Earlier this week, a group of students in the Piwakawaka hapori, including me, volunteered to take part in a tree planting event in Bombay, it was for the Trees for Survival charity, to help with more oxygen and to stop erosion. A woman named Linzi organized it. When the day came, I woke up early to get ready. I packed some old clothes and put them and my gumboots in a bag. I wore my school uniform to school but once I got there, I changed into the clothes.

When the bell rang, we all went to the mat for the roll. Everyone told us the bus had arrived, but our teacher wanted one more chat with us about how to act and how we need to stay focused. Once our teacher was done we grabbed our bags and headed outside. We went outside the front of the school and did a headcount to make sure we had everyone, then we boarded the bus. The bus ride was around 50 minutes, so me and my friend Sadie made sure to get a good seat. Everyone mainly just talked on the bus ride, including me and Sadie. When we arrived, the landowners, Jocylen and Mark, greeted us and showed us where we were putting our bags, they gave us a quick run through of everything, we had a quick thing to eat and then got to work.

The walk from where our bags were, to where we were planting was only one minute, so once we got there it was straight to work. They told us to grab a spade, and get planting. Me and Sadie decided to start at the top and work our way down the hill. I planted around five trees before I moved to the left and started planting there instead. After I had planted quite a few trees, one of the ladies asked me and Sadie if we could be one quality control, since quite a few of the trees were planted poorly, or loose. Me and Sadie spent the rest of the day doing quality control, and to our surprise, more than half of the trees were super loose or just put in badly. Once we were almost finished, we were all called up to the top of the hill to plant the last few in the corner, then we made our way back to our bags.

Everyone who took part had to pay a fee of $16, but part of the tree planting included a free lunch, so once we finished, we knew what was coming next. We gave them some time to set up food, then we got to line up and pick what we wanted. There was lots of delicious food, but I only had a few cocktail sausages because I wasn’t very hungry. When everyone was finished eating lunch, they decided it was time to bring out dessert. They had cake, lamingtons, nutella toast, marshmallows and more! I had almost three full cups of marshmallows before I got way too full!

When  everyone was done eating, we spent around 15 minutes playing and hanging out, before it was time to get on the bus and head back to school. We all walked back to the bus, and got on. I sat next to Sadie again, but I don’t remember much about the bus ride since I fell asleep, but I had so much fun at tree planting and I would love to do another one in the future! If your school has a tree planting day, I definitely recommend going, it is super fun, and you get to learn so much.