Kea Day

Sunday 18th October: Sun and showers, and cool enough to need winter coats. We had a quiet morning in and around the motorhome. The boys enjoyed playing in the different play areas at the campsite. At 11am we left and drove about 10 minutes to Willowbank Reserve. This is an animal park plus traditional Maori areas and was the location for a Canterbury Keas day out to celebrate 30 years of Kea Scouts. About 400 6- and 7-year old boys and girls and their leaders and some family members spent the afternoon in the park with all sorts of activities to do. It was raining when we arrived but soon brightened up and stayed dry for the rest of the time there. Every Kea was given a cup cake and a badge and we were all kept busy. Once the Kea Day had finished we stayed on in the park and wandered round the rest of the animals - everyone else had gone home so we had the park to ourselves. We enjoyed the lemurs (Edward loves ring-tailed lemurs) and the otters were very entertaining and we all thought it was very picturesque.
We drove back to the campsite and Steve took the boys to the site's swimming pool. They enjoyed an hour splashing round in the water and rushing down the water slide into the water. Unfortunately Peter then lost his footing at the top of the steps up to the slide and fell on to his back on the hard floor. He was very brave but obviously bruised and bumped on his back and the back of his head.
I cooked tea in the motorhome and Steve put them off to bed while I went to the campsite's movie room for the evening film. However, "Jumper" did not catch my attention - no knitting needles or wool anywhere!