Waipu Primary School pupils learnt a lot about planting and caring for coastal sand dunes last week when they planted the newly formed sand dune.
The event was a community effort that included getting a resource consent to stabilise the dune in front of the Surf Club, supplying and shaping sand
into a dune, planting it and then munching sausages supplied by the Waipu Lions Club.
"We have to plant all these plants before they'll give us a sausage," one child was heard to say as instructions were given out by Rick Stolwerk and Andre Labonte.
About 200 children sat in a large group and listened to instructions about planting the 2000 plants donated by Whangarei District Council. They learned that the lovely orange seagrass called pingao should be planted nearest the sea because it likes the occasional salt water wash and its roots help trap sand if some gets washed away.
Instructions were given never to walk down the dune and to treat their plants like precious puppies when removing them from their pots and plant them as if wrapping them in a blanket. They were given fertiliser pellets to place under each plant to nourish it, like a hungry baby and then the organised chaos began.
After the planting the dune looked tidy, the beach had been cleaned up - part of the group had collected rubbish at Langs Beach earlier - and the well-earned sausages were happily consumed.
The board and members of Waipu Cove Surf Lifesaving Club want to thank community members and businesses which helped to make the dune restoration project a success.
