The Marine Discovery Centre, Eden May 2010

On the 12th of May our Natural Learners group went down to the Marine Discovery Centre in Eden for a visit. Steve and the other staff at the centre were fantastic and gave us all such a wonderful time of learning and discovering together.

First of all we went over to the Fish Filleting Factory where the fresh fish, straight from the trawlers, are filleted. It stunk! But other than that it was a really interesting experience for us to see the process from taking fish from the ocean and  making them into the fish and chips that we buy at the shop. Actually, at the time, I felt like I needed to become a fishetarian like Lewi. Though that moment quickly passed once I exited the building as my stomach demanded to be fed and the smells wafting out from the nearby fish and chip shop lured me in;) Lewi  refuses to eat fish as he loves them so much and believes it's not good to kill them. His term fishetarian remains!

Then we went back into the centre and participated in a really fun talk given by Steve. We looked at whale bones and then Steve had the kids lie down on the floor in a long, long line, to measure how long an actual Blue whale is.    After that we went into another area within the centre where we looked at some tanks and aquariums and discussed the marine life that dwelt there.      The kids then had fun at the touch pool and sand touch table. Some amazing things were on the table: a complete dried skeleton of an eel, sea horses, star fish, lots of shark eggs and some other fantastic items.   To finish off the kids had fun at the microscopes looking at sea life magnified whilst some of the younger ones enjoyed doing beautiful sea craft.

We have booked in to go back to the Marine Discovery Centre next term to do a rocky shore ramble with Steve. We can't wait for that one!

To end off a lovely day we had lunch up at the lookout. Guess what we had to eat......yep, fish and chips! Though the fishetarians and vegos in the group opted for chips only. The weather was rainy and freezing cold so we didn't last long up at the lookout. A nice warm car trip home completed the day. Lewi and I then popped into to see my Dad and Rosie at Oaklands in Pambula where we enjoyed a hot cuppa and a milk shake. Fun, fun, fun!