Penny Blossom Brydon (Year 9) recently travelled to Tutukaka for a special snorkelling trip. Read her full story below:
Tena koutou katoa
Ko Penny toku ingoa
No Aotearoa, no Ingarangi, mo Airangi no weiri hoki oku tipuna
I tipu take au ki Whakatu
E noho ana au ki Wakapuaka
No reira tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa
My adventure started when I began volunteering for EMR (Experiencing Marine Reserves) last year as a snorkel guide. I help out on snorkel days in our local marine reserve at Cable Bay – Rotokura and at Kaikoura. I enjoy sharing my love of the ocean with others and supporting younger tamariki who are new to snorkeling. It was through EMR that I heard about the Poor Knights competition, and decided to write and enter an original song on my ukulele about ocean advocacy. My song is about plastic pollution and is written from the perspective of the ocean and its creatures.
The trip was possible thanks to Mountains to Sea, EMR, Bobby Stafford Bush Foundation, and Tasman Bay Guardians. They flew me and nine other representatives from around Aotearoa to Whangārei, where we then drove to Tutukaka. We got to spend the next few days exploring the local area and ocean together. We enjoyed a freshwater drift snorkel, micro mollusc hunting and a hike.
But the best part of the trip was when we took an hour’s boat ride out to the Poor Knights marine reserve and snorkeled around the gardens at Maroro Bay. The water visibility was amazingly clear and looked like it was glowing from every angle. We got to see large schools of blue maomao, black angel fish, piper fish, snapper and my favourites, the colourful Sandager’s wrasse, who were super curious and friendly.
I snorkeled amongst the fish and through sea caves. It was scary going into shark fin cave as it was deep and dark but when you turned around you could see the water shimmering in the light and dive into all the schools of fish. We also got to go into the largest sea cave in the world called RikoRiko and I got the chance to sing my song with my ukulele inside the giant cavern in front of an audience of 75 people on the boat!
I had so much fun on the trip and made awesome new friends that I hope to stay in touch with. It was inspiring to be surrounded by people who also love the ocean and want to protect it. Marine reserves are really important and help to keep our oceans safe and healthy. Poor Knights has been protected since 1981 and it was cool to see the difference of a well-established and large marine reserve compared to our little local one. Poor Knights is now my favourite place!
If you want to help take care of our oceans here are a few simple things you can do:
Talk with others about ocean advocacy, stop using single use plastics and use reusable items instead, eat sustainable seafood and pick up rubbish!
By Penny Blossom Brydon
