Quest for new watch

A new watch-house at an outdoor education school needs a name – but which famous New Zealander will make the cut?

Votes are pouring in for the name of the new watch and its watch-house at Outward Bound at Anakiwa, in the Marlborough Sounds, amid major refurbishment Project Refresh Anakiwa.

Students at the school are grouped in watches named after inspiring New Zealanders, from captains James Cook and Robert Falcon Scott to aviator Jean Gardner Batten.

The new double watch-house will house an extra 336 students a year, when they’re not spending a night on a boat or in the bush.

Tangata whenua (people of the land) Te A¯ tiawa will name one watch but the general public will name the other. Online voting closes today at noon.

One option is Ma¯ui, who snared the sun and fished Te Ika a Ma¯ ui (the North Island) out of the ocean according to Ma¯ ori and Polynesian legends.

Another option is Sheppard, after Kate Sheppard, the immigrant prohibitionist, who campaigned successfully to give New Zealand women the right to vote in 1893.

The third option is Blake, after New Zealand’s most celebrated yachtsman Sir Peter Blake, KBE, who also campaigned to protect the environment before he was shot and killed by pirates on the Amazon River in 2001.

Outward Bound school director Simon Graney said watch names held a special significance for students.

‘‘We aim to inspire our students with things that relate to our kaupapa [purpose] and the learning outcomes of the course. There’s a lot of history in the names here and people have very strong associations with their watch name. So we wanted to take this opportunity to make some names more representative of our community.’’

The school will re-name the Rutherford and Scott watchhouses with names from Te A¯ tiawa.

‘‘If you were in a Scott Watch or Rutherford Watch when you were here, you will always be a part of that watch, that will never change,’’ Graney said.

The new names from Te A¯ tiawa are names of real people from the area.

‘‘They’re pretty special names, they’re tapu (sacred) and their relatives are still alive,’’ Graney said.

Outward Bound will announce those names alongside the vote outcome.