April 14: Museums, foam, and travel cots (II)

The last few days have been full of excitement for Aidan and Megan. The weather wasn't too great on Thursday, so we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There is a fantastic interactive section which could have kept both children amused for several rainy mornings, not just the one morning we had. Megan especially loved playing the huge glockenspiel, and Aidan played with the "fossils" and tried to reassemble a cow.

On Friday, we went with Grandad to MOTAT, which is a science and engineering museum, again with a wonderful interactive section which easily kept both children entertained - Aidan liked playing with the build-your-own arch bridge (although he took some persuasion to actually build it properly!), and Megan loved the shadow wall. We managed a brief visit to see Aunty Heather in the afternoon too, which was lovely.

Today we finally got to Muriwai - a West Coast beach, in the Waitakere Ranges just to the north of Auckland. It was a really blustery day, and the surf was awesome - Aidan was fascinated by the black iron sand and the foam (like bubble bath) that was blowing across the beach - we don't have a satisfactory answer as to the origin of the foam, but it was pretty spectacular. After this, we climbed up the cliff out of the bay (on a board walk) to see the gannet colonies. Megan, having been carried up by Daddy in the back carrier, then insisted on getting out and walking back down to the car with us.

Both Aidan and Megan are suffering from jet-lag - waking routinely about 5am, and not usually getting back to sleep. However, this has not stopped Megan demonstrating her latest skill - climbing out of her travel cot! She proved she could do this at 0440 this morning, and repeated it so many times that at 0600 Mummy and Daddy gave up trying to get back to sleep and got up and gave her breakfast!

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Image 0066-3681 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/2.8 2007:04:12 00:05:55 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

"Weird and Wonderful": the interactive section at the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There was something for everyone, with displays and activities from floor to ceiling.

Megan investigating the crustaceans.

Image 0066-3686 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/2.8 2007:04:12 00:07:44 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Image 0067-3737 Canon PowerShot S45 1/799 sec., f/2.8 2007:04:13 01:34:58 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Grandad taking the kids for a ride in the wheelbarrow, in the front garden. Both kids loved it - they clearly have good balance!

Waiting for the train. On Sunday afternoon we went to the local model engineering society's scale steam railway. They have a track with a triple loop and various bridges and tunnels (the tunnels are not to scale!). Here we are waiting in the queue.

Image 0067-3773 Canon PowerShot S45 1/60 sec., f/2.8 2007:04:15 02:03:12 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Whee!

The train. The four of us rode on the back of this steam train (Megan's on Mummy's lap - you can see her foot in the previous photo), plus the driver. It's a real steam train - we watched the driver stoking the fire and topping up the water at the end of the trip.

Image 0067-3802 Canon PowerShot S45 1/249 sec., f/2.8 2007:04:15 02:17:24 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Image 0067-3812 Canon PowerShot S45 1/499 sec., f/4.9 2007:04:15 02:26:12 UTC (c) Keith & Carolyn

Rolling down the hill. Behind the model railway was a large grass bank with lovely deep springy grass. Daddy knew what that was for, and Aidan and Megan soon copied him. Watch the video [339KB].