Latest News
Keeping informed about Covid-19
Our site is open, and programmes are running again. We will continue to keep you informed about any changes to our programmes. 13 May 2020 The team at Whenua Iti Outdoors are looking forward to welcoming students back to programmes as we head into Level 2. We have adapted many of our programmes to ensure […]
Top 5 Things I’ve Learnt From My Students (v.2)
Kia Ora Whānau Joni Here. I’m back again with my yearly blog post! You may remember that I wrote a blog about ‘The things that I’ve learnt from students as an instructor’ where I reflected on the work of 2018. I wrote about how lucky I was to help facilitate growth in our amazing young […]
My Manaaki Tāpoi Journey – A Student’s Voice
I have been privileged enough over the last three years to have graduated from the Manaaki Tāpoi Level 2, Level 3, and Level 3 Extension programmes. The Mānaaki Tāpoi programme is a 4-week block course run by Whenua Iti Outdoors for senior kura tuarua students from Te Tai o Poutini and Te Tau Ihu o […]
WIO WIT WIF ExpedNZ – confused? Let us explain!!
Here at WIO, finding the funding we need for our programmes certainly keeps us on our toes – we try to be as adaptable and creative as possible looking for opportunities wherever we can and also looking for ways to make what we do sustainable in the longer term. Currently we apply for grants and […]
Measuring our Impact – what do we know?
For many years Whenua Iti Outdoors has been held in high regard by the people who participate in our programmes or maybe their families and others in the community who for some reason come across our work. We have heard many tales of how “my son turned a corner doing a WIO programme” or “WIO […]
To the Scared Abseiler – a message from your tutor!
If you come on a Whenua Iti Outdoors programmes you will find yourself facing all sorts of challenges and each person on the same programme faces a different set of challenges – some physical, some mental, some emotional – sometimes all 3! One of our tutors, Kathryn, has written a letter to everyone facing a […]
Who’s Learning from Who? An Instructor’s Perspective
I’m sure you’ve all heard us wax lyrical about all the wonderful things the students have learned in their programmes – but what if you flick that round and look at that from a different perspective? Our super woman instructor, Joni Tomsett, shows us it’s not all one way traffic on the learning front! The […]
Adventure Therapy – A Tutor’s View
Adventure Therapy has been on our minds a lot lately – we were privileged to host the Adventure Therapy Aotearoa Forum 2018 earlier in the year and we have just started the ground work for our own Adventure Therapy programme with staff visiting potential partners and participants. Georgia, a WIO tutor, recently visited the USA […]
Adventure Therapy – a beginners guide
Adventure Therapy is a relatively new field in New Zealand and one that is growing pretty quickly. So what does it do? Why is it getting so much attention? And how is Whenua Iti Outdoors involved? Adventure Therapy (AT) combines the outdoors (taiao), people (tangata), challenge (wero) and therapy (haumanu). It is an intensive, structured yet […]
Adventure Skills Development
WIO is constantly evolving and trying new things – sometimes we think up great ideas but most often those ideas come from our community (and we are so very grateful!!). In response to enquiries asking for a programme that would extend both the skills of participants and the time spent in the outdoors, we came […]
Walking the talk… Instructor Training
Here at WIO our highest priority is safety including programme planning, checking of equipment and possibly most importantly, having highly skilled staff. To work towards this we run training sessions that focus on different areas of the tutors’ skill set and this time it was bush and rescue skills. Here’s Joni Tomsett with a tutor’s […]
Land of Clouds – Seisen University Japan
2016 kicked off with a group of senior students from Senior Seisen University, Osaka, Japan. They were with us for a week and enjoyed learning about our region and the natural beauty of the Abel Tasman National Park. The average age of the participants was 65, but our instructors were inspired by their enthusiasm and […]