You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Ambassador Cookie
Tēnā koutou,
My name is Cookie and I represent Team 4 from Paraparaumu Beach School in Wellington. I am a very small dog, but I can achieve great things! I am looking forward to heading to sunny Nelson during SeaWeek to learn more about our wonderful marine environment.
See you soon,
Cookie.
Monday 5 March
Kia ora,
It has been great fun meeting the other ambassadors today and flying to Nelson. I had plenty of room on the plane, being such a small dog. We didn’t see much on the flight until we got close to Nelson and the cloud parted. Then we could appreciate just how much ocean we have; all we could see was sea for miles.
We explored the waterfront and town centre and made a plan for the rest of Seaweek. Tomorrow we will head out on a boat to Delaware Bay.
See you at sea,
Cookie.
Tuesday 6 March
Kia ora,
It was a great day to head out on the water and try our hand at fishing. I have never tried to catch fish before and it takes a lot of patience. Eventually we managed to catch some blue cod to help with Stina’s research.
We discovered that you can look at the ear bone of a blue cod and count the rings on it to find out how old it is.
Tomorrow we will have to be up bright and early to make it to the estuary at low tide.
See you then,
Cookie.
Wednesday 7 March
Kia ora,
I hate getting up early, so I was a bit grumpy this morning when we had to meet the scientists down at the estuary at 7.30am. My mood quickly improved though because we got to play in the mud. We spent the morning digging holes and collecting cockles. I love to dig holes and run on the beach so it was a perfect morning. I even learned a lot about why estuaries are so important.
I didn’t realise that so many different animals live in estuaries and that estuaries help filter water and reduce flooding.
I’m exhausted after an active day, so I’ll say good-bye and catch up with you tomorrow.
Cookie.
Thursday 8 March
Kia ora,
It was so good to talk to you all today during the web conference. I was really proud of all your thoughtful questions. After the conference we headed back out into Tasman Bay to help scientists with their measurements of sea water. I never realised that sea water varies so much. We measured salinity, temperature and depth of the water and the measurements were different in different areas. We also tracked ocean currents and it was cool to see how far the drifters moved on the current.
It has been such a cool field trip and I hope I can go on another one soon.
See you all back at school.
Cookie.
Cookie is looking forward to the Sustainable Seas field trip to Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Cookie explores the waterfront in Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Cookie goes fishing near Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Cookie takes a closer look at what lives within an estuary in Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Cookie finds a model of an ocean glider which can automatically measure salinity, temperature and depth of seawater. Image: LEARNZ.