December 02, 2013
Waitangi trip of lifetime for schoolkids
The Waitangi National Trust wants to make it easier for schoolchildren to come to the place where New Zealand’s founding document was signed.
The trust has teamed up with Westpac to create not only a competition for schools to get a funded trip to the Bay of Islands, but also a ways for bank branches to work with their local schools to get sponsorship to come north.
Chief executive Greg McManus says once they are in Taitokerau there is a lot to do once they have seen the treaty grounds, as the year 7 and 8 pupils of Auckland’s Point England School recently discovered.
"They went on the Hole in the Rock cruise with Fullers. They sailed the R Tucker Thompson sailing ship and did a lot of other things as well. Waitangi would obviously be the centre of their visit and the main reason for coming but then we expand it out to the wider Bay of Islands. The feedback from that trip was absolutely fantastic. They said it was the best thing they had ever done," he says.
Mr McManus says the trust's goal is for every child to come to Waitangi at some time in their school life.
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