Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Pitt Island challenge

I challenge you to find information on Pitt Island. Remember to quote your sources. If you are really clever you may find maps to post. I am particularly interested in how lifestyles for kids differ between Hamilton/Waikato and the Pitt Island environment. Please post your questions for the Pitt kids - hopefully they will respond here and a dialogue will be set up. We can then expand upon that once we get skype up 'n' running - if we can, that is.

Hi to Mr Whalley if you are reading this.
8>)

11 comments:

Urxan said...

Hey everyone!
I found out some stuff about Pitt Island Sheep!


Pitt Island Sheep
A Rare Breed of New Zealand Origin

In the nineteen-seventies a feral flock of several thousand sheep could be found on Pitt Island in the Chatham group.

These possibly derived from Saxony Merinos first taken to South-East Island – another island in the Chatham group – in 1841 and later transferred to Pitt Island. In any case, the flock is known with certainty to have been in existence for almost a century.

A Reserve for 300 of these animals was created on Pitt Island in 1981. A number of flocks have also been taken to mainland New Zealand.


Pitt Island sheep are almost all coloured and have the self-shedding fleeces characteristic of feral breeds. The rams are impressively horned – up to a metre long measured around the curve.

In a study made of the sheep on the Reserve in 1981, Dr M. R. Rudge found that only 11.1% of rams and 8.8% of ewes were white; 97% of rams were horned but only 13% of the ewes had true horns, though 54% of the ewes had scurs.

Info from: http://www.rarebreeds.co.nz/pittisland.html



Urxan

MrWoody said...

fantastic! well done girls - your posts are excellent - two of you need to post your references though. you should also put direct quotes in quotation marks, hence the name.
magster - great to have you aboard - your post is one of the best yet! i really like how you stated things in your own words.
keep posting please!

MrWoody said...

btw - the discovery of the Pitt school email address is great news - we can start 'chatting' to them and work towards settign up the skype thingy.
btw - fear not - this island experience is a real one with real people.
[although i thought you liked the Tuhua madness experience.]

RBWW said...

Hey Room 9
Mr Whalley from Pitt Island here.
We tried to get into your blog today but we have a few problems down here with internet and phone services so sometimes things are a bit slow.
Great to see you finding info on Pitt Island. Some very interesting facts coming out.
Our e-mail address is pittislandsc@xtra.co.nz so if you like, you can send us some questions that you would like answered and we can reply and send you some photos of Pitt Island and of course some of those sheep.
I have deliberately put some mistakes in this and the person who finds them all will get an ice cream from Mr woody (Ha)

MrWoody said...

MARVellous! Go Mr Whalley!!! Of course, my kids don't eat icecreams - only health foods like boiled turnips and flakes of salted hedgehog.

Maybe your kids could tell my kids what they do to wekas, which we regard as national treasures to be protected at all costs.
;>)

RBWW said...

hi guys
We are now in class and looking at your blog.We no longer have a fish factory or post office. There are 36 people on the island and 12 of those are children at school. We have 12 inhabited houses and the school. We have no shops or sealed roads. We get our stores every six weeks or so from New Zealand on a ship. We eat a lot of wild sheep, wild pigs, fish and cattle. We also eat Wekas and mutton birds. We eat a lot of watercress and berries and things from the bush because we dont get fresh fruit and vegies all that often.Our blog is pittisland.blogspot.com but we are only just getting into it.
From the kids at Pitt

RBWW said...

we made a mistake with or blog name it is pittislandschool.blogspot.com
I owe mr woody an ice cream

【※ 『§mr. brainy§』 ※】 said...

I wonder what it's like living there?

P.S. Mr woody urgent plz come to my blog

MrWoody said...

Max - read the title and content of this post - it is about Pitt island - this is not the place to post what you are posting. wake up!
i would say, "and smell the coffee", but that may not make sense to you.
you are room 9's chief spammer.
that is not a good thing.
allyblobber is second. but she makes up for it by posting quality content as well.
think....

MrWoody said...

wel done horse girl - you did well to read the request and post what was required - excellent!
8>)

【※ 『§mr. brainy§』 ※】 said...

HAHAHA i agree with mr woody