A rocking boat at the museum?

When Room 16 went on our trip to the Maritime Museum on 27 July, I wasn't expecting to stand on board an old, dark ship that rocked and swayed in the middle of an exhibit...but we did!!

This was my favourite part of our Museum trip.  We were visiting the Immigration Exhibit as part of our Getting Connected inquiry.  The exhibition showed how people came to New Zealand from Europe.  The ship was dark and dreary.  There were small, cramped bunks where people slept and ate disgusting food like mouldy bread and dried meat.  While I was watching an interactive video showing how people lived on the ships, I felt the ship start moving under my feet.  It gave me a bit of a shock.  It was rocking and rolling and felt like a real boat on the water.

I found out some interesting information at the exhibition about what they ate on board the ships, what they did and how they lived on board a ship for five months!!  Many people died from diseases and illnesses while they were sailing to New Zealand.  This made me feel really sad and appreciate the difficulties these people went through when they came to New Zealand.

I'm so glad that nowadays it is much faster and more comfortable to travel around the world!!  What do you think?