On Friday the 28th of February Jessica Love, Mackai Ross, Layne Talbot, George McFadzien, Max Richardson, Ella Latty, Grace Thompson, Murphy McKee and I set out from the Lake Te Anau Control Gates to complete either our Duke of Edinburgh Bronze practice journey or final journey. We were accompanied by Mr Ryan. Our goal was to recognise the native birds in the bush around us and learn more about their predators. Every so often we would stop and listen for these animals, listening to their songs and figuring out what they were. Mr Ryan talked to us about when the early introduced pests came in and how they affected these native New Zealand birds. I can confidently say we all learnt a lot. We finally made it to the Shallow Bay hut after almost 16km of walking. There we met Mrs Thompson. We set up tents together and then separated into two groups and cooked dinner together. Everyone was really tired so after some not-so-successful dinner and dessert making we went to bed. Then next day we woke up bright and early. We had a group talk and set out for our next adventure back. We took a detour to explore the Moturau Hut, the first hut on the Kepler Track. We ended our journey at Rainbow reach bridge after 10km of walking and sat down for lunch. We all talked about one thing we learned and one thing we enjoyed. I learnt that the native birds used to live in the holes in the trees but when the pests came it was easy access for the predators to get them with no escape and then the number of native birds rapidly decreased. One thing I enjoyed was washing the dishes with my friends at Shallow Bay, normally washing dishes is not a fun thing to do but we had so many laughs working together and it was cool to see the boys making a fire on the shore at the same time. I thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and it would not have been possible without Mr Ryan and Mrs Thompson We all are grateful for the opportunity that they have given to us to do Duke of Edinburgh. I would highly recommend Duke of Edinburgh to everyone, and I am very excited to be starting the silver level and do these tramps again.
Matilda Gemmill