Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital of Wales.  We will be spending three nights there.  The hotel we will be staying at is very cool and has an indoor pool!

The flag of Wales is a dragon and they speak both English and Welsh.

While we are in Cardiff we will be going to the Doctor Who Experience.  This is next to the studios where they film Doctor Who and has costumes and props from the show.  Including the TARDIS!

When we went to Wellington to see the Doctor Who show we got to see a lot of aliens and monsters up close and my mum was so scared of the cyberman- she was actually shaking!  I can't wait to scare her some more!

Also in Cardiff is the millennium centre and Roald Dahl Plass.  A lot of Doctor Who was filmed here.  Roald Dahl is one of my favourite authors and he lived in Wales.

Just outside of Cardiff is Caerphilly Castle. 

It was built in the 13th Century and is surrounded by a moat and has a drawbridge.  It is in ruins but they have working catapults and have repaired some parts of it so people can walk through.

We found a very good website that has more detail about the history of Caerphilly Castle including lots of pictures.  

http://www.castlewales.com/caerphil.html

Beatrix Potter

We are going to be visiting the Lake District, where Beatrix Potter lived and wrote her books about Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Tom Kitten.  We are going to be staying at a bed and breakfast in Windermere.  

The things we are going to do are:

• The World of Beatrix Potter
• Beatrix Potter Gallery
• Hilltop Farm

The World of Beatrix Potter

There are lots of things to see and do here.  There are 3-D displays of all the characters from her 23 books, a Peter Rabbit Garden and a tea room.  At the tea room we can have high tea!

Beatrix Potter Gallery

The gallery has some of Beatrix Potter's original paintings and drawings.  The building used to be her husband's office.

Hill Top

Hill Top is Beatrix Potter's house.  It has been kept like it was when she lived there.  There is a big garden.

Tonight we watched the movie Miss Potter, which is about Beatrix Potter's life.  It was filmed in the Lake District.  It looked very nice and I look forward to visiting.

The London Eye

The London Eye is the most popular tourist attraction in the United Kingdom.  Each year over 3.5 million people visit it and we are going to be 3 of those people!

It is the biggest ferris wheel in Europe.  It is 135m tall and  has a diameter of 120m.  Building began in 1998 and it was officially opened in March 2000.  It was built on the River Thames, sections were floated up the Thames on barges and then assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete, it was lifted into an upright position by a strand jack system.  First it was raised at 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees.  It was then left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift!

There are 32 capsules that can fit up to 25 people.  Each capsule rotates at 26cm per second.  It takes half an hour for the wheel to make a complete rotation!

We are going to be up very very high and will get to see the whole of London. I can't wait!

Aeroplanes!

To get to Great Britain we have to catch three different planes!

The first plane will fly us from Palmerston North to Auckland.  This flight takes 1 hour and 5 mins.

The plane is called an ATR 72.  It is a twin-engine turboprop plane which can carry 68-78 passengers.

• Length: 27.17 m (89 ft 2 in)
• Wingspan: 27.05 m (88 ft 9 in)
• Height: 7.65 m (25 ft 1 in)
• Cruise speed: 511 km/h

After we arrive in Auckland we have to go to the International Terminal and wait for four whole hours before leaving for Singapore! But it's OK, because there is a McDonald's there, some shops that sell books and toys and some of my relatives might stop by to see us off.

Because Great Britain is on the other side of the world, we have to make a stop half way there.  There are different places we can stop at, such as Dubai, Hong Kong, Los Angeles or Singapore.  We are going to be stopping in Singapore at Changai Airport.  

The flight will take 10 hours and 50 mins and is on a Boeing 777-200.  The Boeing 777 is the world's largest twin-engine plane and can carry 314-451 passengers.

• Length: 63.7 m (209 ft 1 in)
• Wingspan: 60.9 m (199 ft 11 in)
• Height: 18.5 m (60 ft 9 in)
• Cruise speed: 905 km/h

After stay in Singapore for 2 hours and 25 mins before we leave for the final part of our journey.  Changai Airport is huge!  They have a free movie theatre, playgrounds, a butterfly park and lots of shops and food places.  There is even a hotel in the terminal you can stay at if you have a long stop over and want to get a good sleep.

The airplane we will be flying from Singapore to London is even bigger!  It is an Airbus A380 and it is like a double decker plane with two levels of seats!  It has four engines and is the world's largest passenger plane and can carry 523-555 passengers.  This flight is also going to be the longest at 13 hours 25 minutes.  

• Length: 72.75 m (238 ft 8 in)
• Wingspan: 79.8m (261 ft 10 in)
• Height: 24.08 m (79 ft)
• Cruise speed: 900 km/h

So in total, we should be travelling 31 hours and 45 mins from Palmerston North Airport to Heathrow Airport, London.  That is like a day and a half!  

We will be at Heathrow airport for 2 hours 30 mins before our shuttle will collect us and take us to our hotel in London.  We have to allow for time to get off the plane, get our passports stamped and then collect our bags.  There will be lots of people.  Once we have everything sorted we can get some food while we wait for the shuttle.  

Heathrow is a little distance outside of London so it will be about an hour's drive to our Hotel.  So really the total time will be about 35 hours in total- almost two days!  But because of the time difference between Great Britain and New Zealand, we leave on Wednesday afternoon and arrive on Thursday afternoon!  Crazy!  I am lucky I have a watch that I can have two different time zones on because it is going to be very confusing.

On the planes I will have my own entertainment device that I can watch TV or movies on, play games or listen to music.  I will also take some books, toys and lego with me.  I can sleep on the plane and they give us food as well.  I am going to have a window seat so I will be able to see the clouds.

Welcome to my blog

My name is Matthew, I am 10 years old and I live in Palmerston North, New Zealand.I love lego, trains, the colour green and animals.  This year my mum, nana and I are going on a big journey to Great Britain.  We have to take 3 planes to get to London and it will take 32 hours!

Oh, and I have Asperger's Syndrome.  I look like most other boys my age, but I can talk and act a bit differently.  This is because my brain processes things a little bit differently.  It also means that  I have certain talents and certain difficulties.  I have an excellent memory when it comes to dinosaurs, lego, and trains and, if you let me, I can talk non-stop for hours about them! 


But I have some difficulties with some things that most people don't have trouble with at all, these are what are called "social senses" and it is how people get along with and understand other people.  Most people naturally know what other people are feeling and thinking by picking up their body language such as facial expressions.  They don't need to be taught, they might not even realise they know!  But they do.


I find it very hard to understand body language, and how someone else might be thinking or feeling.  It doesn't come naturally to me and I have to be taught how to interact with others.  I can get very confused because I don't understand what is going on and this causes me to get very frustrated and angry!  


I also have what is called "sensory processing" issues. There are five senses- touch, sight, taste, ear, smell.  But sometimes I can feel these senses a lot more than what everyone else can and that can be very painful and scary.  Loud noises such as alarms and thunder sound very very loud to me and really hurt my ears!


Because the world can be so confusing to me, I like routines and I can get very upset when unexpected things happen, or when there's a change of plan that I haven't been warned about.  I really do not like change and new things are very scary to me.


And this is why this trip to Great Britain is going to be such a huge adventure for me! I am going to be going to a lot of new places and trying new things.  But it's OK, because mum and I have been putting together a scrapbook of all the places we will be visiting and we are going to be doing some very cool things, like visiting the National Railway Museum in York, and going to Edinburgh Zoo to see the Giant Panda.  We are also going to Legoland! I am so excited!


Every night of our trip I will get to update this blog with my adventures for the day and share it with all my friends back in New Zealand. Before we go I will update it with interesting things I have discovered with my mum while we plan our great adventure.

*with thanks to Jude Welton and her wonderful book "Can I tell you about Asperger Syndrome"