The Registry building is old-school...
The Central Library is new-school...
Brendon was awestruck by the number of computers on the ground floor. We also chatted to a friend of Mrs Cook's as she printed her thesis - it was really long.
For the entire walking bus ride Mrs Cook was meant to be in front, with Ursula's Mum, Annette, at the rear. Mrs Cook calls it "keeping between the two flags" for safety. Some people found it difficult to confine themselves to this, but sometimes we managed. We left via the Link (keeping quiet, because students were studying for exams).
We tried not to take up the entire footpath, but sometimes we'd forget in all the excitement. Here we are walking George St, Dunedin's main drag.
We stopped at Knox Church to see an example of one of Dunedin's fine historic churches. The architect, Robert Lawson, also designed Larnarch Castle (among many other things). This stop was one of Nga's favourite parts of the day's trip.
The group were respectfully quiet as we went inside. The stained-glass windows were amazing.
Next stop, the railway station, one of Ben's highlights.
We are Dunedin.
Final stop, the Octagon. Here we took a look at the Robbie Burns statue - a statue of a Scottish poet whose likeness is sculpted and displayed in four cities around the world. Can you name them? (click the link for the answer)
You would think after all of that walking we'd be tired and slumped over our lunches. No, still running around happily on the Octagon lawn. Mrs Cook calls this the "Run Lola Run shot":
Onto the Dunedin Public Art Gallery! (metres away from where we were sitting for lunch)
Nga and Mikayla were pretty taken with the ice sculpture on the second floor. Ben and Rache admired the large circle-map artwork, and Ashleigh was fond of the neon and cellophane light display. Mrs Cook pointed out a painting by Goldie and gallery for Frances Hodgkins - two artists we had seen exhibited in Olveston House. We also watched some video clips of old kiwi shows. So much to see for free!
None of this compared to the attempted robbery of course.
That's right, robbery.
Half of the group was downstairs in the art gallery with Annette, and the other half was upstairs with Mrs Cook. Annette's group heard an alarm sound, and thinking it was the fire alarm, made their way to the foyer. There they saw a man attempting to make off with the gallery's donation box (which is about the size of a microwave, sitting on top of a stand...only an oval-shape). Ben is certain the alarm scared him off, because he gave up, and ran to get into the "get-away" vehicle pulled up outside, a grey Holden stationwagon, according to Nga.
Meanwhile, upstairs Mikayla and Mrs Cook heard the security guard's walkie talkie flare up, and a report of someone trying to make off with the donations box. It wasn't until they came downstairs that they heard eye-witness accounts.
After all that excitement, we made our way back to George St, and onto the Normamby bus, where the bus driver amused the group as he pressed the ticket machine 17 times, feeding out ticket after ticket. Here we are arriving back in NEV:
The entire drive back the group attempted to uncover where we are having lunch tomorrow, as Mrs Cook is determined to keep it a surprise. In fact, Sam came back into the classroom around 5pm with a friend and asked again, "Where are we going for lunch tomorrow?"
The students were very polite, and Mrs Cook called them "good humans" over and over as a result (in tribute to Miss Wells and Miss Haig).
Another plus, was that Martine remembered her jersey (all day!).
Ben was wearing a pedometer for the entire day - we did 10,573 steps, not bad.
1 comment:
that was fun the robbery was just plain weird(and stupidley thought out!)from urs
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