12 Dec 2018
Newcastle and Port Stephens Excursion Report
On the 5 December, Mr Lomax, Mr Austin and Mrs Jones took twenty-one year 10 students and twenty-three year 6 students to port Stephens for a three day excursion.
Day one we caught a bus to Newcastle. Year 10 accompanied by Mr Lomax and Mr Austin completed the Unexpected Exit activity. We were divided into two groups. The first group of 12 went into ‘The Terror Cell’ and the second group of 11 went into ‘The Deranged Scientist.’ Both activities were really challenging and it took us about an hour to complete them. We all had lots of fun trying to escape! Year 6 with Mrs Jones went on a walking tour of Newcastle ran by ‘Newcastle Afoot’ they learnt a lot of things about the history of Newcastle. After that we headed to ‘The Retreat Port Stephens’ we unpacked got settled and when it hit dark Year 10, Mr. Lomax and Mr. Austin played an intense game of commando, board games, then we hit the hay.
Day two we left at 10am on Thursday morning to travel to Nelson Bay to go on a dolphin watching cruise. We got on the sail boat and headed out to sea. We saw a few dolphins on our way out, after a while they put a net into the water so we could be closer to the dolphins. It was a great experience even though it was so windy! After an hour and a half we headed back to shore. Year 10, Mr Lomax and Mr Austin went for lunch at Hog’s Breath and Year 6 and Mrs Jones had Subway for lunch. We had a great time at the marina. After lunch we went to Anna Bay where we went 4wding on Stockton Beach. We saw some interesting things along the way! Firstly we were taken to ‘tin city’ where shipwrecked sailors from the war had built a community on the beach. We were also shown how to collect fresh drinking water under the sand. We spent some time digging up pipis and we finished off with sand boarding down the sand dunes. It was a blast besides getting sand everywhere. When we got back to The Retreat everyone was keen to wash the sand off. Year 6 had a game of hide n seek before it got dark and Year 10 again played an intense game commando and board games then we all went to bed.
Day three was our last day. We got up nice and early to pack our bags to go home. We headed into Newcastle to complete one last activity. Year 10, Mr Lomax and Mr Austin completed the ‘Newcastle Afoot’ tour where we walked around Queens Wharf, Honeysuckle and Newcastle Beach. We learnt a lot about the convict history of Newcastle as well as enjoyed some downtime at the beach before heading back to Merriwa. Year 6 and Mrs Jones went to the Newcastle museum where they got to play around with lots of interactive things. It was all really fun and interesting. After that, we started travelling home. After a quick stop at Singleton for lunch we headed back to Merriwa.
We would like to thank Mr. Lomax for all of his hard work to organise the excursion for us. We would also like to thank Mr Austin and Mrs Jones for coming along to help with everything.
Elly Blackadder, Sarah Nairne, Libbie Towell