Te Ranga School’s pest hunt is back

Te Ranga School students at work in the school's bush classroom.

A tradition going back to the late 1990s is about to be revived.

Te Ranga School’s pig and possum hunt was started in 1998, but has not been held since 2019.

That changes today when the hunt starts, and on Sunday with gala day at the school.

But things aren’t exactly as they were.

The event has a new focus, on conservation and kaitaikitanga (guardianship), and identity, being called the possum and pest hunt.

“It has always been grounded in conservation,” says Friends of Te Ranga School member Emma McGlashan. “When it started in 1998 it was all about protecting the land from possums, but we are just trying to refocus and focus on the messaging of why we are doing it.”

In the lead-up to the hunt, the pupils have been studying conservation as their inquiry topic.

They have had visits from ecologist Carmel Richardson from Kaharoa Kōkako Trust.

There has also been support from Kōkako Ecosystem Expansion Programme (KEEP), which is providing lessons in the school’s bush classroom.

On Sunday a range of conservation-related organisations will have displays at the school, including the Kiwi Hatchery from Rotorua, KEEP, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Predator Free BOP, Tapuika Iwi Authority and Kaharoa Kōkako Trust.

“There will also be all the fun games and races from years gone by that everybody expects as well as hot food,” McGlashan said.

Included in that will be the “killer hill” race in which children will run with range of weighted bags, representing the damage a possum can do through browsing in only one night.

The bush classroom will be “open” and there will be opportunities to play I-spy or decorate a rock.

The outdoor classroom is part of the bush corridor between Ōtānewainuku and Kaharoa forests, where there are major kiwi and kōkako projects.

The hope is that the corridor will become a “highway” for the endangered birds to move between the two forests.

“The school sits in the middle of that — and we now have a viewing platform can see right in the middle so it sits in perfectly,” McGlashan said.

Conditions will dictate what pests are caught, but there are hopes there will be not just possums, but also pigs, rats, stoats, wallabies and deer.

The Friends of Te Ranga School are hoping to raise $40,000 in sponsorship to support the school with creating a new music room, upgrading the swimming pool and changing rooms and supporting the learning in our bush classroom.

The gala runs from 9am to noon on Sunday at the school.