School Trip

Wednesday was a day of high-excitement. We awoke to an electrical thunderstorm – the thunder rolling out continuous, while the flashes lit up the sky and house.

This was the day of our school trip to the police and fire stations but the weather didn’t deter.

While the parents traveled in their cars, the bus got pretty uproarious apparently. Outside the police station, off they all tumbled in their raincoats and lined up outside.

“Look!” exclaimed one Master Six, pointing in the window like he’d seen a celebrity. “A policeman.”

“It might be Ian!” shouted my Master Six, referring to his first-name-basis buddy - the Constable who sometimes comes to the school for educational reasons. 

“We might get to see some baddies,” remarked the other.

We filed inside and two constables emerged through the door.

“Holy!” enthused one wide-eyed Master Five. “Two polices. And they’re real.”

“Hi Ian!” shouted my Master Six, to one.

“Are you really Ian?” I asked the constable. “I’ve heard so much about you.”

He affirmed that he was indeed ‘the Ian’ and, after splitting into two groups, the children, slightly star-struck, followed along behind constables Ian and Mario.

After showing us their gym, lunch room and visiting areas, we went into the car park where the kids were allowed to sit in one of the cars with the lights and sirens flashing, and talk into the loud speaker.

Two dog handlers emerged with police dogs, who conducted some tricks, before the kids had a pat. We were then taken into a graffiti-littered holding cell – the lone toilet in the corner being the highlight for the kids – before they each got to walk through the metal detector. After being finger-printed, it was upstairs - still looking for baddies along the way - to have lunch in the lunch area.

I’m not sure if it was a matter of drawing the short straw as we noisily trailed around the police station with our tour guides, who swapped grins with their peers along the way, but they did extremely well.

Next stop was the fire station. As we pulled up, two engines came hurtling out, lights flashing. 

Turns out, our chaperones were aboard and headed off to an emergency. Luckily, an off-duty fireman, who had called in to pick up some paperwork, took pity and kindly offered to be our host. He disappeared for a minute, then emerged in fireman’s attire and proceeded to show the kids the alarm system, demonstrating how the sleeping firemen had only two minutes to don full apparel, and board the engines, before the roller doors came back down. 

Upstairs it was a blast from the past for me. While the fireman gave the kids a firewise lesson, I looked around the lounge room and reminisced how we would spend our Saturday evenings there as kids. Of course things always look smaller as adults and although the pokie machines have long been removed, along with the ping-pong table and pole we would slide down on the way home (for OSH reasons), the bar and pool table were just where I remembered them. I was also pleasantly surprised to see my late father’s name on a large wall plaque under Whangarei Brigade Honorary Life Members, along with ten other, some familiar, names. Definitely a highlight for me.

After a quick fire drill, the kids filed back downstairs where they were allowed to go through a fire engine before each having a blast with the hose. A teacher then got dressed up in full heavy fire apparel before the kids were handed some goodies. They then boarded the bus and returned to school. We were wet and it had been a long day but a good one, thanks to our emergency services crews who good-naturedly put on a great show.