Our final day has arrived in what seems like a blink of an eye. After breakfast the students went for a walk to Queen Victoria Markets, a couple of blocks up the road. After a short exploration of the famous stalls, we loaded the bus with our noticeably heavier bags and took off to begin the big day with the Docklands experience. Our first stop was the O’Brien Icehouse Complex which was built in 2010 at a cost of $16M. It features two Olympic-sized rinks, one of which has been fitted for viewing ice hockey. We arrived to see what can only be described as champions of the future, the junior state ice hockey team, who were participating in a boot camp on the ice. These boys and girls were about 10-12 years old and where practising drills and defensive moves on the ice (much to the disbelief of the students who were just hoping to remain upright). We assembled for a coaching lesson by professional coaches and then skills were tested on the Bradbury ice rink (named after Australia
Clip ‘n’ Climb was our first stop today. Students had free rein of climbing on any of the vertical obstacles, and their seemingly fearless attitudes was impressive to watch as they spent a couple of hours scrambling up walls like nimble little monkeys. Most impressive were those who took the 'leap of faith' - climbing up to a high platform and then jumping in hopes of catching the bag set some distance away. Miss Ohlin was a first-timer filled with trepidation to conquer the leap. On the other hand, Miss Preston backed up from last year, determined that the Leap of Faith would not defeat her. (There was a fingernail in it, Miss Preston!) Lunch was in western Melbourne for fish and chips at Williamstown. Here, we had a fabulous view over the harbour and Melbourne city skyline as we walked down Gem Wharf. Next up was exploration at Scienceworks, where students navigated the different activities that reinforce various scientific concepts from the physics of movemen