Day 13 – New Zealand Bingo Card Complete

Today was a travel day, resulting in what I think will be a short but sweet entry. We woke up well rested after our feast at Hobbiton, got ourselves ready and started our travels towards Auckland. As we made our way through the winding roads and rolling hills towards the city, the landscape slowly transitioned into highway and buildings, which is a little different from the views we have gotten used to over the last 2 weeks. 

We found our accommodation and had a bit of down time while we decided on what our afternoon would look like. We landed on heading to Auckland Zoo. 

This was my first time back at a zoo since our Safaris last year, and it left a mixed bittersweet feeling in me. While it was nice to see these familiar animals again, I had a constant nagging reminder that I’ve seen these animals free roaming. Knowing that these specific animals have probably grown up in this environment, so they don’t know any difference was the only thing I kept telling myself so I could enjoy my time with them. 

We made our way through the different exhibits, all what you would expect from a typical zoo, but I was excited to make our way through to the New Zealand native section, since there was a very specific bird I have yet to tick off my list. First we met a couple of Kea though, who happened to be getting fed at the time we were in their aviary. Watching these very intelligent and brave birds will never get old.

Next up we headed into the dark in search of the Kiwi! The kiwi house was really well themed, with the only light coming from the roof covered in sporadic LEDs to emulate glow worms. It was split up into 4 panels of windows, two windows per enclosure, and with two Kiwis in each. I searched for such a long time, to the point where we were about to give up, when there was movement at the front of one of the windows. Well, there we go! We can tick it off the list, we’ve seen both iconic NZ native birds; Kea and Kiwi, donesky.

We walked around a little more, but it was getting close to closing time, so kind of speed ran the rest of the animals. 

We were edging towards hungry by this time, so we ended up in the city looking round for some ramen. We landed on a place called Chop Chop which was in a laneway full of food options. Drew got a ramen to quench that craving, and I got a chicken rice bowl. It was pretty good! 

We have both been so tired, so we spent the rest of the night catching up on blogs and mentally preparing for going home tomorrow!