With great excitement we set off early on Thursday to reach Auckland by 10.00 am. Fortunately the traffic was not too heavy and we didn’t even need to use the bus lanes. Emma from the maritime Museum was at the entrance waiting for us and she led us to the meeting area. We had a briefing and a quick bite to eat before our first activities. Room 4 donned their life jackets and lined up to board the Ted Ashby, an old sailing vessel, manned by several volunteers. They headed off into the harbour and under the bridge where there were a couple of bungy jumpers leaping off the platform. Room 5 meantime were learning about where the first New Zealanders came from and how they got to New Zealand. They also got to use coconut fibre to lash sticks together in the traditional way that the early New Zealanders would have done. After changing activities we all had lunch and spent the afternoon exploring the rest of the museum. We gave our thank yous and then headed off to Britomart where we caught a commuter train to New Lynn. That was exciting as the train lurched back and forth around the corners. The bus met us at the station and took us to our camp and we organised our beds. After dinner we boarded the bus again to go to the Auckland Observatory where we learnt all about planets, constellations and the night sky. We watched a movie, had a quiz and then viewed the moon through powerful telescopes. Next day we did some camp activities. We loved the Challenge Valley and the Flying Fox. After a quick morning tea it was back in the bus and off to Wenderholm for lunch. What a great trip. Thank you so much Diane, Lorraine, Eva, Gabriel, Gaile and Tui for being such great parent helpers.