0:00

Samantha G is based in Nelson

0:02

with RNZ, Cura. Samantha. Cura,

0:05

Catherine, how are you? Good, thanks. If

0:08

you're over a certain age, you'll probably struggle a little

0:10

bit to understand some

0:12

of the name changes that are going on here

0:14

for some high schools around the globe.

0:17

A bit of a prank going on,

0:19

and one of Nelson's high schools caught up in

0:21

it. Yes,

0:23

so we noticed some

0:25

schools across the country and indeed here in

0:27

Nelson, had their names changed

0:29

on Google Maps and what appears to be

0:32

a bit of a prank by internet users.

0:34

So Google says it's since corrected those school

0:36

names. It's changed them back to what they're meant to

0:38

be, removing edits that violated

0:40

its maps user-generated content policy, is what

0:42

they told me. And

0:45

they've taken steps to prevent that from occurring again,

0:47

but they couldn't tell me what that was. So

0:49

in Nelson, our Nelson College for

0:51

Girls was renamed Yosa High School, while

0:54

a Rathkeel College in Marsterton had been

0:56

called the Hawke-Tillah College of

0:58

RizCraft and Sigma Tree on Google.

1:00

And it's thought that this

1:02

has been a prank

1:05

potentially by students

1:07

themselves or internet users that have been able to

1:09

suggest an edit to a place name on Google,

1:11

and it has slipped through the

1:14

automated systems that

1:16

are designed to detect that, and it's gone up,

1:18

gone live. I think Rathkeel could keep that name.

1:20

I mean, I know there's a bit of tradition

1:22

involved, but it sounds

1:25

a little bit like some Gen

1:27

Alpha speak making its way into

1:29

the education sphere formally. Yes,

1:34

I wondered how I was going to explain that.

1:37

That name in particular seems to be a combination

1:39

of a phrase that was uttered in

1:41

a meme that's sort of gone viral after a street

1:43

interview with a Nashville 22-year-old. And

1:46

I think the RizCraft and Sigma Tree

1:48

is a take on Harry Potter School

1:50

of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And

1:53

Riz, I understand, refers

1:55

to charisma in someone's ability to

1:57

attract and will charm somebody else.

2:00

We'll just leave them to it, shall we?

2:02

Anyway, have the schools been able to get

2:04

their names back on Google or not? Yes,

2:06

they have. I think not long after I

2:08

reported on that, later that

2:10

night I had an email from Google saying that

2:12

they'd all been corrected. And when I spoke to

2:14

the Deputy Principal at Nelson College, she said it

2:16

was the first time that it occurred to their

2:18

school. And yes, as I say, Google

2:20

have told me it's taken steps to prevent it from

2:23

happening again, though they couldn't say exactly what they were.

2:25

So it'll be interesting to see if it does indeed

2:27

happen again. Now the Environment Minister

2:29

Penny Simmons has been in Nelson this week

2:31

with an announcement on the cleanup of some

2:33

contaminated sites. Just catch us up with where

2:35

these are, please. Yes,

2:37

so Penny Simmons announcing a $30 million

2:40

contaminated sites and vulnerable landfills fund to

2:42

help with the cleanup of some of

2:44

these places around the country,

2:46

particularly those that are at risk of

2:49

being exposed by severe weather. So it's

2:51

an annual sort of $30 million fund

2:53

that councils and landowners can apply to.

2:55

Some of the first to get support

2:57

from it are Nelson's Tahoona Nui Beach,

2:59

the little Tahiti landfill in Milford Sound,

3:02

the Ocean Beach landfill near Bluff to

3:05

Reikai Hoi, I think I've said that

3:07

right, Point Landfill near Wellington and the

3:09

Peel Forest landfill in Timaru.

3:12

And so in Nelson here, yes, we received

3:14

just under three and a half million to

3:16

go towards cleaning up contaminated saw dust, which

3:18

had been exposed by erosion and has

3:21

been revealed to be waste from a

3:23

nearby timber mill that was used for

3:25

fill for a raised car park back

3:27

in the 60s. Okay,

3:30

so what's going to be involved? Is

3:33

the funding sufficient? Will this now see this happen?

3:37

Yes, so this work was actually already underway,

3:39

but this funding is going to ease that

3:41

burden on ratepayers. I

3:43

think it's going to cost in total about

3:45

$5 million to do

3:47

the remediation there, but some of that includes the

3:50

cost of reinstating the car park and doing

3:52

planting, which the government isn't

3:54

covering. So, yeah, it's about two

3:56

to three months worth of work

3:58

here. We're having excavation. to remove

4:01

close to 10,000 cubic tons of

4:03

this contaminated sawdust in sand,

4:05

I understand, and that's because it's contaminated

4:07

with arsenic and other chemicals that could

4:10

pose a risk to wildlife and the

4:12

environment. Well, somewhere like Tohinanui Beach, of

4:14

course, which is a hugely, hugely popular

4:16

site, but also, I'm not

4:18

sure what the erosion situation is on the

4:20

beach itself, but again, is this a case

4:22

where you really need to stay ahead of

4:24

it? Yes, indeed.

4:27

So, Eagle Eye, as you say, the beach

4:29

is very popular, a very popular dog walking

4:31

spot down what we refer to as the

4:33

back beach, sort of the end of Tohinanui

4:35

Beach as it goes into the estuary, and

4:38

people first noticed some sawdust sort of being

4:40

exposed there in 2022, and

4:42

then testing, much later on, revealed the

4:45

presence of heavy chemicals.

4:47

It's quite close to a camping ground too,

4:49

isn't it, as well? So, yeah, I

4:51

can understand why they would want to be onto

4:53

that one. Okay, now there's

4:56

a program being piloted in Nelson

4:58

and Motaweka to help children with

5:00

vocab and language skills before starting

5:02

school. I'm really interested in this, talking

5:05

to teachers with what they're often finding

5:07

by the time kids make it to

5:09

school. Who's doing this? Yes,

5:12

this is a really cool program. It's

5:14

being led by an organization called Orecii

5:16

Aotearoa. So, they've got this pilot program.

5:18

They're running it two kindergartens, one in

5:20

Nelson, one in Motaweka, and it's to

5:22

help kids improve their vocab and their

5:24

language skills before they start school. So,

5:27

it's 10 weeks long. They've trained some

5:29

volunteer tutors to go in there, and

5:31

they're working one-on-one with kids several times

5:33

a week, and, yeah, sort

5:35

of reading books with

5:37

them, starting conversations, helping them to improve

5:40

their vocab. And it comes after research

5:42

showed that children have fewer and fewer

5:44

words when they arrive in the classroom.

5:46

Some schools are saying up to 20%

5:48

of new entrants are struggling with their

5:50

oral language. So,

5:53

who's the driving force behind this? Is

5:55

it just a group of volunteers or

5:57

educators? Yes.