The years 5 and 6 pupils from St Mary’s and East Gore Schools visited the park near Gore to learn about life in the trenches from 25 New Zealand Army soldiers.
The soldiers had just finished a training exercise at Piano Flat, Waikaka, and Dolamore Park on Tuesday and Wednesday.
They showed the children some of the physical hurdles service personnel jumped over in their 12 weeks of training and talked to pupils about the values instilled in soldiers, including courage, ingenuity or being pragmatic with limited resources, endurance and good humour to lighten the load and for mateship.
The children were then let loose on a round robin activity simulating the tasks and duties of soldiers, including setting up camouflage hooches, or shelter tents, smearing tri-toned sunscreen on their faces, navigating the park blindfolded, playing I spy in the bush and navigating an obstacle course.
