Otira Walkway Mural and Kiwi Rail filming!

Last week a group of Te Kinga students set out to Otira (on a surprisingly stellar day for the middle of Winter) to complete their mural in the Otira Pedestrian Walkway. It is a mural that depicts the land to sea scape of the West Coast and includes Poutini the taniwha who, (according to Ngāti Waewae pūrākau) is the reason why pounamu can be found on West Coast and is the guardian of the taonga (prized natural resource) found here in Te Tai Poutini.

Pippa hard at work blending colours on a difficult surface!

Everyone stopped in for the action - even a film crew from TVNZ!

The large area required rollers and sponges and a lot of paint!

A view from the top...

A well deserved lunch break!

With the sun lowering, it was time to leave Poutini all to himself - the mural needed some final touches but still looked great as we left!

This week at least 600 people will join in the celebration of the Otira Tunnel's opening 100 years ago on August 4th. A big thanks to Di & John Burns and Kiwi Rail for organising our space on the wall and painting supplies. We hope the visitors to Otira this week enjoy our artwork!

Kiwi Rail Filming...

Also last week Carolyn came out from Kea Kids News to film some interviews between a group of Te Kinga students and our local train drivers. These interviews will be used nationwide by Kiwi Rail for Rail Safety week. The drivers (and a very special dog that was actually hit by a train and adopted by a train driver!) stayed for the day. We were very lucky to have such a great group of people to visit our school!