Saturday today, good the weekend!

Down to the waterfront for the kids (and the big kids) to ride on the model railway. They had a railway similar to the one my Dad is involved in in Picton (NZ), but the track would be about 3-4 times as long. Ticket price, $2 for children of all ages! This was all run by volunteers, but they had also made a clock tower as part of the workshop and storage area for the trains. Maybe this will give something for the Picton club to aspire to.

After this we wandered down to the water front cafe for a coffee and some lunch. Back then into town to see the museum, but this was closed, so we went and saw the local replica town where they had rebuilt some of the old houses and buildings. Dissapointingly though, they had then populated the nice looking buildings with local businesses, like real estate, and boring non touristy shops. There were a couple of good shops but a bit of a disapointment.

Next of to the Port tour that we had been waiting all day for (and we were nearly late, as Josie decided we had time to do some shopping on the way). Arrived in true Gabites time frame of 1 minute to leaving time and just as it started to rain. The rain was very short lived. The tour around the port was excellent. It was interesting to see the huge sheds used to store the nickel, iron ore and wheat that was shipped out. Also they had large areas that held the fertiliser that was imported! The iron ore sheds had airconditioning on them so that they emitted no dust. Strange how they managed to do it here but in other towns we have been in it was all too hard! But they were huge! Also saw the train emptying cariages, they had a big sort of lift thing that rotated the railway truck that was full of ore upside down and tipped it out. Very cool.

Back out of the port our tour guide told us he was involved in a local show that night and seats were still available. It was an Agatha Christie mystery, so I volunteered to keep Emily at home while, Josie, Harry and Charlotte went to see it.  It was very good by all accounts.

After the tour we went to the musuem, which contained bits of Skylab, which I thought was interesting. The kids wanted to know what it was, and when we said it was a spaceship that crashed, they just went OK, in the way kids do and moved on to playing on the train at the Museum. Any way a good museum run by locals. had all sort from steam engines, old cars and trucks, horse drawn carriages, and some maritime stuff as well. I even found an old seagul motor on display which I remember using on our boat when I was about Charlottes age. Bit of a worry when I start seeing stuff I remember in the Museum!