Monday

If this week is anything to go by then I’ve got a very busy 10 weeks ahead of me. Beginning with the first of my trips to Dunedin, the inspiration was there from the off. A glorious sunrise over Central made for one of those really enjoyable journeys passing through Otago in full autumn colours.

Now that I’ve got mobile intertrons, I was looking forward to a day in the city to see how easy it is to stay in touch with the rest of the world, as well as explore the fangle dangled photo opportunities that can be had with a camera phone. How apt it was to find an exhibition in Dunedin City Art Gallery about camera phone art, definitely worth a visit if you’re in Dunedin, in fact this is the one place I visit without fail every time I’m in Dunedin, it’s always EPIC.

I popped my head into Splash Room / Inspiring Stories HQ and caught up with Iain and Laura. The second part of  the Regeneration roadie has now begun, and it was awesome to see and hear about how they have been reflecting upon the the South Island leg and how this means that they are able to plan more effectively for the next leg. It sounds like the North Island is going to go off!

The purpose of my trip was to meet with  the other Enviroschools facilitators and regional coordinators. We have our Coastal Student / Teacher Hui on Friday, three Dunedin schools to visit. We also have a new member to the team, Amber, it’s so good to see the team growing again and, we’re getting tshirts! Apparently shocking pink isn’t the colour I should have….oh well. Having the opportunity to meet with everyone else on the Otago Team is invaluable to me and my work, it gets fairly isolated facilitating in rural areas. It helps me keep connected to the rest of the country.

As this meeting drew to a close I heard from Billy….time to go and meet with him and Lani. They are running  the Regeneration project and about to head off on the second leg of the tour too. We had some amazing conversation about how I, with their help and guidance, can further support the young people of our district. It feels like it’s time we had a winter weekend event, I wonder if we can make that happen? Deep South was so inspiring last year, maybe this year is time for Deep Snow, whaddaya reckon? It seems to have a rad ring to it.

Tuesday

Tuesday was all about young people, Kahu Trust meeting in the morning followed by an epic WYCM session (blogged about here).

Wednesday

I met with Tim Ryan from the Wanaka Farmers Market to talk about the soup kitchen idea. He’s into it, it seems like all we have to do now is do it. He’s also lent me a talking stick. It should add an interesting element to the WYCM meetings. I’m not 100% sure how to use it, but I think that is part of the fun.

With the return of the inversion I was rather happy to be headed over the range to Queenstown for the afternoon. I’ve been getting to know the amazing youth workers in Queenstown a little better over the past few months and it was now time to give them a good look through the Enviroschools kit and talk about how I’ve been working with Kahu Youth. They are so into it, it will be amazing to work with some of the Queenstown crew, they made amazing contributions to Regeneration Wanaka.

The packaging free lunch revolution is spreading through Queenstown Primary so I visited four junior classes to talk to them about what’s in our lunch boxes. A simple topic that generates so much varied conversation, so many of the students already had amazing lunch boxes and wrappers. One of the things I noticed was that reusable lunch containers look so much cooler than cling film and chip packets…..

Miss Reed and her class are inquiring into why plastic is so fantastic and Mrs. Gray has a new classroom, they were the two facts I discovered as I explored QPS looking for my after school meeting with Mrs. Gray and Mrs. Walker to discus the process of reflection that we are going to go through with Queenstown Primary in the coming months. It’s so exciting to formally reflect upon all the amazing work that they have done over the last 2 – 3 years.

Thursday

The Unpackit votes are in, they have been counted, so we need photos of Angus and Sophie with sunsweet Prunes and Potatopak. I love shooting into the sun, it’s so much fun, especially when it’s to showcase a project that is playing such a large part in changing our behaviour around excess packaging.

It’s been ages since I’ve visited Hawea Flat and it was so good to get back there. Hawea Flat are a shining example of an Enviroschool, they started their journey along the Enviroschools programme many years ago, the school has embraced their action projects. They have their recycling system embedded into their practices, the vege gardens and poly tunnel flourish, their food waste is taken care of….In short I haven’t really been needed there for a while, but now it’s time to pay a little more attention to the bike track again and do some lunch waste education again for the newer students. Even with great practices in place you still need to continue the education, year in year out.

Now it’s time to head to Dunedin to be ready and awake for the Coastal Hui.

Friday

What happens when you put three schools )Caversham, Macandrew Bay and North East Valley), heaps of epic change makers, gorgeous food and a bus together? You get an Envisochools tour of EPIC proportions. There is no point going on about it here, there is a much more in depth post coming soon. Well done everyone involved, so inspiring to be shown all the wonderful work being done in these schools by the change makers that carried the action out.