As if on cue, the heavens gushed as some 170 students, parents and caregivers converged on the Village Green for a climate change protest in Rotorua.

Uninformed, an animated collection of local secondary school students heard various speakers touch on the effects of climate change on Friday afternoon.

They formed part of a nationwide student protest, initiated in 2016 by a Swedish girl name Greta, who one speaker, Jess Wharekura, said was being recommended for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The reinvigoration of the environment – the cleanliness of Rotorua's lakes – was the focus of a march in which students conducted a strike.

In name, it was. In practice, it was hookey. In effect, it was an extension of a lesson in class. Education got a bonus, for the marchers strode from the Village Green to the Rotorua Lakes Council administrative offices where they were made welcome by the RLC.

This was not the original intention, for as Cr Tania Tapsell had said at a meeting the previous day the council had not permitted previous strikers to enter this building.

Students rally at the Rotorua's Village Green.

But here, a climate change. The young ‘strikers' were made welcome by elected councillors. It was still raining. And it was heavy. Smiling, the Mayor Steve Chadwick and deputy mayor Dave Donaldson greeted the next generation, ushered them to the second floor, through the atrium and into the debating chamber.

Before the councillors had their say – when the marchers thinned out – Cr Tapsell had impressed on her confrere at the Village Green: 'You will only get what you have the courage to ask for. It's not about what us, it's you, what you want. Don't give up.”

Cr Tapsell, in her six years as councillors and now aged 26, said she had not seen so many young people in the chamber.

Other councillors – Karen Hunt, Charles Sturt, Merepeka Raukawa-Tait and Raj Kumar – were present. All had their say, apart from Cr Sturt. Is it election year? Or was it election jeer?

For the young fry did not hold back. Why did few people swim in Lake Rotorua, were catfish still being hunted ('There are thousands of them,” said Cr Donaldson).

March on the Rotorua Lakes Council.

One speaker Areta Pakinga, may have referred to the philosopher Carlisle's observation of big spaces in small rooms when she said, 'We maybe small but we are big”.

Others called for a return of a youth council; they wanted to be kept informed on what the council – local and regional – were doing for climate change. They were at their angriest. The councillors got the message. Or so it seemed.

Cr Donaldson saw the march not as a strike but 'an investment” of your time”.

In a nutshell, that summarised the day.

Mayor Steve Chadwick mingles among the marchers.

Back of the queue view of marchers at the RLC administrative offices.