Day 9 – Port Arthur

            We started out our morning with a scrumptious breakfast with the students at Hutchins. After that we met at the lobby of the boarding school to collect our packed lunch, which includes wraps, chips, cookies and blackcurrant juice. Thereafter we proceeded to Port Arthur with some Hutchins buddies, which took a considerably amount of one and a half hours on the bus.

            On the bus, most of us were sleeping as it was still early in the morning, while some others were playing a game called “sweet and sour”, which they made up. It is played by two or more players. Basically, you have to get as many pedestrians to wave back at you when you wave at them, as possible. We even joked that this would be not possible in Singapore as people here are more friendly. However, we got to a rural area and there was not many people to wave at so we decided to end the game.

            After a tiring trip there, we got out the bus and immediately felt the cold wind blasting at our faces. Even the windbreakers were of little use for the cold temperature. It was absolutely freezing.

            We then proceeded to the gallery of Port Arthur to look at some facts about the prisoners living there. We found out that their lives were hard. Normally, as once they come to Port Arthur, they would have no chance of leaving even though their sentence was only seven years as they would have no money for the trip back, thus it would be considered a one way trip if you get sent to Port Arthur. They also had very difficult living conditions like not allowing to talk to each other in some cases.

            Then, we went for a ferry ride around the islands and saw some amazing view of the surrounding islands. It was chilly as the ship goes considerably fast and we had to stay below decks for some of us.

            After that, we went around the old buildings of Port Arthur, that had survived the fire that left most of the buildings dilapidated. It was a fun and interesting experience for most of us as it was a first time experience for us to go to a historical site in Australia.