Stone Cottage Adventure

On Tuesday Morning my class was excited to hear that we were visiting the old Panmure Stone Cottage across the front of my school. Everyday I come to school and I see the house. I have always  wondered what’s inside. Today was so exciting because the class and I got to see the old famous Panmure Stone Cottage. Two classes went before our class arrived.

Stone Cottage Museum is considered by many to be a jewel of Panmure, because it is so well kept and just like the houses that the fencibles used to live in many years ago. It was built around 1854-1857 and relocated from Mt Wellington to its current site at 1 Kings Road, Panmure in 1971. 

The people who lived in the house were John Herbert Harrison, Phoebe Ellen Dunn,William John Dunn, and Ellen Churches.

It was my class’s turn to go and visit the Panmure Stone Cottage. We walked from my class down the gate to the Stone Cottage. We were met by a lady named Terry And Patrick. They were our guides. Patrick was a historian and he was telling us the background of the old Cottage.

When we went inside we went inside the Cottage and went inside the parlour of the house which in the olden days means living room we were greeted by an elderly lady named Josephine. Terry was showing us all the photos of the previous people who lived in the Cottage. Terry  told us they used to drink beer there and sit near the warm fireplace. 

Then Terry took us to the next Room which was bedroom number 1.

Terry took us to the next room. We entered the room and the first thing we saw was a bed with heaps of old fashioned clothes on it. Terry showed us the clothes first, which were donated by other people. She said they were made with mostly cotton and silk. We also saw a few creepy dolls that looked like we’re staring into my soul.

“Let’s head to the kitchen,” Terry Said. We headed to the kitchen and we saw a sewing machine and a table, more dolls and a cupboard filled with old plates.

We wanted to see the upstairs so we went upstairs.  The stairs were so narrow and my head almost hit the roof .  We went into bedroom number 2. It got turned into an artifacts room that had a lot of cool artifacts in there. There was a typewriter, corset and some more old stuff  from back in the day.

We were heading to the last room which was the kids room. Inside was a bed, a mannequin and some more dolls and old fashioned clothes. Patrick told us more stories about Panmure and the bedroom.

It was time to go back to school for morning tea. We all said our goodbye to Terry and Patrick and our thank yous. It was a nice  trip and I hope we have the chance to find out more about other jewels in Panmure.

Yesterday morning, on a bright sunny day, my class and I had the opportunity to take bicycle lessons. Kyla and Kate were  here from the Auckland Transport company of Bigfoot Adventures to teach us the safety of riding a bike. They introduced themselves to the class. Before we started they did a quick clothing check to see if what we were wearing was good for riding the bike.

Kyla told us to follow Kate outside and line up along the fence at the top court. We all lined up and Kyla told us to get a helmet and then she showed us how to put it on safely. We all got our bikes and I followed Kate to her group under the Canopy because I was less confident about riding a bike.

First Kate wanted us to learn how to balance on the bike while it was moving. We all passed it easily. Next we had to try and use the pedals while the bike was moving. That was more difficult!!

Kate told me to try and pedal on the bike while it was moving so I tried but I kept failing each attempt. Then Kate said ” maybe try and look up while reaching the pedals because if you look down you might hit an object that is in front of you”. After a few more attempts it worked and I could ride a bike around the canopy in just one morning.

It was a great experience to learn how to ride a bike. I’m so glad Kyla and Kate came.\