Tenterfield

The 21st through the 23rd was spend in Tenterfield, about 2-3 hours into the 'bush' from Lennox. It was a little old town with about 5,000 people. It was first developed in the 1850s. We first started hour walking through the Thunderbolt Hideout. They were these huge boulder rocks that we larger than the size of cars, or even 2. IN the same area of the mountains we saw a World War II Tank Traps- I can't say I really know what they are but I'll do some research. We went a little farther into the mountains and started climbing Bald Rock. It was absolutely amazing. It was the highest granite point in New South Wales. It is something that would be highly restricted in the US but in Australia, people climb without a care. Before we went back the Golfers Inn Motel, we went to a wine tour/tasting. It was really neat to see how the process was done and taste the variety of wines the produced. It was a small time winery but really neat. That night we had our concert between our group. Just outside our motel, we just sat and some of the students sang along to Taylor swift, or did a rubix cube under 2 minutes, sang along the Backstreet Boys, created a kitchen cabinet band. It was surprisingly really good! We have a pretty talented group.

On Tuesday, we went sapphire fossicking. We started by getting a shovel full of dirt/rocks. We seperated out the bigger rocks, then washed the smaller particles in a water tube. Once clean, then we put the rocks out on a barrel top and checked with tweezers for sapphires or other neat stones. Some people sound jem quality stones but I only found a few small pieces. Just after fossicking, we had tea and a traditional Aussie snack. Bread with butter with syrup drizzled over it, pretty good! We then went to Pioneer Village had lunch- sausage, steak, sweet rice, salad, and dessert! We looked around the village that contained what a typical small rural community would have looked like many many years ago. There was a doctors office, blacksmith, school, church, photography shop, house, etc. Its amazing to see how people used to live. Later on that night we dressed up and went out to dinner at the country club.

On Wednesday, We toured the first hours build-in 1850. With my love for big old houses- I loved it! It was a white house that had a complete wrap around porch. The house hadn't really been kept up due to previous caretakers but the new caretaker can't wait to get some work done on it! Then we had a lady give us a tour the Tenterfield town where we learned about the founding of the town and met the major.