Newshub can reveal the Green School which received nearly $12 million in Government funding hosted a 'sacred ceremony' run by a school parent who believes COVID-19 is a manufactured natural disaster.
The self-described 'new age architect' also planned a $15,000 tour of New Zealand that included planting crystals with the school's students.
Christof and Alaya Melchizedek were excited to be selling the tour that would stop at the privately-owned Green School in Taranaki for the "main solstice piece" - a two-day activity with the children.
"We're going to be laying down a crystal bed. Everyone will be bringing crystals from all around the world. We are going to be unifying them and bringing in this 5th dimensional consciousness," Christof Melchizedek explained in a video.
In a long Facebook post on Sunday, Melchizedek described COVID-19 as a "manufactured natural disaster", a "UN 2030 vision" including "vaccinated nanochip technology" and "looming possibility of vaccination agendas" - all baseless claims circulated by conspiracy theorists.
The post was deleted after questions from Newshub.
The school wouldn't say if those views had been repeated to the students but told Newshub it doesn't advocate personal views as part of its curriculum.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins said private schools don't have to teach the curriculum.
"Their curriculum is something they work with the Ministry of Education about," he said on Monday. "They follow the same criteria as other private schools do. They don't have to teach to the New Zealand curriculum."
The crystal planting activity appears to have been thwarted by the lockdown, but the couple hosted a fundraising event at the school - a "lion's gate abundance and manifestation ceremony" including "bio-energy field cleaning" and "DNA activation".
The Government announced $11.7 million of taxpayer funding to the Green School - signed off by Green Party co-leader and Associate Finance Minister James Shaw - last week.
"Maybe it's the crystals that ensured this school miraculously got almost $12 million out of the Government," said National's education spokesperson Nicola Willis.
National dug the knife in on Monday by heading to a New Plymouth school to announce its own plans to spend $2.8 billion on school infrastructure in the next decade.
Once again Shaw, the man behind the cash for the Green School, was ducking for cover - refusing to be interviewed and scrambling for a solution.
The school told Newshub the funding could be provided partly as a loan and this could be Shaw's way out.
