Tama Tū Tama Ora is an Outdoor Education opportunity for Year 10 students in Term 2 by application. It is conducted by PNBHS with the Makahika Outdoor Education Centre and has been running since 2010.
Up to 33 young men take the challenge to spend two weeks in the winter learning to make the New Zealand bush their home. They complete a daily journal, they learn bush skills including navigation, cooking and sleeping in the bush, fire lighting, lost and survival procedures, living in a tented camp setup. They also learn a wide range of resilience skills and individual and team leadership skills.
Their individual courage and bush field skills are put to the test in the middle weekend as they conduct a 24 hour SOLO experience building a bivouac to survive in. By the end of the second week of the challenge they get to put what they have learnt in the first week into practice and complete a team led 72 hour Triple Peak challenge.
More than 230 young men have now completed this challenge and feedback from parents suggests that it is an outstanding character building experience where the young men learn what the values of the school really mean.