Natural History Museum

Monday 5th September. Grandma and Grandad are off on an adventure with Callum, we are taking him to the Natural History Museum in London to see the dinosaurs. But first we have to get there, it’s a walk to the bus stop, catch the bus to the train station, then train on the Elizabeth Line into Paddington Station, then a London black cab to the museum. Phew, it’s a mission.

Bus and train route

Taxi ride through Hyde Park

On the bus, reading the paper on the train, in the back of a London cab

We had waited until schools returned after their long summer break before we ventured into the museum to avoid the crowds, as it was, it was still extremely busy.

Callum doing his best dinosaur impression

Checking out the geological exhibits

Dinosaur skeleton

Blue Whale skeleton on the main hall

Giraffes

This is what fascinated Callum the most, the moving roaring T Rex exhibit

Someone was enthralled for ages

We spent a good hour or two looking at all the exhibits, a little bit of sensory overload for a little man so we went outside for a break.

Callum and Grandad playing hide and seek

Back inside we found the clock from the CBeebies shows Andy’s Dinosaur Adventures and Andy’s Prehistoric Adventures that Andy uses to travel back in time to see dinosaurs.

Andy’s clock….and no, we had no idea about this either until we came to London. Fortunately I’d been to the CBeebies Proms a month or two ago, so I knew all about it!

For those not in the know, the CBeebies is the BBC’s children’s channel and Andy is one of the presenters.

It was time for lunch so we headed down the road to find a pub for lunch. As we sat eating our lunch another family came in and sat at the next table, it turns out they had just arrived in the UK that morning and guess what? They live in Auckland! Although the dad was English, and the mum German, they had lived in China but now reside in NZ. We ended up having a lovely chat. Small world!

Lunch at the pub

After lunch we had a bit of a wander before reversing the mornings travel arrangements to head back home. Callum had a fantastic day, he really enjoyed the exhibitions and he was so good for us too. The next museum trip is already in the planning but first we have a few adventures of our own to go on. Mission accomplished.

Rocks or Fossils

When walking back from Aramoana to Pourerere I came across a collection of rocks that reminded me of the Moeraki Boulders and also a whole group that reminded me of Ammonites and large fossilised turret shells.  I did not know if these are in fact fossils or just vivid imagination on my part.  So here is a gallery with my interpretation.  No doubt someone can give a more informed opinion on these ‘fossils’

This one looks very similar to a Moeraki Boulder.  There were quite a number of these ranging from perfectly spherical to egg shaped to cylindrical with spherical end caps.  Where they had broken apart they were stratified to some degree but not to the same degree as Moeraki boulders.  I think they are accreted boulders very similar to Moeraki boulders but formed in different strata.

This photo and the following three show different views of a single rock which I believe to be an ammonite or a similar creature having a coiled form with segmentation around a core.  It appears to be formed with some hints of a snail type shape.  Or perhaps it is just imagination!!!

 

 

 

 

 

This one has a spiral form much like a squat turret shell.   It was a bit difficult to get a good shot of the spiral form on the side and also to get a shot of the base.  But for want of a better description I would call it  a squat turret.

This one and the next  show a spiral segmented form like a flattened shell.  Hard to describe but there were quite a number with this form.

All of the above where found in an area of about 500 metres by 50 metres.  The ones shown are representative of a very large number of partial relics.  There may have been better examples and more types but I did not have the time to see more as the tide had turned and I wanted to get around the cliffs without being trapped.