and completed a 75 metre swim.

Below are some of our comments for the day...

Boat Building

 

Kaedyn, Drew and Kyte showed their boats, built at home as part of the PRIDE home learning challenge (creative section). They spoke to the class about the materials they used and how their boat was constructed. Then it was over to the pool to try them out. The weather was very calm. There was hardly a breeze. 

Drew had a large sail area which caught any small amount of wind and moved across the pool. Kyte had a smaller material sail which caught some wind. Kaedyn's boat used an inflated balloon to propel it forward. Unfortunately, the hot glue didn't hold the tube and the balloon took off on it's own without the hull of his boat. He is going to re-attach this and try again some other day.

We are looking forward to a regatta when swimming finishes in the pool (14th March).

Hopefully, there will be a whole lot more boats to watch!

Torty the Lucky Tortoise

  

On Friday the 10th of February Torty the Lucky Tortoise came to our school. It was really exciting because we didn't think an animal could live for nearly 200 years.

We felt so happy to see such a lucky, famous tortoise that was living at the time of World War 1. She reminds us of Stewart Little and all of the soldiers that lost their lives in the war.

While living in New Zealand Torty has had three lucky escapes. She hibernated in a pile of leaves that got set on fire. Luckily she woke up and came out just in time. 

She got lost on a sandbank for three days and nearly died because she didn't have any water. 

She was stolen and sold to a circus. Luckily a policeman spotted Torty because he noticed the dents and that she had two toes missing on one of her back legs. He took Torty back to live with Stewart.

When Torty was living in Salonika she was run over by a gun carriage. Her shell got two dents on it from the iron wheel. You need to look closely to see them. She is meant to have four toes but now on one of her back legs she only has two. 

We were really impressed that Torty made the trip all the way from Salonika to Dunedin, New Zealand hibernating in Stewart's army bag. 

We definitely think Torty is a Survivor!

News from Te Whare Kereru

Torty the Tortoise

 Today we had a special visit from Helen and Torty the Tortoise.

Torty is thought to be about 180 years old. She lays eggs every year and they don't hatch because they are unfertilised. You can still see the dents on her shell where she was run over by a French gun carriage in the year 1916, during World War 1. She also lost two toes from the gun carriage and they will never grow back. The gun carriage was an estimated 5 tons!!

She has been in New Zealand for about 106 years. Torty eats juicy vegetables given to her on the ground. The original owner of Torty was a man called Stuart Little who was a medic soldier in the war at Greece.

By Ruru space learners

The Senior Hub of Ruru and Kereru Classes

 

2023 in the Senior Hub

 

Te Whare Kereru looked forward to being a member of the Senior Hub Tatuanui School.

😃

The Start of a new year

 

We are so keen to begin this year.