About 50 students from Ahipara School marked Conservation Week by helping restore the dunes along Te Oneroa a Tōhē or Ninety Mile Beach.
The young kaitiaki joined forces with Te Rarawa hapū collective Ahipara Takiwā, the Northland Regional Council and the Department of Conservation earlier this week to replant sand dunes at Mapere on the Ahipara foreshore.
Te Rarawa environmental co-ordinator Rongo Bentson said the Mapere block was an area of environmental and cultural significance, and the dunes had been the focus of restoration efforts by Ahipara Takiwā in recent years because of erosion.
![Ahipara School students, from left, Max Beatson, Osheya Wilkinson, Kyvana Karena-Barlow, Tarshana Wikotu and Te Ana Tahuri at work in the sand dunes along Ninety Mile Beach. Photo / supplied](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/OORK3AOLVJBDMAKVMP7OOFT4DI.jpg?auth=ab28f1f6c78cb4bcd26277ea3e80319810c74ec632fd128ff1b6559433088329&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
"It's so great to see our kaitiaki of the future involved in this restoration work and supported by DOC and NRC," he said.