Mac Bay School trip to see the penguins

On 20 August, field and nursery staff took pupils from year 6 Macandrew Bay School to Otapahi to view penguins. This was organised as a thank you to the class for their hard work painting our nursery buildings (this event was previously featured on this site). After a week of extremely bad weather, Friday afternoon turned out warm and sunny – we couldn’t have planned it better.

The students came all prepared and very excited; we were on an expedition! After a steep climb up the hill that was no problem for energetic little legs we were rewarded with views of penguins coming in after a full day’s fishing. One student counted around 28 birds during our time there. The pupils told us they felt very special to have had the opportunity to see the birds at such a unique site. The smiles on their faces indicated a good time was had by all, especially the YEPT staff. Thank you to volunteer Paula West and teachers of Macandrew Bay School for helping us make this happen.