The 'Grandpa School' $120,000.00 field trip

While the boys have been on their school holiday, I have been holding a 'Grandpa School' most weekdays. Classes last for about 15 minutes each day. There are no tests. I try to come up with topics that the boys should know about but will also be interesting. I think they should know as much about America and it's place in the world, both geographically, politically, scientifically as possible. Our topics have ranged from the space program, to glass making, tree rings, the Inuit People, and Einstein. 

This post is about a 'field trip' we took to the New Zealand Mint. You'll recall that Jeanne and I went in to it on my birthday last year and did a post on it. Since then, Amiri has expressed interest in seeing a kilogram of gold several times and we've been promising to go back and give him that opportunity. As it turned out, the City of Auckland happened to be sponsoring a 'summer of fun' week at Aotea Square when we went so we took advantage of the fun after we visited the Mint. 

Here then are the pictures I took of our field trip. Our experience at the mint was very rewarding. Amiri even asked the bullion trader, Mr. Sampson Heng, how many coins the Mint minted per hour, and then multiplied in his head and told Mr. Heng how many coins that made per day. Mr. Heng seemed to enjoy talking with the boys and brought out not one, but two different forms of gold that they produce in the kilogram size..A coin with a kangaroo on the front, and an ingot.  Amiri can't wait to show his class, when school starts in February, the photos of him holding $120,000.00 of gold. I wonder if the Mint will soon experience a run of students from Summerland Primary asking to see the gold. 

Our experience will also allow me to talk at 'school' today about investing in different ways. 

(I don't think that investing in silver is a very good strategy for them. The very small amount of NZ silver we have has mainly souvenir value.)

On our way on the train.

As we rode up the escalators from the lowest level of Britomart, where the trains arrive, the smell of Subway sandwiches caught our attention. Our first order of business was to fuel these two up before the tramp along Queen Street to the Mint. I imagine that it was about 1 kilometer. Their favorite, and in fact the only Subway I haver seen them eat, is a tuna salad. 

Here we are at the vault-like entrance to the building.

THERE IT IS.   A KILOGRAM or 2.2 pounds of solid gold or about $60,000.00 in NZ currency. 

And another kilo in ingot form. Notice the elevator doors in the background. I like a place that has fun attitude about who they are and what they do. 

Gold is heavy. 

Here we are back at Aotea Square. The blue things are large dense foam blocks that the kids could assemble into all sorts of things. 

The City really did it up right. First, they rolled out artificial grass over a large section of the square, erected a huge canopy, and filled it with chairs. As you can see, some people found them comfortable enough to snooze in. We stayed awake and had gelato.  

Here is what Amiri and Arram designed and built . They don't have the ramp at the far end assembled yet. When they left it, four other kids were waiting to step in and continue to refine it.

Auckland Museum sent over Basil, the dinosaur.

Amiri quickly spotted the legs the belonged to the guy who powers Basil. 

There was music. The two performers in this picture are doing David Bowie's Space Oddity. It was interesting to hear the crowd's reaction when they announced their tribute to Bowie. As everywhere in the world I'm sure, his music is much appreciated here. These two young girls got a huge round of applause just by announcing the song. It's a shame that he's gone.  It was also a bit of a shock to me to realize that this song was a single of his back in 1969. (also a longer version on an album) Where has all the time gone?

We take a break at a sushi place on the way back to the train. Do you notice anything odd about this photo? Is Arram really standing at such an angle? Is gravity that weird in NZ? Some of you know that Arram has been studying magic over this holiday. Has he really acquired special powers?

No, we are on a fairly steep hill at this point on Queen Street and I staightened the sidewalk to the horizontal, allowing Arram to lean rather dramatically. 

Grandpa school concluded today, 2-1-16, with a lesson on geography. We used Google maps to take us all over the globe. Lately, the boys have asked questions about Canada, Singapore, and Peru, so we visited them all. Then, we looked at proof that Wellington is indeed the southernmost national capital in the world. I think that they enjoyed learning a little bit over their holiday. It was painless. I certainly enjoyed teaching them. 

Although Grandpa School had no tests, I did ask them to write a story about some part of our trip to Wellington. Both boys did a good job on their essays. Amiri used Minecraft to tell a story about the giant squid they saw at Te Papa and Arram wrote about our hotel.  

These two young men are unique and wonderful people. What a pleasure it is to be their grandpa.                                           -djf