Kaitiakitanga:

Our theme for launch this semester is Kaitiakitanga! Which generally means being guardians of our own environment/taking care of the things surrounding us and our homes. We went to the botanical gardens and Totara park in separate weeks. Here are the pros and cons of them!

Botanical Gardens:

Pros

• Fun experience
• Different varieties of plants, monocots, dicots, etc..
• Trying to take action on pests, this includes using sprays, traps, and more.
• Scavenger hunt was really fun
• Uses different types of water filtrations

Cons

• Had to go back to the starting point whenever it was morning tea/lunch (Had to stop what we were doing)
• When one person had to go to the bathroom, everyone had to go
• Seeing the same plant over and over again
• Backs hurt from carrying bags
• Odd weather

Totara Park:

Pros

• Beautiful scenery
• Gorgeous lakes
• Got to walk with friends
• Trees covered us from rain
• Traps set out to capture pests

Cons

• Legs hurt so bad
• Lots of cardio had to be done (Like 10 million+ steps)
• Extremely slippery 
• Not much variety of flowers
• Birds are nowhere to be seen?

In conclusion, these trips were very exhausting. But sometimes enjoying the scenery of nature and its beauty can be mind-changing. And having friends by your side can certainly make things better! I hope we will be able to do things like this again.