Today we took a trip to the fire station. We left Educare a little after nine this morning and walked around to the bus stop. The bus was running late or we were early, so we sat and sang some songs that Im sure entertained the other people waiting. The Wheels on the bus echoed all around as Kenai took the lead. Not long after the bus arrived and we all climbed on board. We took up half of the bus there were so many of us. We stopped at every bus stop on the way into town and at nearly every bus stop Rahiri-Lee's voiced popped out and said.... "are we getting off here?". More and more people joined us on the bus and it started to get a little squishy, but before long we hopped off outside the Hastings Hospital. The children were fantastic. They found their teacher or parent helper and held their hands and we walked down Omahu road to the pedestrian Crossing. We crossed over and walked around to the fire station.We were greeted at the door and taken inside. We were shown what to do if the station lights and siren went off, which was…… get out of the way quick…. No it was move as fast as you can over to a wall. This was so we wouldn’t get knocked over by the flying fire-fighters as they dashed to the engines to drive to a fire.

We then went around to the bbq tables and sat and listened as we were told about the clothing the fire-fighters wear. Kenai was chosen to try on the fire pants but was too shy so up jumped Rahiri-Lee but the bug was catching and so he sat down again too. Tawhiri was keen though so was all dressed up. Tama, Hope and Kaatyah’s Koro dressed in a fire suit too and Tawhiri and Tama had a race to strip off and Tawhiri won.

We then went out the back and got to squirt the fire hose. We also had a bet with the fire-fighters that everyone standing on the empty hose could stop the water flowing through. We lost, we now owe the fire fighter a chocolate cake.

After our visit we slowly trudged back around the corner to see the bus already at the bus stop. The bus driver recognised us and jumped out to see if we wanted to get on, so we all ran to get back on the bus. We stopped at every stop again on the way home with Rahiri-Lee once again piping up with “are we getting off here” while also serenading everyone on the bus with our beautiful opera voices.

What a massive trip we had. Thank you to all our parent helpers, having your help is very much appreciated when we go out and about with the children.