WLJ- Day 4: Swimming with the sharks.

Day #4: Swimming with the Sharks

By the end of Day #3, you have seen a lot of the north island of New Zealand.  Hopefully you have enjoyed it and you’re excited for the next phase of your journey – the ferry trip across the Cook Strait from the bottom of the north island to the top of the south island. You will spend the next two days exploring the south island before you head back up to Auckland, via Wellington (the capital city of New Zealand).

http://www.fourcorners.co.nz/new-zealand/interisland-ferry/

Activity 1: When you arrive in the south island, Curious Kiwi rents a shuttle van and drives your group from Picton (the town where the ferry dropped you off) to a beautiful beach on the opposite side of the island. The beach area is called Golden Bay and, at one end of the bay, is a stunning area called Farewell Spit.

http://www.kiwidaydreaming.com/p/new-zealand-maps.html

Farewell Spit has been in the news recently as a number of whales accidentally swam into the spit and became stuck on the beach. They were unable to swim back to the ocean because the water was too shallow. Many local people tried to save the ‘beached’ whales. Please follow this Farewell Spit link to learn more about what happened. On your blog, describe what the local people did to try and save the beached whales.

Freedom Camper offer their towels, t-shirts and sarongs to drape on the whales. They all grabbed their chilly bins, water bottles, cook pots and bowl so they can fill it up with water and pour it on the whales so it can still be alive. The volunteers stayed to help until pitch black (Night) and hoping to leave the whales on shore so the high tie can come and wash them away, the coming morning the whales went back to the ocean and all the volunteer can see is sand. The whales was gone and the volunteer  thanked the people that help to keep the whales alive and safe during the night.

Activity 2: After a morning of learning about beached whales in Golden Bay, you and your group are driven to a nearby town, Nelson, to watch a special movie called ‘Whale rider.’ It is a famous movie about a young girl who was born and raised in New Zealand. Watch the following movie trailers for Whale Rider: Whale Rider trailer #1 and Whale Rider Trailer #2 and then write a summary of the movie on your blog. What is it about? Be sure to also give the movie a rating out of 5 based on the trailer [1 = bad movie, 2 = okay movie, 3 = pretty good, 4 = good movie, 5 = excellent movie].

This short video I’ve watched is about a little girl challenging herself so she can become a Whale Rider. She wanted to be like the other chief back in the days, she wanted to become like the boys because she knows that the boy’s Maori tradition things is a bit harder than the Girls powhiri and such more. So she putted herself a little challenge, she asked the dad “Can you teach me”, and the dad said “Yes”.

When the days went past she was starting to be able to have the strength and ability. One day she went to the beach and she found a whale stranded upon the shore just laying there, her and the family was so worried about the whale just lying there on the shore. She started to pray and sang, she was praying for the whale to be still alive. She ended up climbing on top of the whale and started to rub the whale, she waited and hoping the whale is still ok, after 12 seconds the whale was moving. It took her along the ocean and under the water.

To be continued……..

This movie is so awesome I will rated out (5) [Excellent movie]

Link to the whale and the little girl (Video)

http://www.incrementa.ca/leadership-succession-whale-rider/

When ‘Whale Rider’ finishes, you and your tour group enjoy a delicious meal in downtown Nelson before heading back to your hotel. You need to go to bed early because you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. the next morning to travel back to Farewell Spit to see a group (pod) of Hector’s Dolphins. It is going to be an early morning!

Bonus Activity: Hector’s dolphins are a very special native animal found only in New Zealand. They are the smallest dolphin in the world measuring 1.5 metres long and they are quite rare. Sadly, many Hector’s dolphins are killed every year when they get caught in large fishing nets and can’t escape. Some people have argued that fishermen shouldn’t be allowed to fish in Farewell Spit in order to protect the dolphins living there. What do you think? On your blog, tell us whether you think that fishing in Farewell Spit should be banned (stopped).

Yes fishing should be banned in Farewell Spit because it’s just too much stress for other public members, to prevent this from not happening is to try and put up signs around Farewell Spit to warn fishermen to not fish near Farewell Spit, several deaths to the dolphin from fishermen should be fine.

If they just killed it and leave it dead in the water may cause the water to not be safe for other swimmers because the blood from the Hector Dolphins may be very poisonous. So leave the Hector Dolphins alone because it’s just like human beans but they are living in the water.

https://www.worldwildlife.org/species/hector-s-dolphin

Bonus Activity: 10 points