Email from Maddie

Dear Matariki and Mahutonga,

My name is Madeleine. I am 9 years old and I am from Penzance, Cornwall in England. I go to Newlyn Primary School (http://newlyn.eschools.co.uk/site). Outside my classroom window I can see the sea, and this term we are doing a project all about coasts.

I would like to see what coasts are like all around the world and to hear about what you do and see on your coastline. I am attaching a photograph of myself on a walk at a local place called Porthgwarra. I would love it if some of your children could please email me and tell me about the beach and sea near where they live. Also, if they could send me a photo that would be fantastic for my project!

Many Thanks

Maddie

Hi Maddie

Here a bunch of photos from some children at Worser Bay School to help you with your project.  We too can see the beach from our school and from our home.  This beach is known as Worser Bay Beach and is on the Miramar Peninsula, in the Eastern Suburbs of Wellington and is the entrance to the Wellington Harbour, the capital city of New Zealand.  Some of the photos show the Queen Mary – a HUGE cruise ship exiting our harbor that we photographed leaving Wellington from our home.  You will also see the Bluebridge, a local ferry that commutes between our North and South Island on a daily basis, carrying passengers between the two islands.  We also attached a photo of our harbor/beach taken from home at night so you can see what it looks like in an evening light!

The photos of us Kayaking, playing rugby, and diving off the wharf (which we LOVE)  show you some fun things we do down at our local beach – Worser Bay Beach.

There are also a bunch of photos that show you the coastline further up the North Island near Hawkes Bay – a beach called Pourere Beach.  As you can see from the photos there is a wide variety of wild life that shows up on this beach.  The children love to boogie board, body surf, snorkel and swim at this beach.  We have also put some photos in to show you the rushes and dunes that edge some of our beaches.  A seal is always spotted, a number of crayfish caught and when snorkeling (it has the most AMAZING reef to snorkel in in a LOW tide)  a whole lot of fish/starfish and crabs are spotted.  We also LOVE collecting sea eggs/kina at this beach – we don't have any photos of these but if you google them you will find some images, some people eat them but when the outer prickles have dried out they make the most beautiful shell and we love to collect "families" of them in all sizes!!!

We hope this gives you some idea of what we see from our school and home, and how we use our beaches.

Henry, George and Lucie.

Dear Henry, George and Lucie

Thank you so much for your reply and wonderful pictures, I especially like the one with the ship in the golden light. The beach looks lovely and it is amazing what wildlife you can see and I love the sound of collecting the sea eggs and making a family of them!! We have beaches which have lots of nice shells and we sometimes see tiny crabs, seals and dolphins. We also sometimes get Basking Sharks which are very big. Boys at my School love rugby we have a local team called the Penzance Pirates which have some players from New Zealand!

Thank you again
Maddie

Dear Maddie

My name is Sophina and we live in Wellington by the sea. Wellington has a huge harbour. It is beautiful, surrounded by large hills. Often there are dolphins playing in the harbour.

I go to Worser Bay School http://www.worserbay.school.nz/. From our school we get to see all of the choppy waves at Worser Bay Beach. Worser Bay beach is just down from our school and during the summer we go down and play at least twice a week on the beach and around the rock pools. We even have our Cross Country along the beach. Our family will also go down most days in the summer to play and swim. During the winter we walk, run or play along the beach or in the sand dunes. We have a boat and go out on the harbour. We go fishing or get dragged behind the boat in a biscuit, which is great fun.

Attached is a photo of me and my teacher at our recent cross country. I hope this helps. I look forward to hearing from you again.

From

Sophina