The year 4-8 class at National Park school, called Te Whiowhio and Paretetaitonga, spent five weeks doing lots of learning about geocaching and the geocaching culture. They have created ten geocaches and placed them around the National Park village area. Each cache includes information about an aspect of National Park village life. Please enjoy the mahi (work) they have done, and be sure to leave them a comment on the website!
On Tuesday morning, 10th of April 2018 a tornado ripped through the village of National Park. It caused a huge amount of damage, including removing a house completely from its piles.The Civil Defence set up a base in the National Park school hall and supported residents during the days that followed.
After the tornado emergency services, including Civil Defence and the fire service arrived around 9.30 am. Jane Welburn, the principal of National Park School gave us some information about what she thought during the tornado, “the rain suddenly got very heavy and the leaves and twigs blew against the school windows. My first reaction was to make sure the children were safe in classes.” We interviewed the students on their reactions and thoughts.
“ It was a frightening experience and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” said student Hannah Swift.
Student Cooper Bird was outside when the tornado hit and told us, “I was wondering what was happening?”
The damage was extensive. A student from National Park School was caught outside during the tornado and was thrown over the fence. One of the houses on the back field had their trampoline removed and chucked across the road and then it broke into many pieces. Another resident's trampoline was broken and chucked over the fence. Over 40 properties were damaged and 2 were broken beyond repair.
“After the tornado I did a quick assessment of the school to check there wasn’t any damage done that would harm the school,” commented Jane Welburn “I then rang the Ruapehu District Council Civil Defence to let them know the hall was ok and ready for them to use.” Nick Watson was organizing emergency management. He worked alongside Fire and Police and St Johns to make sure the residents of National Park had what they needed. He also did a bit of cleaning up the debris and getting people safe.
The National Park Village tornado was one of the worst storms to hit our area. It affected and destroyed so many houses. The emergency services and local residents did an amazing job caring for those who had been affected.
Please find our cache, which is located along Fisher's Track road. The cache is placed along the path the tornado took.
BYO Pen.