What was I thinking!

I went to check in on my 'Thursday' post to see if there were any comments - which are the first thing I always go to - when I happened to notice that I had somehow finished the post in mid-stride so to speak - possibly because the WM and I have been doing 17 hour days and my brain was a little fried that day, LOL. I hope you have all been waiting with baited breath for the next installment!!!!!

The next stop was Government House (after the previously mentioned lunch on the Thursday post)- very flash gates with a gate house and guard to check cars in. We had two sick students who were in no shape to go on the tour so got them off the bus for some fresh air and I opted to stay with them. It would have been great to go and see the inside of the place but being a kiwi, thought it was better that the Aussies got to see their own place, LOL. I knew the WM would take photos (and she did,). Meanwhile, sat under some big old tree on GRASS and watched some crows being divebombed by some other birds while the two students started to come right. One of the students noticed that there was a clicking sound by the fence behind us and went to investigate only to find a small turtle stuck on an electric fence wire at the base of the fence and the clicks were the power shorting out as it was being shocked. One of the boys found a long stick (as you do) and managed to eventually flip the turtle off the wire onto its back and then managed to flip it over right side up, only getting a few shocks himself. We were not sure whether the turtle survived but after a minute or so, its foot started to come out of the shell which was great. On reflection, we were lucky not to have been accosted by a gun toting guard I suppose - poking around at the surround fence, in possibly terrorist activity, LOL. In fact a gardner person came over to check what we were up to and then liberated the turtle further back in the property - so that is as close as I got to the Governor General's residence.

Next stop after that was the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organisation which is reasonably self explanatory. There were interactive parts for the students to have a go at - the bits that stick in my mind are seeing two sorts of stick insects, an aquarium of fish, some dead parrots stuck to a wall and for the life of me I cannot remember a single thing more about the place except they made a smashing cappucino and baklava, LOL. However the stop after that was riveting (was never a science buff as school, LOL)and this was much more me. We went to a place called Cockington Green and I can THOROUGHLY recommend it. It is set in beautifully planted grounds and all to scale throughout are English village houses and amenities showing all sorts of styles of architecture over the years and in different locales. Took masses of video but haven't checked it yet to see if it does the place justice. The detail was phenomenal, down to the vehicles parked at the houses, the animals and figures of people. There was a church with church bells ringing, house boats in a canal with horses pulling them, a hunt with a very Thelwell type horse sitting down being dragged up by the reins , with houses from basic, to castle, and everything in between. There was a miniature railway track with trains running through the place, a soccer ground with players and huge crowd in the stands with commentary and singing coming out of the speakers as you passed by. There was a miniature maze and stonehenge... but wait, there is more,... and then you get to the international part. OMG is all I can say.


This is a miniature Phillipina Butterfly House and one of the international houses to give you an idea. For NZ, there was Waitangi House (on video) with sheep on the front lawn which I thought was a bit of a dig!!

The detail is amazing throughout the display and the time we had did not do it justice. There was also a model railway running through the place that you could have a ride on which the students all seemed to enjoy.

Rain started to come in again as we headed back to the Institute for dinner, followed by the last half hour of 'Make me a Supermodel'. Will get to watch the full taped version (I hope) when I get back to school but the short version is - the bloke won (another memory lapse because I cannot remember his name). I think Shanina - a 17 yr old girl who had consistantly come top in most weeks challenges would have won, but she cheated in the third to last week and it did not look good.
It was a good unwind before getting everyone settled for the night.