Beach Education

     Paekakariki Beach Education  

                                                    ( SO MUCH FUN!! )

Thursday 21st November 2013    

On Wednesday the 20th of November my class (room 6 )  and room 19 went to Paekakariki beach for beach education. We left at 9am sharp and got on the bus. The bus ride was exciting and full of questions like “ Will the waves be big or will there be no waves at all?” “What are we going to do when we get there?” “ Are we going to have fun and are we going for a swim?” Lots of questions were asked and lots of them answered when we got out of the bus door.

When we stepped out of the bus we were greeted by a nice calm ocean, really friendly lifeguards and a great day ahead of us. The lifeguards took us up to the clubhouse and talked to us about the rules that we had to follow. After we had been told the rules we were split into two groups, one group stayed in the clubhouse and were shown what sort of stuff they use in a rescue or a medical situation. The other group went with Taylor, one of the surf life savers, she showed us round the club and showed us all the boats and canoes that they use. My group went with Taylor first, she taught us lots about what they use and how they use it. She answered any questions that we asked, even if some people asked about sharks and only about sharks. After we had all our questions ask we swapped over. We learnt what a lot of the equipment was used for. It was really interesting knowing what it was used for!! We finished up and had some morning tea.

After the morning tea break we went outside and played some games.The first game we played was seaweed, we played about four rounds of seaweed that we could have played all day. After that we did some rather weird relays. The first relay we did was a normal one but the second one was unusual. We had to wear a rescue tube around us and run up the beach to the other side and give it to the other member of your team. The second relay we had to get a partner and pretend to be saving them while running to the other side. The last relay was the funnest one. We had to wear flippers and a rescue tube. It was really fun but it took forever to finish the relays. After that we came back inside and watched a DVD about how to stay safe in the water. It gave lots of useful information like what you need when you go to the beach and lots of things like that. After we watched  the DVD we stopped for lunch.

After the lunch break we were told that we are going to go swimming but we had to do a few things before we went swimming. They told us how to stay sun safe and how to spot a rip. After we finished  it was time for a swim. We got changed and got swimming. When we first got in it was really cold but after a while it was nice. We were set some challenges that we had to complete. It was a really nice swim. We went swimming for about 45 minutes and in that 45 minutes we had a blast, with the waves coming in ( some of them were really big so we could jump high) that we could ride back to shaw.We all had heaps of fun!! The lifeguards made the circle smaller and eventually there was no circle to swim in. We had to get changed and then said goodbye and thank you to them. The bus came and picked us up to go back to school.

On the ride back we were all thinking how much fun we had all had and whether we are going back some time soon. Some people loved it so much that they thought we should sneak in with another class and go back tomorrow. We learnt a lot from the trip, like how to stay sun smart and look for the right sunscreen, we learnt how to look for a rip and if we do get caught in a rip how to get out of it. That is only a fraction of what we learnt, there is heaps more that they taught us. Lots of kids think that every class in New Zealand should go to beach ed because it will save a lot of lives each year and it is super fun!!

I hope we get to go again next year because you learn so much from it and it is so much fun for the , ummm, 50th time I think but it is truly fun!!

By Hannah