It's a bit difficult finding something to write about every week or so, especially when we're supposed to be scrimping and saving!! This weekend is the first we've had since finishing work here in New Zealand on Friday, and we're off to Tonga tomorrow for 4 days on a visa run!!Yesterday was cracking weather! Nora and I got sunburned in 15mins just sitting on the back step drinking Haast!! I know Haast!! It's horrible beer!!! Anyway I figured it was time to crack open the factor 30 since we were going to the zoo later on so I slapped it on all available skin, hoping to avoid too much pain from the vicious Kiwi sun. Aroha and I met Alex and Dave at the zoo, it wasn't too busy. Probably because there was a Nickelodeon Halloween kids party on that evening there and none of the brats were arriving until later on when we were leaving.
It's a pretty good zoo here in Auckland. Some of the pens seem a little small or sparsely foliated, especially the giraffe pen. We did get to see 2 enormous Kiwis, even though it was dark in their permanently night-time enclosure (that must get confusing for them??), as well as Keas, Tuataras a zillion kinds of NZ ducks and various other native birds in a range of colours from khaki to brown, green and olive. The meerkat tunnels are pretty good to climb through, they take you up into little bubble domes inside the meerkat enclosure so you can watch them from only a few inches away. Stinks though!!
We spent 3 hours wandering around, we saw most of the animals, except some of the monkeys because their cages had too much foliage and we couldn't see a damn thing.
In need of refreshment we tootled off to The Ponsonby for a Kreik. By this stage the cheesecake shop was shut.
Today Dan, Emma, Aroha, Darren and I went out to Saffron on Ponsonby road for an all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffet brunch. Very good potato masala and a variety of Southern Indian fermented rice dishes and the obligatory but moreish Indian breads and chutneys. We ate far too much. We couldn't find the cheesecake shop and even if we did we couldn't even think of buying, let alone eating a cheesecake!!
We're back home now to pack for the early morning flight tomorrow to Nuku'alofa, the capital of Tongatapu.
- AM
