Wednesday 27 June 2012

Road trip!

The weekend just gone was my favourite weekend in NZ :)

Friday evening after work I met Sarah, we went for dinner then travelled to Rotorua. We stayed in a hotel overnight, then went to Whakarewarewa thermal village the next morning. It was amazing!! We learnt all about the Maori culture, walked through their village (website is http://www.whakarewarewa.com/ if your interested) and watched their culture show where they did the Haka! One of the men asked Sarah if he could have a photo with her 'daughter' - meaning me! She was not too impressed lol! He also asked if I'd like to take a 'real warrior' home, which of course I declined haha!

We met up with some of Sarahs lovely relatives and went to Paradise Valley Wildlife Park! It was time for the lion cubs woooooooooooohoooooooooo :)! Now, I expected these cubs to be little..so we could pick them up, but they were so much bigger than I thought!!!!! It didn't put us off though - we were in the cage with 2 lion cubs but didn't get the chance to pick them up as they were too excitable! We did get to stroke them though which was amazing :) people I've spoke to here couldn't believe I was so excited to be in with them, so I explained how at home we would NEVER have this chance, or if we did there would be an extra charge & hundreds of people trying to do it at once! This was included free with the entrance fee ($30/£15!!) and there were probably 20 people there - we went into the cage in small groups of 4 so we all got our turn! As we were walking out one of the lion cubs decided to jump up at me from behind, to which I paniced & tried to run off....the lady working there told me to keep still, which I thought was a bit difficult to do considering I had a lions paws half way up my back!! hahaha..I survived to tell the tale so all is good :) will upload photos once I'm home, it was great experience :) :)
We also fed wallabees (baby kangaroos?) and lots of other animals, and went to see a kiwi..a flightless bird only found in NZ!

That evening we watched (another) All Blacks vs Ireland rugby match! Check me out getting into the rugby..I actually enjoy it! The score was 60-0 to NZ so the game wasn't that exciting!!

The next day (Sunday) we made a load of cupcakes with Sarahs relatives & decorated them; marshmellow & chocolate ones, they were yummy! (Mum would be proud!!) We then went for a drive around Whakatane (pronounced fukatane lol) before our 4 hour road trip back to Auckland!!

I was glad to return to Auckland & get back to all my belongings as I'd been living out of a small suitcase for a week!!

1 comment:

  1. SO excited to see photos of the baby cubs!!!!! I bet that was an amazing thing to do! I agree, I would have been mega excited too xxx

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