On Thursday 22 August the Kowhai team from our school got up early to catch the bus to take us to Napier.  We went to look at the rock pools on the shore at Ahuriri first.  Sadly it was raining and we had to put our jackets on.  The Aquarium staff met us there and helped us look at the pools on the rocks.  They were wet and slippery and so we had to be careful.  We found lots of little animals; crabs, starfish, cats-eyes, mussels, sea snails, little fish, limpits and chilton.  There were also some kina.

Katrulena with some cushion starfish and a spiny starfish.

Tuiva studying a shellfish.

Margaret with a sea egg.

Seila loved the cats eyes with their swirly patterns.

We are all very busy at the Rocky shore.

As we were getting a little wet we then got back on the bus to go to the Aquarium where we were luck enough to be able to eat our lunch and watch the big sharks and stingrays swim around with all of the other smaller fish.  This was a great way to start our tour.    We were then split into three groups, the sharks, the alligators and the stingrays.



One group went on a tour of the aquarium first starting with the tunnel through the big tank.  This was where all the sharks and stingrays were swimming with the other fish. 

We went to the classroom and Jake talked to us about the animals on the rocky shore and where we would find them.

 

We also watched the penguins being fed.  They were very shy and we had to be quiet - that was hard as they were so cute!!

 

We were all very tired at the end of the day as it was long and it was dark when we got home.  A fantastic trip, and a big thank you to our parents that came to help us.