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Our intrepid traveller, MICHAEL NICHOLAS, 10 of Christchurch reports to us from around the country...


Museum of NZ Te Papa Tongarewa   TE-RIFFIC TE PAPA!

Hey Upstarters!

I hope you’re all good!
Happy New Year! And a big shout out to my old school Phillipstown School and a big hi to everyone at my new school for 2008, Breens Intermediate, Christchurch!

This time I’m writing from Te Papa in Wellington – an awesome place!

I advise you all to go and find out for yourselves just how good it is.
Plenty to see and do

Te Papa is a cool place with very cool exhibitions and cool things.

In one part there are lots of Mäoritreasures (taonga). And in another section there is a whole lot of stuff about volcanoes.

There’s a replica house that shows what happens in earthquakes, It shakes around and it does these really cool things.

There are a whole lot of other very, very cool things, like a computer that has a camera on it.

You can take photos and then throw awesome little cartoons and stuff on it and then print it out.
There’s also a neat section called Golden Days – you will love that also!

Well, that’s some of the highlights. I’m sure you’ll also love all the other stuff.

I look forward to writing to youfrom more fun, interesting and exciting places in 08.

Keep reading Upstart! 



 
Hey Upstart Fans,

It’s me, Michael Nicholas again!
I hope you enjoyed my last article about the Cadbury Factory.
This time I’m up north in Wellington.
I went to Te Papa and the Wellington Zoo.

But I’m going to tell you about The Beehive.
I didn’t see Helen Clark waving out the window or anything (haha!).
When you walk in The Beehive there is a little passage with a few men standing at a scanner.
I had to take everything out of my bag and so did my mum.
They put my mum’s handbag though a scanner and it showed up on the other side on a screen. This is to make sure nobody brings bad things into Parliament, like bombs or flammable equipment (matches and things like that). 
Then we walked in and to my left was a shop where you could buy souvenirs. 
   
To my right I saw the reception desk where you get a sticker saying ‘Visitor.’
We then had to sit down and wait for a man to take us on a tour with other people and tourists.

Later, a man came and he said, “Before we get into today’s tour, I would like to show you a video on the history of Parliament.’’
It was a very interesting video too!
You can buy the video at the souvenirshop.
The man then showed us around the place.

AWESOME PLACE!
It was very interesting to know about the history of the 

Prime Ministers.
So, I suggest you cool kids out there should go to Wellington and check out Parliament – A.K.A The Beehive!!
And the best part? It costs nothing!
P.S. We went into the debating chamber where the MPs have arguments about what to do. We still didn’t see Helen Clark! That sucked! It was an awesome place to visit though.

MICHAEL NICHOLAS, 10, Phillipstown
School, Christchurch


    My name is Michael Nicholas, I’m 10 years old and
I live in Christchurch.
I plan to travel around a few places in New Zealand this year and share my stories with you!
My most recent trip was to Dunedin (Otago). I went up Baldwin Street, (I’m still sweating!!) and I went for tea at the Great Taste of NZ.
But there was one place I loved the most!
That was...

The Cadbury Chocolate Factory!
It’s an awesome place to visit and I would advise others to go.

First you walk in and you get a BIG shock when you see these little men popping up and down, like in a gold mine.
All around the little men are fake Crunchie bars. They were all hand made and it took the creator three days to make them. Can you guess how many there were? The answer to that is 132,000!
Then you can walk straight into Cadbury World.
There you get to try a cocoa bean. (Not very nice if you don’t like energy chocolate!)
What does a cocoa bean have to do with chocolate, you ask??
Well that’s where chocolate comes from. The cocoa bean is from Africa. The shells are removed and then they add milk, cornfl our and sugar. It then gets put into a big mixing machine and from there it all gets made into chocolate that you may be eating right now!
I don’t want to tell you anymore and ruin your surprise when you eventually go to the Cadbury Factory in Dunedin. I think my time’s up!
Just quickly, I’d like to give a big shout out to my school PHILLIPSTOWN
SCHOOL!!
I’m planning my next trip to the Beehive in Wellington!