Onehunga Kindergarten was fortunate to be a part of the Kāhui Ako tree planting at Ambury Farm alongside other local schools. The Kāhui Ako programme brings together education, sustainability and fosters tamariki to reach their full potential. 

We ventured on the bus to Ambury Farm where our friend Finlay asked “I wonder what trees we are going to plant?” 

Once we arrived by bus the Ambury Farm staff told us that the native trees we were planting included harakeke, manatu, mahōe, puriri, totara, tī kouka, karo, and titoki. As a group we planted 700 trees.  

By planting these native trees we are restoring the land/whenua to what it used to be.  This will help to bring back more native birds like kererū, pīwakawaka, tūī, ruru and more.   

We took a long stroll around the back of Ambury Farm where they had laid out all the trees to plant. We got our shovels and started digging.  We had to make sure the plants were the perfect fit for the hole, not poking out and not to deep but also firm enough so the cheeky pukeko don’t tug them out.  It was such hard work but all the tamariki were so enthusiastic and passionate about it.  We couldn’t have done it without the help of all the tamariki and their whānau. 

When we were finished we ventured back to the barn where we saw poaka/pigs and some pēpi/baby heihei/chicken. Then we had a delicious sausage sizzle for all our hard effort. Lastly we hopped on the bus to get ready to come back to kindy.