Day 4 - The Jaffa Race, Haggis Ceremony and Out for Lunch

This morning we labelled Jaffas with our favourite numbers, along with other numbers in sequence up to one-hundred-and-something, armed ourselves with the trusty boxes from Tuesday, and set out.

We walked to Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world according to the Guiness Book of World Records (and the sign at the bottom). The entire way we attempted to determine where we were going for lunch by badgering Mrs Cook (with no luck).

We released our hundred-and-something Jaffas on the footpath (safety first), in tribute to the Cadbury chocolate festival's event held every July. We happily watched them bounce down the hill at enough speed to hurt Amber’s hand when she attempted to catch the winning Jaffa.

Jaffa Race 1

Click here to see a photo and video from last year's official Jaffa race (ONE News).

Mrs Cook loved that you could hear the Jaffas coming, and Martine liked the way they looked. We decided to have more than one race, but quite a few Jaffas had to be culled from the pack, as they had received severe injuries (such as shedding their skin). We had a second and third race with the survivors. Ashleigh’s Jaffa won race 1 – Jaffa number 73. Brenden’s Jaffa won race 3 – number 16…and an unlabelled Jaffa took out the second race (Yang and Cooper both claim it was their unlabelled one).

We picked up our mess before then running or walking to the top of the street so that we could say we'd done it...and get photos like this:

Back at school, it was time for our very own Haggis Ceremony.

Reactions:

• Amber found it disgusting, and didn’t like the texture in her mouth
• Mikayla thought it tasted like seaweed
• Tōrea liked the crackers (but not the Haggis)
• Ellen, Ursula, Nga, Cooper and Ben had tasted it before, and all of them liked it except Cooper
• Yang decided he would skip trying it
  
• Martine, Brenden, and Mrs Cook tried it for the first time and thought it tasted good, Mrs Cook thought it tasted like pâté

After interval, we had a very quick game of hangman to guess (finally) where we were going for lunch. After an “A” and an “I” were placed on the short little lines, we knew the answer; Filadelfio’s. We projected the menu on the board, selected from the menu, and Lewis typed up our order to hand over on arrival.

After Filadelfio’s we filled out Dunedin postcards we bought while out and about yesterday, describing our elective highlights. We wrote with our souvenir Dunedin pens we also purchased. Ben and Nga had brought more Cadbury's chocolate for us to take home (as they have connections on the inside), and Mrs Cook rationed this out as we wrote reflections on our week (we have had more than enough chocolate to make up for not going on the tour!).

We made our last walk together down to the Garden's mall area, and posted our postcards to ourselves (how very tourist-like of us). Lewis informed me his arrived Saturday, good job NZPost.

And that, was us...being Dunedin.

Day 3 - The Walking Bus

Today we took a ride on the walking bus. First stop, the University of Otago. This is the oldest university in New Zealand, and features examples of both historical and contemporary architecture.

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.

Day 2 - Olveston House and Chocolate in the Gardens

Today we went to Olveston House in the morning via taxi van, Mrs Cook's SUV (Thimba), and special guest Mrs Thorburn's car.




Mrs Cook loves Olveston. She loves that it was gifted to the city of Dunedin (that's us - we are Dunedin), Mikayla thinks that's pretty cool too.

Nga thought the safe was cool, it reflects how spoiled the family was. Ben liked the dumb-waiter. Ellen thought it was interesting that the family is connected to Hallensteins , and Tōrea liked the carved bear in the entrance (vestibule). Ashleigh thought it was interesting that the master bedroom and guest room were designed exactly the same. Mikayla thought it was creepy that so many mirrors in the room faced you (trust Mikayla to look for the scary thing in the house). Amber thought it was cool that Dorothy had her own sitting room off her bedroom.

Cooper and Yang were impressed by the Olympic-sized billiard table upstairs.


Ellen was taken with the card room (with its Juliet window for spying on the hall below).


Sam liked the Fiat. Tōrea learned later that night that her great-grandfather was one of the chaffeurs that drove this car - wow!


Rache liked the Great Hall...


...but only because there was a sculpture of an Arabian horse in it.

In the middle of the day we had a quiz about Dunedin (Ōtepoti). Test how much you remember! Think of the answer before you click on the link to check if it's correct.

• When did Māori first settle in this area? 1200 AD, 1100 AD, 1000 AD, or 800 AD
• When did Captain Cook land on the coast of what is now Dunedin? 1770, 1780, 1790, 1810
• People started sealing and whaling here (eugh!), and then the population grew even more due to the ________________.
• Tourists prepare to visit a city by learning about its language, currency, culture, and climate (among many other things). What is Dunedin's average high (temperature) in January?
• Dunedin has four sister cities; name one.

In the afternoon, we walked to the Botanical Gardens. Firstly, because the gardens are one of Dunedin's attractions (plus, they're free!), and secondly, because Mrs Cook promised a Chocolate Hunt! Cadbury World does not run tours during ONE week of the 52 weeks in a year, and that week was elective week. So Mrs Cook decided if we couldn't go to Cadbury's, she'd bring Cadbury's to us.

We split into teams and raced around to find all of the cryptic images Mrs Cook gave us, for every item found and filled in we earned more sugary treats.


Brenden watched the fish in the ponds there, Ellen was giddy to have Mrs Thorburn along, and Mikayla pointed out it was a nice day for us (again). Rache enjoys feeding the ducks, Ursula liked the sugar, and Nga enjoyed finding the clues and getting the treasure for it (sugar).


Ellen, Rache and Ursula were the first team back.


Some of the girls got a little crazy about the sugar to be consumed (some were excited even in anticipation!). And well...there were tremors, giggles, twitches, songs, and human helicopters...no photo could capture the craziness of the reaction. We may have to post a video later.

And with the students in this state, Mrs Cook waved good-bye, and sent them home to their parents!

Day 1 - Larnach Castle and Sandfly Bay

Yesterday we went to Larnach Castle and Sandfly Bay.

In the morning in Room 1 we got Google Maps directions to our destinations (so we could all be navigators), read up on and watched videos about the 23 sightings of ghosts at Larnach Castle (among other things, but the ghost sightings seemed to take priority).




It was a cold and icy day; how appropriate.

We went to New World and dug through the skips out back for boxes to equip us for our adventure at Sandfly Bay.

Then we piled into three vehicles to make the drive to Larnach Castle. Mrs Cook was very excited...although the four girls in her car wouldn't stop talking...all at once. Seven students were lucky enough to ride with Andrew (a friend of Mrs Cook's), who enjoyed performing unexpected "brake tests", taking detours to mislead Mrs Cook, and demonstrating a different sort of driving style. The final vehicle was driven by Tōrea's Dad, Jimmy (who knew the fastest way there, and arrived first!).

We arrived at Larnach Castle at 11:35am for our self-guided tour.



Mrs Cook loved the dungeon.


Tōrea loved the geese and garden.



and Ben liked the turrets.


Martine, Sam and Amber enjoyed running up the tower steps. Again...and again.

The view from New Zealand's only castle was impressive. Larnach apparently rode with his son on horses to pick the best spot. (It was pretty overcast while we were there.)


One thing we all loved was seeing the photo of Larnach in the ballroom that looks like a skull from far away. This added to the students' fear of ghosts and all things creepy. Andrew couldn't resist jumping out to "boo" us regularly.


After lunch in the castle gardens, we left Larnach and drove 10 minutes to Sandfly Bay.


The sun came out, even though it was still chilly.


The walk down was fun.



Sliding down the hill was fun.


The walk up was not.
It was steep, and "ugly" according to Nga.

While there, we got to see two sea lions playing, Tōrea's Dad told us about them (he works for DoC - handy!).



We even got to do some conservation work ourselves, replanting nga pikau that had tipped over (including replacing the fertiliser pellets - which we were excellent at finding).


After all of this, we had sand in our shoes, socks, ears, eyebrows...and yeah, you get the idea.

We made that ugly trek back up, and got back into the cars, and THEN it started to rain. Mrs Cook is certain it held out just for us.