By Ohea Huni
The day had come. The bell had just rang for Holy Cross’ awesome day to start and we the Manaakitanga syndicate were all pumped with excitement. We were going on a trip to visit two Estuaries. The first Estuary we were visiting was Seaside in Otahuhu, and the second one was in Glendowie. We were going there to observe the different organisms that live in an estuary, and to see what us humans are doing to estuaries, when we throw waste and rubbish into the estuary.
We were all split into groups with parent helpers and teachers. I was in my mums group, with Julia, Sheldon, Sapphire, George, Laila, Benjamin and me. When we arrived my mum told us some rules that we all had to follow for the whole trip. We then all decided to come up with a group name, so we had a vote, and the name with the most votes was ‘Scientists’. We explored the deep and muddy surface to find different types of organisms that live under and on top of it. We found many organisms, however the organisms that we mostly found was a lot of plants, shells and baby mangroves. We also found a lot of moss stuck in between cracks in the shoreline barrier. There also a lot of human impact that we found. We discovered man made pipes sticking out of the shoreline barrier that were leaking out greasy, shiny oil. I saw a large building and suspected that it might be coming from there. We also realized that the further you went from the shore the mud would be more smooth and easy for you to get stuck.
We had just arrived at the second estuary. We split up into two groups, room 18 and 17 went one way and room 19 went another. We first sat down on a large patch of grass, and then we made a move. When we were walking the scientists my group noticed that while we were walking the grass was wet and kept getting soft, so that our feet would just slightly sink. This estuary was definitely larger than the first. We walked all around it. My group also noticed that this estuary was rocky and the last one was muddy. We continued to carry on our journey. Curiously we all looked around to see what types of things we could find in the estuary. We saw little barriers that the rocks, sand and water had formed and we predicted that the the barrier acted like a wall to guide the sea water to the creek which we saw behind us in the distance. We carried on searching. We found dark and smelly mud in the deep part of the estuary, and also found grey clay deep down under the surface. Laila found a ?crab,We found bristle worms, and around it were different trails that looked like spirals, we scientist decided that the bristle worms were making these trails, however when we carried on, we observed that it was actually welks making the trails. Baby fishes and a type of seaweed that changes colour when its the Sun and when it in the shade. There wasn’t that much human impact at this estuary. We saw birds on one side of the estuary but none on the other side, my group curiously wondered why. We also saw dead mangroves that had half opened oyster shells on it.
I think that learning and going to these estuaries made me curious to find out how different organisms adapt to the changing environment. I was also sad to see at both estuaries the negative effects that us humans are doing to these organisms home. I also learnt that we have local estuaries near us, that I did not know of. I am able to share my knowledge with different people about an estuary and to make them aware of the human impact, so they won’t do it.
