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Relaxing start to the day today, because the Museum of Transport and Technology doesn't open until 10am, and it should not take too long to get there. We walked through the campus of Auckland University, which contains many beautiful buildings and gardens. After a short wait at the bus stop, the yellow "Outer loop" bus turned up. The fare was $9.00 for the two of us, and I apologised to the driver for only being able to offer him a twenty dollar note. My change didn't quite come to $9.00.
The driver asked me for the change, and said I could keep the $20.
The journey to the museum took us past many picturesque buildings and other sights. We arrived at 10:05 at the Meola Rd entrance, and after paying the entry fee, made our way into the aviation display hall.
What can I say?
The first plane Brett saw was a SkyHawk. The first I saw was a Lancaster Bomber. They were not even the biggest planes in the building. They were dwarfed by a Short flying boat. It was huge! There were many deHavilland planes as well as a Sky Truk, Air Tourer, gyrocopter, a WWII era DC-3 which last flew commercially as a passenger aircraft in the 1970s, and many more. Easily the best aircraft display we had ever seen.
In the outdoor display area was only one plane. It was being restored, with three men working on one of the wings. It was a "flying porcupine", a Sunderland Short, another flying boat. Awesome!
After we had our fill of the aircraft display hall, we went outside to find the tram to the other site for MOTAT had just arrived. The tram was a Melbourne tram, and it took us on a journey of a few kilometres, across a road and past Auckland Zoo, to the main site on the Great North Rd. Brett was surprised to learn that this was my first tram journey.
The main site at MOTAT is definitely aimed at children, and educating them about how the technologies of the past have led to our current lifestyle. Despite this focus on education, we still found many displays which held great interest for the two of us, including a massive working beam engine which was originally used for pumping water and was housed in a magnificent building. There were many interesting machines including cars, bicycles, motorcycles and old trucks and tractors, including a petrol start Caterpillar D7 dozer. There was also a display of printing machines, some of which were being used to print papers for visitors.
We looked at almost everything on the site, then caught another Melbourne tram - an older one this time, with slatted timber seats - back to Meola Rd, then another Outer Loop bus back to the university.
We arrived back at our accommodation before 3:30pm and made use of the opportunity to wash our clothing in the intriguing machine which both washed and dried, then to pack for tomorrow . I also booked our first night's camp to reduce stress for the next day. Which turned out to be a very good idea.
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