Auckpork Pig

Soup Day was on Friday, so our class trooped off to the school gardens to choose some vegetables to flavour our soups.

We were shocked to discover that a pig had been rooting through the bark paths surrounding our Edible Gardens. A pig at school! We live in Nelson, near State Highway 6…No!

The next morning brought fresh evidence of our porcine visitor.

But pigs in the city? …NO!

“A large hedgehog”, suggested Ricky

“Rats!” said Alex.

It’s nocturnal and a carnivore and as it had rooted under a seat it was small, the children decided.

Time to call in the experts. A quick call to Nelmac and their expert, Dave Newton arrived.

“Yes a pig”, he agreed, after much head scratching and close inspection of the widespread newspaper and bark.

We brainstormed. What next? Matt’s dad goes pig hunting. Regan has a gun and a pack of pig dogs. Louis’s dad catches weka in a ‘catch em alive’ trap for release. Poisoned bait! But pig dogs in the city? Guns in the city? Poison in our playground? We think not.

Perhaps someone out there might have a solution.

So far our night visitor had only ripped up our bark paths, but we had worked hard to build our Edible Gardens this year and been watching and waiting eagerly for our crops to be harvested.

We rang the Nelson Mail, our local newspaper and told them our story.

Martin and Charlie, a photographer and a reporter arrived and interviewed us.

Matt wrote to his dad ,asking him if he could sort our problem. Louis’s dad was contacted regarding the traps. Regan ruled out pig dogs in the city. And we all knew that guns aren’t allowed in town.

Friday Soup Day however, was a great success. We harvested our vegetables and made Beetroot and Cumin soup, Leek and Potato soup and Dinosaur Bone soup (vegetable and pasta). Other classes produced tasty soups for us to sample.

Saturday night’s copy of the newspaper carried a photo and article under the headline “Porcine visitor……”. Louis’s family staked out the school yard with a homemade noose and chicken bones. No luck! Dogs were heard on the bank behind the school on Saturday morning.

Monday morning, we all arrived back at school almost expecting that our vegetables would be totalled.

But nothing…just rows of leeks, carrots, onions, beetroot, cabbages, broccoli and kohi glistening in the frost.

And then it was solved. Martin De Ruyter, the photographer from the Nelson Mail arrived with a photo.

‘Pig Captured’ said the headline.

It was a morning full of visitors, because next came Allan, the pig captor extraodinaire. And he gave us the sequel to the story. It turned out it was Allans 30^th wedding anniversary and he had arranged to meet the SPCA ranger for the pig handover in one of the city malls, where Allan was to pick up his wife. He raced into her shop and announced that the pet she had always wanted was in the truck and he had got it for their anniversary. Upon seeing it, she screamed and gave the little pig such a fright the laundry bag containing the pig jumped out of the container and onto the truck deck.

So pig was handed over and after Allan had made a quick trip to the duty doctor for a tetanus shot and collected anti biotics for his bitten finger, they were able to go and celebrate.

Three children visited the SPCA at lunchtime to see the little pig and photograph it. Summer, a receptionist took us up to the dog enclosure and there in a dog basket almost covered with straw was our pig. It woke up and we were able to see just our tiny she was. No more than 60 centimetres

We named her Auckpork Pig.

We hope she is claimed and has the opportunity to live out her days somewhere peaceful and with plenty of worms.

Several people had rung the school to report seeing the pig before it turned up at school, on traffic islands, running up the footpath and near a main road. We’ve all written stories about how she came to visit our school, but only Auckpork Pig knows the real story and she isn’t talking!

By The St Vincent Room Kids at Auckland Point School