Halfmoon Bay School, Stewart Is.

PUPILS AT THIS SOUTHERN KURA RECOGNISED DISCARDED FISH WASTE WAS A PROBLEM ON THE ISLAND’S BEACHES SO ARE SETTING UP A DROPOFF STATION WHERE IT CAN BE CONVERTED INTO ORGANIC FISH FERTILISER.

At the start of the year, Halfmoon Bay School in Stewart Island joined Garden to Table, the charitable trust which encourages children to develop a school garden to grow fruit and vegetables for cooking and sharing. And with the support of that trust – and also incredible support from parents and the Stewart Island community (the infamous local pub quiz even donated the tunnelhouse) – the school has now established its own vegetable garden.

“All the kids are involved in the garden,” says one of the school’s three teachers, Alison Fitzsimons. “The garden is still definitely evolving but they love it. Kids down here don’t mind getting their hands dirty. They love looking for worms, they get excited by simple things. We don’t have a Warehouse or a movie theatre here. They are used to making their own fun.”

Now, Stewart Island is a bucket-list destination for many visitors, often because of the incredible fishing the prisitine waters around the island offer. And teachers and pupils at the school – which is just 200m from the wharf – had noticed that not all of those visitors were disposing of the waste from any fish they caught responsibly.

“Sometimes those short-term visitors put their fish waste just in the rubbish or even leave it on the beach, which is disgusting and attracts rats,” Alison says. “And the kids do a lot of action projects to make things better in our community. So we discussed what we could do. And we thought if we had a dropoff station for fish waste at the school, we could turn it into something good.”

So the school successfully applied for a grant through supermarket chain Countdown’s Growing for Good initiative, which has funded a freezer, for storing the fish, and a chipper, for processing the fish frames (“the kids just love the chipper, it’s definitely the new favourite”). The first batch of fish fertiliser – made according to Kōanga Garden’s recipe, although with no cows on the island they have used whey powder instead of whey – is on the go now.

“It’s been a great learning experience for the kids,” Alison says. “That every part of the fish is useful. Nothing needs to be chucked away. And that they can take action and make a difference.”

“We’d like eventually to give fish fertiliser as a thank you to anyone who helps out at the school. You know, instead of a box of chocolates or a bottle of wine.”