We all arrived at school on Sunday at 9:00.a.m to leave for Lower Hutt Park where we would be staying for the week in Wellington. We loaded our bags onto there storage area under the bus (but not our day packs, they had our lunch) and were on our way. The ride was 7.5 hours long including stops.
The ride was tiring, a few people fell asleep. Half way there we stopped to eat our lunch in Taihape. We played ball-rush and did gymnastics. Then we hit the road.
When we got to our camp site, Mrs Crowe gave us our room keys and we ran to our cabins. I was sharing a cabin with my friends Casey and Amelia. They are both Year 8's. We sorted our beds out, I had the top bunk, Casey had the bottom bunk and Amelia had the single bed. After that we went exploring. We found the big Jumping Mat/Pillow and played on it until dinner-time. I can't remember what we had for dinner, but I'm pretty sure it was yummy.
After dinner we had showers and went to bed. We had to sleep with the single bed in front of the door because Amelia's mum didn't like us being easy to get to in the night and we weren't aloud to lock the door at night in case of a fire.
We fell asleep easily, tired out from the bus ride.
Day 2/Monday
Mrs Crowe woke us up at 7:00.a.m. We got dressed, ate breakfast, made lunches, packed our day packs and then we were off.
First we went to Zealandia. We had a tour around the sanctuary in two groups. We can't remember our tour guides name, though. We saw Takahe, Fantails, Tuatara and other animals as well as some plants. We learnt the difference between Native and Endemic. Native animals breed in New Zealand and are found in other countries, but Endemic animals are only found in New Zealand, or the country they are Native or Endemic to.
After that we visited Te Papa for only one hour! I ran around with my friends Arden, Hadlee and Arden's mum, Rowan. We went on the Earthquake Simulator, but it wasn't to scary because I was expecting it. We watched a 3D video about Giant Squid, and when we left the area with the video screening, we looked at the roof to find the skeleton of the largest Giant Squid. I'm not sure of the size, though. On estimate I would say 3m long. We took a photo in front of an artificial tree and left.
We visited the National Library next. We split into two groups. We based our visit on Gallipoli and WWI/World War One. My groups tour guide showed us some photos of the trench life for the soldiers. Then we looked around that area before she took us down stairs to choose a photo to base a short scene about in front of the rest of the group. I did a scene about drinking tea and eating a biscuit with Amelia and Casey. Then we went back upstairs to watch a power-point about trench life and try to decode some pages of old diaries soldiers wrote during the war (they had already been decoded and typed onto the back). Then both groups came into the middle and found a partner (mine was Mya) then started a hunt for the answers to some Q's on a piece of paper. When we were finished we marked our answers, packed up and left.
We went to the H2OXTREME pools to finish the day. It was so fun. There was: a river ride, a wave pool, fountains and three hydro-slides! There was a long, twisty, fast, pitch black slide called Darkness Falls. A short, light blue one called Icy Blue and a extremely fast, 45-degree yellow slide with no roof called Speed Slide. I really enjoyed it.
Then we went home played on the pillow until we got called for dinner. Then we had showers and went to bed.
Day 3/Tuesday
We got at 7 and got ready for the day. We left for town around 9.
We first went to the Carter Observatory, a place where you learn about space. We talked about thing in space, like planets, asteroids and meteorites. Then we had a nosy around the exhibits. After that we watched two movies on a fancy screen on the roof, one movie was called Back To The Moon For Good, and another called Google Lunar X-prize. Then we looked at the constellations in the night sky. There were some strange ones up there. After that we thanked the people who worked there and left.
Then we caught a cable car to Lambton Quay to get to Parliament. When we got there we had to go though metal detectors to be aloud in. We met an MP who worked there and she told us about her job. Then we watched part of Question Time. It got really loud. We went down to the basement to learn about how the building withstands earthquakes. It was quite interesting.
We then went to ONTV&Media. My group was making a live news broadcast for Far Away Land. I was Sound Operator for the show. We went through a few times before recording. When we were finished we watched the show on a TV. Then we went downstairs to meet the other group. They had been making a short 3D movie.
When we got back to camp we did the usual stuff, well by usual I mean what we did on Sunday and Monday.
Day 4/Wednesday
We did our morning routine and left for Wellington Zoo. It was awesome there. We saw Lizards, Penguins, Red Pandas, Giraffes, Mere cats, Kangaroos, Porcupine, etc. We even saw a Tiger getting fed. My friend bought me a Kiwi key chain with a compass at the gift shop. It is so cute.
This was one of my favourite parts. SNORKELLING!!! I was in the second group to get in the water. While my group was waiting for our turn, we played in the sand. Some people found some ropes. There was like seven of them. We spent almost the whole time digging and pulling. We think that they are anchors for crayfish or something like that. They were deep under the sand, buried so far down. After a while the other team started coming in from the water and so we went and got dressed into our togs. When we were ready we got into the wet suits, they were had to get into. I accidentally put it on backwards so I had to restart. Then we put on flippers, goggles and a snorkel and walked backwards into the water with our partner and an adult. My partner was Grace and the adult was Kacy's mum, Simone. When we got in the water we had to test our goggles and snorkels to make sure they weren't faulty. I breathed in salt water and told Simone. She told me I'm wasn't wearing it right. I adjusted it and tried again and sure enough, it worked. We swam further into the water. We saw huge fish, tiny fish, blue fish, gray fish, starfish, paua, slugs and anemone. It was so cool. When we came back to shore we got dressed and walked to the building with a lot of cool aquariums. There was an aquarium that you could put your hand in and play with the things in there, like starfish and sea shells. They were feeding the octopus, but I was too short and couldn't see it over the other people. Then we went back to camp and did the usual stuff.
Day 5/Thursday
First we went to the Holocaust Museum. I probably don't need to explain, the title is self explanatory. We met a child survivor of the Holocaust. Her name is Vera. She told us about her experience and why she came to New Zealand. We then read some books and looked at some pictures. Then a group of people went downstairs to look at some buttons. Each button represented a child who died during the holocaust. There were 1.5 million buttons, all collected by primary school students. Then we went back upstairs to the rest of the group. Soon it was time to go.
We had lunch on the water front then went to the Wellington Museum to learn about the Wahine disaster. The Wahine disaster was when a large ship called the Wahine was caught in a large storm and crashed and sunk. Quite a few people died, but a lot more survived.
After that we left for ONTV&Media. My group was going to make Android Apps. Our teacher was called Carl. We all made the same apps. The first app we made was a 'Stroke the Kitty' app. When you stroke the cat on the screen, it meows. The challenge was to get it to purr/vibrate. I succeeded. The next one we made was a colouring app. You would poke the colour you want then draw with your finger on the screen. The colours I had were pink, red, blue, green, yellow, orange and white (or as I called it, Eraser). When you shook the screen, it would clear. The last app we made was a magic8ball app. We made it so there was a picture of a pool ball with the number 8 on it, and when you shook it, it would go cha-ching then say and show your answer. It was really fun, but soon we had to leave. We did the usual and went to bed.
Day 5/Thursday
First we went to the Holocaust Museum. I probably don't need to explain, the title is self explanatory. We met a child survivor of the Holocaust. Her name is Vera. She told us about her experience and why she came to New Zealand. We then read some books and looked at some pictures. Then a group of people went downstairs to look at some buttons. Each button represented a child who died during the holocaust. There were 1.5 million buttons, all collected by primary school students. Then we went back upstairs to the rest of the group. Soon it was time to go.
We had lunch on the water front then went to the Wellington Museum to learn about the Wahine disaster. The Wahine disaster was when a large ship called the Wahine was caught in a large storm and crashed and sunk. Quite a few people died, but a lot more survived.
After that we left for ONTV&Media. My group was going to make Android Apps. Our teacher was called Carl. We all made the same apps. The first app we made was a 'Stroke the Kitty' app. When you stroke the cat on the screen, it meows. The challenge was to get it to purr/vibrate. I succeeded. The next one we made was a colouring app. You would poke the colour you want then draw with your finger on the screen. The colours I had were pink, red, blue, green, yellow, orange and white (or as I called it, Eraser). When you shook the screen, it would clear. The last app we made was a magic8ball app. We made it so there was a picture of a pool ball with the number 8 on it, and when you shook it, it would go cha-ching then say and show your answer. It was really fun, but soon we had to leave. We did the usual and went to bed.
