We had some wonderful stories, photos and video entries to our Real Journey Competition. They came from some very passionate people who love Aotearoa and want to help save its wildlife and wild places – tino pai!
This story is from 12 year old Harriet, one of our finalists.
New Zealand. What do I think when I hear the word New Zealand?
Kiwi, L&P, Pavlova, Buzzy Bee, All Blacks, Pineapple lumps, to name but a few icons. Aotearoa is way deeper than that, it’s the brilliant bush, the beautiful beaches, the amazing scenery, and so much more! Its things like these that make our perfect little country and its nature worth protecting. If we don’t look after our country it will end up polluted, dirty, and full of our man-made waste.
There are many reasons why our nature is worth protecting, starting with our bush and bush life. If we don’t protect our bush and its plants in a way we’re killing birds because they need all of its growth and whether they’re native or not, it’s still not okay! New Zealand has a lot of forests, mountains and bushes, for walking, hiking, biking, hunting, and enjoying. If we don’t look after our nature all of that would be gone; that wouldn’t be much fun for anyone! Another aspect related to our bushes and forests is our beautiful scenery. We have gorgeous lakes, beaches and bays that are fun for all ages, we have plenty of incredible walkways that are open to the public, if we don’t look after them no one will be able to enjoy them because they will become a dead, overgrown, unusable mess.
New Zealand is a country surrounded by water, so there are a lot of chances to go for a swim in the sea, if we don’t bother to care for it we will be a country surrounded by our own clutter, all because of us not taking up our responsibility of tending to our environment. Swimming, running, biking, walking, and hiking can all be done in our New Zealand nature but if our environment is neglected, no-one can do those things outside, and a lot of us will become unfit and lazy, without the motivation of a good scenic activity to keep them active. With all of the new technology going around nowadays we should be still caring for our nature, maybe even more than before because kids and adults are becoming antisocial and addicted to their phones. If we at least keep our environment clean, it may convince people to get off their devices and go outside, but if our nature is ignored, disheveled and unused, no one will feel even the slightest bit motivated to get active! A lot of tourists come to New Zealand, because they think it is a beautiful country with clean air compared to where many of them are from. If we keep cutting down trees to build houses our air will become tainted and disgusting, we will lose birds and other wildlife, and our landscape will definitely change, with houses as far as the eye can see, but no trees apart from the odd bush. With our rising population and many tourists, don’t you think we ought to care for our country as much as we can, so future generations can enjoy what we have now!
These are just some of the many reasons we need to care for and protect our New Zealand Nature.
We should be savouring our nature, not slaughtering it!
Look after our environment, you will miss it when it’s gone.
