In June this year, five teachers including myself had the opportunity to attend a BLAKE Expedition to Te Rua-o-te-moko/Fiordland aboard the beautiful yacht Breaksea Girl. We spent five days working alongside University of Otago Geophysicist Andrew Gorman and his team...

What inspired you to apply for the BLAKE Expeditions programme? I’ve always had a strong connection to the outdoors, growing up in Taranaki. The mountains, the beaches—nature has always been a big part of my life. As I got older, that connection turned into a passion...

Amber, a Year 12 student at Sacred Heart Girls' College in New Plymouth, has always had a deep love for the outdoors. Growing up in Taranaki, she spent her childhood exploring the mountain and swimming at the beach. Her connection with nature deepened when she joined...

Kia ora! I’m Irisa, an MSc student from the University of Auckland, and I recently had the incredible opportunity to serve as a BLAKE freshwater ambassador at NIWA Ruakura. Over two transformative weeks, I immersed myself in the world of aquatic pollution mitigation,...

BLAKE Explorers has been successfully piloted in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, offering an unforgettable three-day immersive experience for intermediate-aged students. As a reminder, we invite a school that has experienced NZ-VR to select 20 students and 2 teachers...

The day before we returned to Wellington I saw the mainland for the first time in 1 month. We cruised up the south island and past Kaikoura, watching sun rays filtering through clouds - a welcome light after a stormy morning. A pod of ~30 common dolphins swam around...

Kia ora, I’m Lottie –  I’m doing my postgrad in Geology at the University of Canterbury, Te Whare Wananga o Waitaha. As the 2024 Blake GNS Ambassador, I got the opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes in a major research project around Whakaari. Safe to say...

On it’s 20th anniversary, BLAKE (formerly the Sir Peter Blake Trust) is celebrating two decades of work dedicated to empowering New Zealanders to commit to a sustainable future for Aotearoa and continuing the environmental leadership legacy of one of the world’s most...

I first heard of the BLAKE NZ-VR programme at BLAKE Inspire for Teachers that I was fortunate enough to attend in September 2022. The whole Inspire programme was inspirational in the way it supported the development of new understandings, interwoven with practical...

Kia ora, I’m Grace - a Master’s of Science graduate from the Waikato. As this year’s NIWA freshwater representative for the BLAKE Ambassadorship programme, I got to take a peek at some of the key research projects taking place within NIWA’s aquatic pollution...