Coming from as far as Great Barrier Island, Westland and Stewart Island (where they meet weekly online), students enjoyed meeting face to face at the ‘School Camp’ of 33 pupils and 7 Principals.

Year 8 students Lana and Ruby tell us all about their action packed week. 

Monday 

After a long trip to Wellington for all the schools, we finally all made it. All very exhausted, but excited for what we had planned ahead. When we got to the YHA we settled down! We went to Weta Workshop and had a great time. Later eating at Joe's Garage was amazing, most people got a burger and said it was scrumptious.

After that we went Ten Pin Bowling and had a great time. Some people had a score of 100+.   

Tuesday

We were all ready for Adrenaline Forest. We all got suited up and we started. Some children got really high on the ropes! After that we went to the Police College and did some really fun activities. We got to meet some dogs that were trained to sniff out the bad guys. We learnt how to find fingerprints and did a small scavenger hunt.
After the Police College we went swimming, which was really fun. There was a lazy river and a water slide.
For dinner we had chinese it was delicious, they had some really interesting foods that tasted great.

Wednesday

First we went to parliament to meet our MPs and get a tour of parliament . Then we went to Te Papa and that was amazing. Everything was so realistic. After Te Papa we went to the War Memorial which was super amazing , Ruby and Lani from Whataroa School got to lay down the wreaths after that we headed to The Mongolian Restaurant was delicious, the cooks cooked it in front of you. After dinner some people went back to Parliament to watch and listen to the politicians talk, and a few stayed at the YHA and played games it was a really fun day.

Thursday

 At Capital E the kids made a video, the link to it will be at the bottom of the article if you want to watch it. It is called 11 Sharp!
At Paintballing it was raining and very, very cold but everyone had fun. We got splitted into two teams and we played capture the flag.
Go Karts was really fun, because we got to drive really fast. We had pizza delivered to us for tea, they were so good. 

Friday

We had a Scavenger Hunt all day which was really fun. We went all over Wellington to find really cool things.

The Crab Shack was really amazing everyone loved it. After that we went to the movies and watched A Dog's Purpose, it was a really big theatre. On our way home we had a look at the Lux Light Festival which was REALLY AWESOME.

We had an absolutely amazing time in Wellington.   

Watch an awesome Video Diary by Nate of our trip.

Capital E News Report Video ‘11 Sharp’

Written and Collated: 

by Lani Nolan (Y8) and Ruby Arnold (Y8)
Whataroa School, South Westland 

The VLN Rural Kids Group is an online learning network of Rural Primary Schools - the Yr 7&8 students from Tapora, Makahu, Marco, Kaitoke (Great Barrier Island), Whataroa (South Westland) and Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island). We meet weekly and cover different areas of the NZ Curriculum, such as Literacy and Social Studies etc.


  • We must say a BIG thank you to Air NZ who were our main supporters of our camp - Airpoints for Schools. Plus of course to the VLN who brought us all together for our learning.
  • To our new lifelong friends who supplied the photos.
  • Not forgetting our families and whanau who helped are helping with all our fundraising.