My MOTAT Recount

My trip to M.O.T.A.T - By Cleo

Introduction

I thought I was in a dream when I arrived. It had been two years since I went to M.O.T.A.T with my school. I was very happy when I saw all the exhibitions that I saw two years ago. When we entered through the gate my eyes opened up to a whole new world of gadgets and interactive machines. To a child’s eyes, this would have been the time of their life to touch things, sadly some of the things were off limits but that didn’t stop us!

The Village

The first exhibition we went to is the village. Miss Wu said “Where do you want to go?” everyone replied “Let's look for dolls!” so we all agreed to look at the dolls. The first doll we saw was in the first house, it was sitting on a rocking chair while it creepily gave us a death stare. We slowly backed away and walked past this “Bathroom”. We saw a dummy reading a Newspaper, we all got scared and decided it was time to visit the Inventor’s Room.

Inventor Room

As soon as we entered the exhibition we all heard children laughing and having fun. I decided to investigate the laughter along with everyone else. We saw a big, bouncy, trampoline with one of the twins jumping on it. It had this game connected to it. The object of the game was you had to jump on these little monsters like Whack - A - Mole. It traced your steps, where ever you landed. So basically you had to jump on the monsters and squash them with your feet. We all desperately wanted to have a turn so we all turned towards Miss Wu and begged her for a turn but Tiffany (Athena’s Mum) decided to do the smart thing and told us to come back later because the line was too long. After a while of exploring the different rooms, it was finally time to go on the trampoline. When it was my turn I was the first person in our group to get 33 points, Zariah and Ana got 29. They were so close to getting 30 points but sadly they didn’t.

Technology Room                

The technology room was quite exquisite and intriguing. Miss Wu followed Miss Paton’s group as we all entered the room. There were many old computers and they were far different from the ones we know today. The computers were all dusty and broken, we all crowded the area as we looked around for something interesting. Quickly, we all noticed some old Arcade Machines. We rushed towards them and attempted to play the games, but it was pretty hard to understand what the game controls were. We just eyeballed them. After a while of spending time in the Technology Room, we decided it was time to visit Above and Beyond.

Above and Beyond

We walked and walked all the way to the so-called “Pink Castle” also known as Above and Beyond. The doors were blacked out so as soon as the automatic doors opened, a whole new world of gadgets were revealed to our little peepers. There were planes, simulators and interactive machines. The first thing that caught my eye was this Bird Simulator, it was called “Spread your wings!”. You had to stand on a circle and use your arms as if they were wings. Luckily for me, I just squeezed in another turn. Sadly we had to leave quickly because we were late for the Scavenger Hunt.

Scavenger Hunt

The Scavenger Hunt was about to commence and Miss Wu had rushed us back to the main room. Kent was waiting for us. When we all arrived Kent gave us some papers with all the places we needed to go and the things we needed to find. The first place we went to was the fire station. At the fire station, we needed to find a few things that were on the paper. After a while of searching the area, we had finally come up to the last area which was the village. The number one thing on our list was to find all the dolls. We had searched everywhere and finally found all of the things on the paper, so Miss Wu told us to head back. We all gave our papers to Kent and ventured forward.

Tram Ride

We all patiently waited for the Tram to arrive as if we were in the olden days. A nice guy named Rob soon arrived with the Tram. It was Red with gold streaks. The first thing he did was tell us some facts about the olden days, and the fact all the girls enjoyed was that the ladies had to go first. We all boarded the Tram and sat down. Rob had soon started up the Tram and away we went! As we passed the various sights we also passed a few Pukekos and their babies. Rob said, “Look at the baby pukekos!”. We all peered our eyes outside the window to witness some Pukekos innocently playing with their siblings. In sync, we all said “Aww!” as the Tram ride continued. Rob had turned the Tram around and we started to head back to MOTAT. After a bumpy ride back, we had finally made it to the museum. The next and last stop was to head to the classroom.

Educator’s Classroom

After hours of having fun at MOTAT, it was finally time for the educator session. As we entered Kent had some experiments prepared for us. The first experiment included you having to hit the target using a spinning fan. The next experiment was having to balance a ping pong using a hairdryer and so on! Kent taught us how planes were supposed to balance themselves whilst in mid air and he taught us some things about air pressure. We all laughed and played while we tried the various experiments. Meanwhile, down below children could be seen and heard laughing and enjoying themselves. Kent was an amazing person to work with but as the time flew by, it eventually came for the MOTAT trip to end.

Conclusion

I thoroughly enjoyed our trip at MOTAT. I was only disappointed in a few things that weren’t there. The Pump House was deactivated and I didn’t get a turn to go on the cool plane simulator at Above and Beyond. When it came to leaving I was super disappointed knowing we may never go back to MOTAT again. Although I was really sad, one thing that made my day was going to MOTAT with my friends and enjoying all the cool olden day stuff from back then. Overall, I enjoyed the time at MOTAT and I hope to come back with my friends to visit. Perhaps maybe next time we visit the Pump House would be working for us. Goodbye MOTAT!