ZOO TODAY

 Well... after wanting to visit the Auckland Zoo a little while ago, we are actually going today.

It should be nice and quiet, all the pesky kids will be at school!

I'm really looking forward to it too.  Last time we went it was the most miserable place to be.

So... all going well we will be leaving around 9 am, and be home again by 4-5 pm.

I've got cards this evening and I don't want to miss it.  I have to drop a Reindeer Runner off to one of the cards girls.    

...

SHOULD HAVE STAYED HOME. 

Bitterly disappointed. 

MORE... when we get home in a few hours.

We are at Sylvia Park for lunch.

According to the website there's 1,000 'animals' at the zoo.

I'm guessing 950 of them are birds and fucking fish.

3 pm.  Home.

Three FAILS today!

1. The Zoo.

When we first arrived, we headed to the Africa Safari Track.  But there were NO ANIMALS in the enclosure at all.  The zoo keepers were in there scooping up poop.  

So we headed in the opposite direction.

We expected to see Red Panda and Ring Tailed Lemur.  NOPE.  None to be seen.  NOTHING in the enclosures that we could see.

Then on to the Otters.  They had been moved.  So we wandered around till we found them.

ABOVE: We saw 6 otter, for about 30 seconds, and then they took off and couldn't be seen anymore.

ABOVE:  After more wandering around looking at NO ANIMALS, we went into the new 'Swamp Forrest'... an enclosed area which was very hot and humid.  It had hundreds of bloody fish and ONE crocodile.  Who didn't move one iota.  Could have been made of concrete for all I could tell.

ABOVE: This fine specimen, well worth watching.

At least I could SEE him.

ABOVE:  Nothing in here.  

ABOVE:  The sign said 'Hippopotamus'... but there's none at the Auckland Zoo anymore.

So lucky we didn't look too hard.

ABOVE:  Baboon.  Yep.  That's what we saw.  A baboon's back.  That is all.

ABOVE: There were three lions in this enclosure.

ABOVE: This one actually MOVED!  But not much.

ABOVE:  My absolute favourite 'wild' animal, the Rhinos.  The baby was adorable and kept running around chasing birds.

So cute.  The highlight of the day really.

ABOVE:  Friggin BIRDS.  Like really? Birds?

ABOVE: An interesting enclosure, but NO ANIMALS within.

ABOVE: This tree caught my eye.  It's rounder than me.  

ABOVE: We finally got back to the African enclosure...

ABOVE: Three adult giraffes and one baby.  They didn't move much.  But at least we could SEE them.

ABOVE:  There was much hype on TV about the Zoo's new TIGERS, and Tiger Enclosure.  ABOVE....That is what we EXPECTED to see.  (it has been photo shopped obviously)

ABOVE:  This is what we saw.  NOTHING.  The 'tiger bridge' wasn't even open, so if a tiger felt inclined to go over it... it couldn't.

ABOVE: There is ONE tiger at the zoo.  And according to the signs, it spends 22 hours A DAY sleeping.

There it is ... sleeping.  You have to look damn hard to see it. 

We went up there to see the TIGERS.  Plural.

Awake.  Moving around.  On the bridge.

WHAT. A. JOKE.

ABOVE: The new Orangutan enclosure... see any?

ABOVE: Eventually we DID find a couple of Orangutan, and one had just had a baby, so that was sweet to see.    But they didn't move, and had their backs to us 99% of the time we bothered to stand there.

So we really were disappointed and felt ripped off.  We are NEVER going there again.

There were three bus loads of school kids who arrived at the same time as us.  I felt bloody sorry for them.

After the Zoo, we went to Sylvia Park for lunch.

We ended up at The Garrison, and had a Beef Burger for our lunch.

Fail #2.  It was the most basic, tasteless burger I've ever had.

The only part that was enjoyable was the gherkins, and I don't even LIKE gherkins!  But I ate them cos they actually had some taste to them!

ABOVE:  We bought the first addition (this year) to our 'Christmas Family' at Sylvia Park.  Her name will be... Sylvia!  lol

After lunch we left Auckland, and on our way home we stopped in at Pokeno for some sausages at the amazing butchery there.

ABOVE:  The ice cream shop in Pokeno is HUGELY popular... as you can see, there's a queue out the door!

So we decided to get an ice cream from the Movenpick shop just down the road.

WORST IDEA EVER.

The guy working there looked bored as shit... there was NO ONE in the shop.

We should have got the vibes.

But no, we went in.  

He only had ONE WAFFLE CONE left.  So I got it.

I like my chocolate sauce.  He put a miniscule amount on my ice cream.  And presented it to me.

ABOVE:  Like THAT !!!  WHAT.  THE.  FUCK???   He had wrapped it in SEVEN paper towels because there was sauce all over the cone, and virtually none on the ice cream.

AND the cone had a chunk out of it too.

It was absolutely the most disgusting presentation ever!  I should have thrown it back at him, really.

FAIL #3.

And I will be leaving a really scathing review on their facebook page for that bloody disgusting ice cream.

When we arrived back in Hamilton,  we went to the Kayak and Canoe Shop on Te Rapa Straight. We bought some brackets to hold our kayaks on the roof rack of Stew's car.

We fully intend to use them over summer on the lakes.

And... that is my update for today.  I will be heading off to cards in a couple of hours, Bex is joining me again.

11 pm:  Cards was fun.  I didn't win or lose.  Came home and watched Coronation street, looked at a few things on Instagram and now it's bedtime.

Hoping for a decent nights sleep, which has been sadly lacking of late.