Year 11 Geography trip to Waihi

Another fabulous spin off of COVID fun, is the field trips rescheduled to winter. However, the weather gods smiled upon all but two of the groups. While it hailed on the alfresco lunchers, everyone else was tucked up warm and dry in KFC or Subway. Aside from the fine dining, we zoomed around town to maximise our learning opportunities and crammed a two day trip into one. The purpose was to get a real world perception of what gold mining in Waihi is all about – the process and its impacts – in order to make a judgement about whether the environment is being used sustainably. The big pit and the tour to the ore processing plant and tailings dams were the highlights. Students represented the school with class and can’t wait to write up their assessments back at school. It was a long trip, but it was well worth the kilometres.