Hey everyone

Today was Anzac day!

Today we did probably the most appropriate thing one can do on Anzac day and went to the War Memorial Museum. It had special events on throughout the day too (we didn't make it in time for the 6am dawn service...) so we got ourselves ready for a big day out.

The museum is situated at the top of a hill in the Domain, and is a huge, impressive looking building. We went straight to the top floor to see what event was currently on, and watched a poetry recitle. We had a look around the exhibitions and it was interesting to see World War II from an Asia-Pacific perspective. We learnt a lot about Australia and New Zealands's involvement in the wars, and the fighting that occured outside Europe.

After looking at lots of different displays, we went down to the exhibitions on natural history. Here there were mainly birds, including a penguin taller than Christina and an absolutely huge extinct emu. We then went on to look at the volcano section, and learnt about all the most significant volcanic eruptions. New Zealand lies right on a tectonic plate boundary, and the north island sits on a supervolcano. There was also a 'volcano house', which we went in and sat on the sofa. The television came alive and showed a news report about a volcano in Auckland, that was on the brink of erupting. When the eruption took place, the house shook literally.

Next we went threw the ocean section, and saw Nemo and Dory together in a tank. Next was the section on the Maori people, the first settlers in New Zealand, who came over about 600 years ago. They travelled over in huge canoes (wakas) and we went inside a traditional wooden maori meeting place, which had carvings everywhere. We learnt a little about their traditions and what happened when European settlers came over more recently in the 19th century.

Feeling Museumed out and very hungry, we decided we had seen enough and it was time to leave. On our way back, we quickly stopped by at the Hot House in the Domain to look at the plants, and then once back at the hostel, noticing the TV lounge was free, we hired a film from reception and settled down with some food in front of I Am Legend. The film was good and we had a nice relaxing evening, before our final full day in Auckland tomorrow. Xxx