You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Ambassador Egbert
Hello everyone tēnā koutou,
I am Egbert the LEARNZ ambassador. I go on all the trips with Andrew and help look after the other ambassadors from your school.
This is going to be an awesome field trip and I look forward to you joining us and learning lots about New Zealand's first Smart Motorway.
Best,
Egbert
Monday 24 August
Tēnā koutou,
It didn’t seem to take very long at all to arrive in Wellington today. It is amazing that you can travel almost 1,000 kilometres in only four hours.
We had a whole row of seats to ourselves for the flight from Auckland to Wellington. They were really comfortable too. We were given a Cookie Time cookie and a cup of tea to dunk it in – yum! Much better service than I get when travelling in the car with Andrew!
Best,
Egbert
Tuesday 25 August
Kia ora tātou,
Wow, today I met the Mayor of Wellington, Celia Wade-Brown. She was really nice. We spoke with her in a very flash meeting room. Afterwards I was asked to sign the visitor book!
We then went to the Wellington regional office for NZTA and sat in another nice meeting room. After that we were in the smart motorways site office. So we just spent the day going from one office to another – I thought we were looking at the building of a smart motorway, not interior office design!
Best,
Egbert
Wednesday 26 August
Kia ora everyone,
It was another cool day on the field trip today. We visited some of the construction sites and saw engineers in action. It was a bit scary though being so close to the motorway with cars racing past in both directions.
Another cool thing we saw was the huge variable message signs that will be going up on the gantries. Each sign has thousands of LED lights and different messages can be put on them. I found out that each sign, including putting them up on the gantries, costs around $200,000. Crikey!
Best,
Egbert
Thursday 27 August
Kia ora tātou,
This has been a great week. I never knew so much thought and work went into roads and driving. I’m not a driver myself (I have difficulty reaching the pedals, let alone seeing over the dash board!), but after this week I can see how development such as the smart motorway will have so many benefits for those who do drive.
I had a lot of fun today hanging out with the Raumati South students. It was great that they had been looking at this topic and were able to contribute to the discussion.
See you on another field trip soon!
Best
Egbert
Egbert is Andrew the LEARNZ Teacher's ambassador. Image: LEARNZ.
Monday. Egbert has a good view of the rest of the plane. Image: LEARNZ.
Tuesday. Egbert with Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. Image: LEARNZ.
Wednesday. Egbert was impressed with the electronic signs to be used on the smart motorway. Image: LEARNZ.
Thursday. Egbert enjoyed playing with the rice wheel. He said it was like the old hare and tortoise story, where 'sure and steady' won the race. Image: LEARNZ.