Leeming SHS: Student Blog

This blog has been compiled by high school student members of the solar car team.

We arrived at Perth Domestic airport at 6:45, both excited and asleep. After they checked the laptops for explosives, 10 million photos and the year 12 boys said a teary goodbye to their mums (Thanks Laura), we finally managed to get on the plane. It was a fairly steady take off, but then things got really rough… The in flight entertainment was Harry Potter! Although, it did help pass the time, cause the only other things were listening to classical music or political debates. It was a very short flight, of only 3 hours and 10 minutes, but we arrived at about 1pm, Darwin time. For some reason, after a very short flight, we were tired and wanted to sit down. Kai wasn't tired, after his lovely sleep on a Mr Morgan shoulder.

It was humid, about 35 degrees, and there was a hot breeze blowing in every time that someone walked up to the automatic doors of the airports. We were pleased to be in Darwin, as it was a first time for most of us, but were also very worried to see what the damage looked like. In case you didn't know, on the way up on the trailer, the front left door opened because one of the retaining straps on the car snapped and broke the latch. The car sustained fairly minimal damage, as the solar cells weren't damaged, but there was a hole the size of a tennis ball in the side of the vehicle.

After a wait of about 1 hour, the bus finally arrived and we were taken to our apartments. I'm sure most of us were thinking that the apartments would be pretty dodgy, but all the streets were identical to Perth, and that turned out to be a good sign. The apartments were very nice, which included a big pool in the middle. Each dorm had four rooms, the kitchen and lounge room, a bathroom, and two bedrooms. We were all strangely impressed.

A short while later, after getting settled in, we were split up into two groups. All the year 10's and 11's (Except Flegg), went out and did the shopping. The remaining year 12's and Flegg went to check out the damage. Luckily enough, the damage was only superficial. They simply moved the vehicle, but did not actually work on it. That will all be repaired tomorrow. While the year 12's were all putting in the effort, the year 10's and 11's were too busy eating McDonalds, Subway or Nando's. We then went back and had a swim at the apartments.

To top the day off, we all sent messages of love home to our parents, went for another swim and had a barbeque. The food was a little on the burnt side, but that's what happens when you leave Kai in charge of the barbeque! Dessert was cleaning up our dishes and a lecture from Morgan. Wound the day up with a meeting about organisation and plans for the next day and then headed off to do our own thing.