Whales Tehora

Yesterday we attended to the dawn opening ceremony for the Whales Tehora Exhibition at the Ontario Science Centre.  This is an exhibition about whales and whaling in New Zealand and is going to be exhibited in many cities around the World.  

The opening was fantastic, it included speakers from the Mississauga First Nations as well as a full powhiri by the Te Papa representatives.  It started at 7.30am so we were up at 5am and on the road by 6.30am.

The exhibition is truly amazing, it features many full sized whale skeletons and a lot of information (some a little gruesome) about whaling in NZ.  Very interesting.  

Jesse was given the day off school as his teacher said that it was equally as important for him to retain his culture as to spend a day at school.  This is a teacher whose priorities are right!  Jesse's favourite part was being able to climb inside the giant whale heart.  It was big enough in there for him to lie down.  I scrambled in (kind of slid really) but it was much easier getting in than out, especially in high heels.

Breakfast of tiny blueberry pancakes (supposed to be pikelets), eggs, tiny little savouries and chocolate coated French toast was served.  Everything was tiny, I wondered if this is because we are from a tiny country?

We had a lovely time chatting with some of the folk from NZ and it made us all feel very homesick.  I wonder if this homesickness will ever stop.  Sorry, no photos, took the camera but we didn't take any for some reason.