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Decided to stay another night, as a) we really liked the feeling of the holiday park, & it is well equipped, & b) Rodney & Jelena's (the managers) list of things to see & do had caught our eye! After breakfast & schoolwork, & a long chat with Rodney, we went to the i-site to buy the Wairarpa Family Fun Pass ($65) to gain entry to 4 local attractions. The first one happened to be next door to the i-site: The Wool Shed - the National Museum of Sheep & Shearing. D&L initially watched a video of a sheep shearing competition (Masterton's Golden Shears) while the kids explored the museum, & M sat on a model sheep, that bleated! Then we all had a look at the displays on the history of sheep & the wool industry. Surprisingly, it was much more interesting than we thought it was going to be, & on the way out, L saw some slippers that she liked! As with everything in NZ, there was a LotR link: cloaks used by the Fellowship were woven locally.
Next we visited Pukaka Mount Bruce - the National Wildlife Centre. We saw kiwis (brown & one albino!), tuatara, & a kokako, amongst others, & the kids helped to feed the long finned eels.
We were getting hungry, as it was past lunchtime, but we realised that we had left our sandwiches back in the cabin. We drove back to Masterton, to eat, then went for a walk, in Queen Elizabeth Park, across the road. We started by following the Waipoua River, then turned by the cricket pitch, & shortly found ourselves walking through a hundred year old cemetery! Another turn took us to the aviary, with fluffy chickens, parakeets, & a pair of peacocks - the male of which was displaying furiously! Then we found the fernery (full of ferns!) & finally (to the kids delight) a huge purpose built (by the community) wooden playground - a large "castle" for the kids to run around, plus an old tractor & a digger to sit on, & a really steep & long flying fox!
After an hour, or so, we managed to drag the kids away, & back to the holiday park, for tea (cauliflower cheese!). Once they were settled, D&L occupied the TV room, drank wine, & watched Peter Jackson's pre-LotR film: the Frighteners. Verdict: some great special effects, but unfortunately, the film itself was not a classic!
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