Fluffy little feetsies

Previously, Sara and I went on the Harry Potter Studio Tour and it was totally magical (ha) from start to finish. 

The Monday morning dawned moderately warm and something heading in the general direction of sunny. Because England. We got ourselves sorted out, then hit the road heading to Sara's brother's house to pick up her niece. We met Sara's sister and her baby son, then loaded up the cars with babies and all the paraphernalia that goes along with babies and headed to Marwell Zoo.

It gave me a world of childhood flashbacks, because I'm pretty sure we went to Marwell Zoo a time or twelve when we were living in the UK back in the early 90s, though I'm sure it's changed a lot since then.

We started off with a trip to the penguins, where the wee one made a new friend:

Then we wandered over to the giraffes. There was a baby one, which was totally adorable.

After rather a long time hanging out with the giraffes, we went in search of Sara's favourite animal: the bongos. We couldn't see them anywhere in their enclosure, or in the indoor section, but we DID find this rather hilarious sign:

Finally, being the tallest of the group by a good three inches, I managed to find the bongo by peering over a tall fence. It had squidged itself into a corner up against the fence where it was guaranteed a nice rest.

By the time we got past the zebras (hiding in the shrubbery on the other side of their enclosure), the babies were getting squirmy so we figured it was time to stop for lunch. Which featured Pom-Bears (someone please bring them to Australia immediately) and a bird pooping in the baby carriage...

Our afternoon of animal viewing was rather more successful than the morning. Our first stop was the red panda, my all time favourite, and for the first time in approximately a million trips to various zoos around the world, the red panda was wandering around like a happy little camper. I was absolutely thrilled and could happily have spent the rest of the afternoon watching him wander around. I think the wee one felt the same way, because she kept squealing with excitement.

Eventually, I dragged myself away and we paid a visit to the coati, who were also having a jolly old wander around before heading through the reptiles, the monkeys and the lemurs.

We stopped for an ice cream break on the basis that the babies tooooootally needed to be fed, then we hit what was easily the highlight of the trip. I know, something actually managed to trump the red panda. I was as shocked as anyone. Yes, it was the end of the day and approaching - one assumes - feeding time for the snow leopards. So they were incredibly active. Well. Mostly.

There was a huge crowd of people on one side of the enclosure taking photos, and we realised that there was another viewing area. So we headed up there to find that it was deserted. And one of the leopards was pacing back and forth in front of the glass. So I was standing RIGHT THERE in prime position to get some pretty damned fabulous photos. Sorry, Man With a $10,000 Camera who ran up two minutes later. My entry level SLR and my kit lens trumped the pants off you. MWAHAHAHAHAHA.

LOOK AT ITS FLUFFY LITTLE FEETSIES!!

Ahem.

Needless to say, I was pretty thrilled. We saw a few more animals on our way out, like the hippos and the anteaters and the tapirs, but most of them were pretty unexciting after actually seeing the snow leopards doing things.

After a fairly disastrous trip to the bathroom - turns out babies and those airport style hand driers don't get along - we headed for home where we offloaded the babies and went to the pub for some much needed drinks and dinner.

Next time, I finally see some of Portsmouth and head back to London. 

What's your favourite at the zoo?

K xx

New Zealand - the "LOOK AT THE PRETTY" edition, part 2

Previously, Ness and I hung out in some awesome glowworm filled caves, and it was awesome.

After finishing at the caves, we debated what to do with the rest of the afternoon. We headed back to Ruakuri Reserve to do a short walk there that's rated one of the ten best in New Zealand. It wasn't especially interesting during the day, we simply wanted to familiarise ourselves with it for our return later on, which is when it TRULY lives up to that top ten status.

Once we'd done that, there was still an hour or so left before we could check into our accommodation, and we'd exhausted the main possibilities in Waitomo. So we flipped over the map that we'd been given by the tourist information place, and noticed that it included a bunch of waterfalls and beaches and things that were about 30-60 minutes away. We decided on Marokopa Falls.

The drive there got a little bit...ridiculous:

Me: Okay, so the instructions say that after 5 kilometres, there'll be a fork in the road and we go left.
Ness: Cool. [what felt like a million years pass] Well THAT was the longest five kilometres ever. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!
[both laugh hysterically]
Me: [a minute later] Wait, that doesn't even make sense. Why is it so funny??

Eventually, we arrived and headed down the path to the falls:

It was very pretty, but it was also blowing mist all over us, so we didn't stay very long. We drove a little further down the road, then declared ourselves bored and headed back to Waitomo to check into our accommodation.

There, our host recommended the restaurant across the road for dinner, so after a wee spot of relaxation (translation: checking all the internet things) we fancied ourselves up and headed over there. Well. We were not disappointed. The food was DELICIOUS - we ended up sharing an entree, then having main course and dessert each. A little more food than we'd been planning on, but totally worth it.

Pumpkin and cheddar risotto balls

Homemade fettuccine with cherry tomatoes and goat feta

Chocolate souffle with raspberry coulis and plum ice cream, OMG.

We left sometime later, happy but laden with food babies. If you're ever in Waitomo, I HIGHLY recommend the Huhu Cafe. And it wasn't especially pricey either!!

Back across the road at our B&B, we borrowed some torches and jumped in the car, heading back to Ruakuri Reserve. Why? Because there are glowworms along the banks of the river at night, and it's kind of like walking through Rivendell or something. It. Was. Amazing. I think we probably wandered around for the better part of an hour in the dark - it's kind of incredible how much your eyes adjust. At first, we were the only people there, and we got excited when we spotted a cluster of half a dozen glowworms. But as it got darker, it was like there were constellations all over the place.

Terrible photographic proof of glowworms

Eventually, a large group of loud tourists arrived, blinding everyone with their torches. Which was dumb, because the more you relied on your torch, the less you'd see the glowworms... So we abandoned ship and headed back to the car. When we got back up to the main road, something darted out into the headlight beams, and Ness practically had kittens. Once I'd identified it as a hedgehog, she had even more kittens on account of never having seen a hedgehog before. She jumped out of the car, and chased it - giggling the whole time - down the road. I wish to God I'd been able to stop laughing long enough to video it, because it was absolutely priceless.

Basically, Ness was the kitten. Source.

We giggled all the way back to the B&B.*

Next up, we hightail it back to Auckland, and I fly to Wellington to meet Kim!

K xx

*It's totally okay for us to giggle. Hedgehogs are an introduced species and a pest in New Zealand, despite their adorableness.

Going on safari

Okay, not really because I'm kind of poor. But a week or so ago, the parentals and I took Little Miss A to the closest you can get to going on safari without leaving Melbourne - Werribee Open Range Zoo! And because this is me we're talking about, I took my zoom lens along for the ride.

I would say more, but it's a thousand degrees in Melbourne at the moment and my brain has melted. So instead, I present you with some photos from our day at the zoo, because REASONS:

My personal favourite was the serval show, despite the small screaming child puncturing everyone's eardrums in the background, because it was just so stinking adorable:

Although a close second was seeing the brand new baby hippo from the safari bus, because OMG SO CUTE:

Photobombing ostrich

Have you been to an open range zoo and/or on safari? Which of these animals is your favourite?

K xx

Big grey blobby things and tacky magnets

Previously, I arrived in Florida, promptly developed a cold, and had the most epic milkshake of all time.
My second full day in Florida started once again with a buffet breakfast, followed by another long-ish drive accompanied by Orlando's one and only radio station, which once again played the same six songs over and over for the duration of the drive.

I'm pretty sure my cold and I took a nap to pass the time. The view on highways in central Florida leaves a lot to be desired in terms of entertainment value...

Anyway, we eventually arrived at our destination - Blue Spring State Park. And why were we there? To see manatees! The whole way there (in between napping, of course), I'd been bitching to Sara and Julia that "If we've driven all this way and I don't see a bloody manatee........". So of course, we arrived at the gate, and they had a board up telling you what the water temperature was and what the day's manatee count was.

What was the manatee count that particular day? NINETY ONE. Yup. Ninety one manatees. Obviously, I was pretty excited about the fact that I was pretty much definitely going to see a manatee. Aaaaaand the word 'manatee' no longer looks like a word. Well done, Kirsti...

Anyway, we parked the car and followed the signs to the hiking trail. Apparently America has a very different interpretation of hiking to the rest of the world, because said trail was a boardwalk, was perfectly flat, and took about ten minutes to complete. Still, the view was nice:

Plus, MANATEE:

Our first of the day! Although I think we were all more excited by this slightly ridiculous sign:

No harassment allowed

After staring at the manatee for a while, we wandered back in the direction we'd come and further down along the spring, where there turned out to be a ton more manatees, including babies. Sadly, the reflection on the water made it hard to take photos of them. For the most part, they were big and grey and blobby - about what you'd expect of manatees, really!

But rest assured, there were many more manatees, along with an enormous heron and a rather large alligator. And some Spanish moss, which I decided I quite liked:

Eventually, we reached the end of the path, which came with this delightful mosaic sculpture:

Isn't it pretty?? It's hard to tell from the picture, but all the mosaic pieces had a metallic finish. SUPER CLASSY.

Back in Orlando that evening, we decided to dedicate our time to finding the tackiest magnet humanly possible. You see, Sara and her brother-in-law have a competition where they buy tacky magnets from around the world for Sara's younger sister. And Sara was determined to win, by finding the ugliest magnet that International Drive had to offer. We failed to find any that night, but I DID discover this spectacular piece of ridiculousness:

Yep. Socks with Zac Efron's face on them. BECAUSE OF REASONS??

The following day, we headed down to Tampa to go to the zoo, which turned out to have all the usual stuff:

Cranky looking bald eagles

Teeny tiny frogs

A bored looking chimpanzee

The most ridiculously orange flamingos ever

A very playful baby orangutan

And home was apparently far closer than I thought... 

And the afternoon finished with finding a winner in the tacky magnet competition. Conveniently, it was at the tacky souvenir shop RIGHT NEXT TO OUR HOTEL. What's that? You want to see the winning tacky magnet? Well, if you insist:

Shamelessly stolen from Sara's Facebook page

The back shell was painted teal, there were strings of glue all over the place, the bear was just...random, the Florida label is slightly askew, and the whole thing was covered in a layer of dust. LOVELY.

That night, we headed across town to Rocco's Tacos to meet up with Alice and Emmy. And sadly, I don't remember a whole lot about dinner, because cold and flu tablets + margaritas = Kirsti fighting the urge to fall asleep on the table. Well done, Past Me. Well done.

Next up, the excited flailing reaches extreme levels when Lor arrives and we all head to Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

K xx