Rainbow Springs:

There are two parts to Rainbow Springs. the Farm and the Springs. I went to the Springs first.

The first things I saw was a Tuatara, which is related to dinosaurs. At the time the tuatara was eating crickets. Then we walked into a dark room about the size of a chicken house. The place had a kiwi! This was the first time I had ever seen a real live kiwi! We watched the kiwi and it started to poke its nose into the ground. It stated to shake its head about, trying to swallow a grub. I wasn't too sure if it was male or a female. You can only tell if the kiwi makes a sound. 

When we came out of the kiwi house, we saw a rainbow-coloured pheasant strutting along the path. Then we saw, in a pool, very big trout and swans. There was a nest on the shore with seven white eggs and the swans weren't guarding them.

We went over to a cage and saw some keas with a pukeko. We have a painting at home of a pukeko that we call "Bob", so we decided to call this pukeko Bob as well. I went into an aviary where I saw an eel in a pool, with its back end in a pipe on the bottom of the pool. There were also paradise ducks and wood pigeons. Then we realized there were some tuis in the threes. I spotted a heron that was standing on top of the aviary. When we came out of the aviary we saw a statue of a moa with an egg that would hold 90 chicken eggs!

We looked into a little pool and saw little fish that were baby blue. They were mutant rainbow trout. We walked past an aquarium with trout that were close to a meter long. You could tell the difference between the males and females because the males had hooked lower jaws. When we came out of the aquarium we saw the rainbow-coloured pheasant again. We also saw pigs, sheep, ducklings, deer, and emus. 

On the other side of the highway was Rainbow Springs Farm. We got there by walking through an underpass. In the store we tasted about 12 different kinds of honey, including pohutukawa. Then we went into the Farm Show. The first demonstration that they had was two different types of sheepdogs taking sheep around an obstacle course. One of the dogs barked at the sheep and the other one gave the sheep the silent treatment. The dogs obeyed whistle commands. One of the dogs brought a sheep into a passing gate where a man separated the sheep out according to colours on their wool. Then they brought out a sheep-shearing shack where there was a frantic sheep inside a pen. When the man took the sheep out, it skittered around the floor and he finally clutched it between his legs, sat it up, and it stopped fidgeting. Then the man started the razor and sheared the sheep. When he was done, the sheep started to skitter again and the man locked it up in a cage where it stayed perfectly still. The man handed out some of the wool for us to keep. The wool felt very greasy, and I didn't like the feel of it. 

Then the men brought in a bull. They asked for a volunteer, and of course I put my hand up and guess what? They chose me! They told me to get on top of the bull and ride around the paddock. I knew they were joking so I hopped on and they told us about the bull. After, when they brought in a cow and asked for four kids to milk the cow, I got chosen again! First the men cleaned off the udder and then they put lanolin on the udder and asked us to milk the cow. After we finished milking the cow, the men put suction cups on the udder and gots lots of milk. The men put the milk into a cream separator and asked for a strong volunteer who would turn the cream separator. After the cream had been separated the men asked for a volunteer who would turn the butter churn to make butter. The churn made lots of butter

At the end of the show a man asked for 10 more volunteers and he chose 9 other kids and me and we all got a bottle. Then one of the men let loose 10 lambs and the smallest lamb came to me to be fed. 

I liked Rainbow Springs coloured pheasant and the big fish. The farm was neat because I got to milk a cow.