Have you ever been to Ambury Farm? A farm with plenty of animals and loads of milk production. You might be wondering why I am asking this? Well if you have never been to Ambury Farm, you are messing out.  A few days ago I visited Ambury Farm, because it was an educational trip that the people in the piwakawaka got to go to. It was one of the more interesting trips I got to go. The day was excellent but when it came to the last activity I got so scared (I will explain the activity later). The trip overall was excellent in fact it was even better than the other farm I had visited back in year 2 or 3. That farm was so smelly and had so much more poop than the farm I visited recently. I feel like Ambury Farm is a tiny bit cleaner than the one I visited in year 2 or 3, but I can’t say much because I don’t remember a lot.

I woke up in the morning on a Tuesday remembering that I had a trip. I quickly tried running to the bathroom and accidentally stubbed my toe on the door. I silently hopped around my bathroom with one leg and the other in my hand doing something stupid (it looked like I was trying to do a yoga pose but I had terrible balance). I then brushed my teeth and changed into my clothes. After I ate some breakfast I quickly walked to school and made it on time which was really relieving. We then did the roll and went over some of the necessary items we had to have. Then after that we all got separated in our groups, after we patiently waited for the bus (which didn’t take as long as I thought). When the bus finally arrived I realised that I WAS GOING TO BE THE LAST GROUP THAT ENTERED THE BUS, so one by one the groups slowly went into the bus. Once everyone else went in, my group finally went in. 

When we went on the bus I realised that it was gonna be a long bus ride which would be 30 minutes or so. I felt like I was going crazy in the bus, it was so loud like it was even louder than 10 people screaming. Finally after 30 minutes or so we finally exited the bus, my legs felt so numb it seemed that we had been in a bus for 30 minutes. When we got there we saw ducks! They were so cool, sadly we had to go to this grassy place where we were told to eat our morning tea quickly so we could start exploring the farm. I quickly ate my morning tea and placed my bag in this really dirty cupboard. The first activity I had was for ram shearing, although I didn’t know what a ram was I just assumed it was sheep shearing because we went into this building and on top of the door there was a sign saying sheep shearing, so I assumed it was sheep shearing.

When we first went inside I was disgusted by the smell, the smell was something that I would smell in a rotten food mixed with poop. We were seated on a bench, I then noticed that there were 2 men shearing rams (I thought they were sheep for a second but then the person who had led us here had pointed out that they were shearing rams). When they were shearing the rams, the rams were moving and looked like cats who kept moving their paws upside down. It was very entertaining and funny to watch the men who were shearing the rams try to get the ram still. I was enjoying it but then we had to go before the other group didn’t get to see all the rams sheared. The next thing I did was interesting, we learnt about fibres from animals. We first talked about it but then we got handed bags and got separated into groups we made ourselves.

Then we started matching photos with the fibres that the animals produced. At first I thought that the fibres looked weird, but then I realised that it was just what the animals produced. That was all for that activity. Then we ate some lunch because it was already pretty late by then. After that we went to go look at some animals, we saw plenty of animals like cows/pigs/chickens/sheep and much more. After that we explored more and saw a majestic peacock. After that we went back because it was time for our swap over. We then went inside again into the shed where we went last time. We then got taught how to make a very strong string with just sheep wool. At first I thought I was really bad at doing it because my wool didn’t look like even long lost ancestors to the man’s wool. The man’s wool looked fluffy but mine was separating like crazy. He then said we had to twist it and also pull, he said we needed 2 people so I got another person to be my partner. We then tried it over and over again but it kept breaking meanwhile half the class had already done 2 ply.

Once we finished the wool activity we went over to a shed. Once we were there we were told to sit on a table. Then the park ranger told us to get these 3 coloured types of wool. She then told us to separate the wool, then she said that we could see the fibres going up. She then said to place the wool facing up and the fibres going up, then she said to place the next colour landscape way meaning the fibres were going right or left. Then she said to put the next colour in the portrait and the fibres going up. After she told us to go to the sink, but not just yet she said we were going to soak it in hot water. After that she said we had to say “bubbles” in a super high pitched voice. She then slathered dishwashing liquid onto the felt. After that she said to rub rub rub and rub it more! Then she said “NOT LIKE THIS” AND SHE SLAPPED THE TABLE AS HARD AS POSSIBLE. I was scared but not as scared as my teacher Mrs Haywood, she screamed so loud! Then the ranger said that it was the first scream of the day which really surprised Mrs Haywood. After that we all went to the sinks and did exactly what she showed. After that we all went outside to show her. Sadly mine had a hole in it.

That was the last activity. After that we all got our bags and went on the bus. I felt really tired so I just fell asleep. The overall day was really fun. I forgot to mention that I even got to feed really cute bunnies! They were so cute, and they ate plenty of grass. The day was so fun even though my legs were so tired! I saw some interesting animals, and some stuff I don’t want to see. I also saw cows drink milk, they were so messy but they were really hungry. I just think that I could have explored more if we didn’t keep going to places we didn’t know if we were allowed to go in then we could explore more but it’s alright because we already explored enough for that day. When we came back to school I was so exhausted. Then the teachers noticed we were all bored or exhausted so we started playing a game. The game was pretty fun. It was a game where we couldn’t say yes/yea. The teacher asked different types of questions of the day. Just when she chose me the bell rang. It was annoying, but it’s fine! That was my day at the farm!