School ends year in all sorts of riff-raft

Volunteers from Kerikeri Fire Brigade made sure no one got to the finish line entirely dry. Photo / Peter de Graaf

For the 42nd year in a row, students of Kerikeri High School have celebrated the last full week of the school year by racing around the Kerikeri Basin in a fleet of home-made rafts.

Check out the photo gallery here:

Image 1 of 19:

More than two dozen Year 7 and 8 teams, along with two staff rafts, took up the challenge, with volunteers from the Kerikeri Fire Brigade making sure no one got to the finish line entirely dry.

This year's entries were cobbled together with everything from bamboo and paint buckets to old baths welded together, with the race won convincingly by a Christmas-themed entry called Turbo made from wood and halved plastic drums.

A few craft barely made it past the start line before disintegrating.

The Advocate is sceptical of teachers' claims that their vessel's modular design, made with duct tape and inner tubes, was meant to come apart in the water.

The honour of starting this year's race went to former deputy principal Neil Sorensen, who has been to every raft race since 1980.

The organisers, a team of Year 10 students, will present the prizes at Thursday's end-of-year school assembly.