Up Close and Personal with the Lemurs

For the preceding months before Christmas Anja was very secretive and even sometimes even more confusing about my Xmas pressie. I could tell it involved an actual task and of course things like bungying and skydiving passed briefly through my mind but I knew she had no desire to see me scream like a girl. :)

Besides it didn't need to take an even like that to have that happen but the intrigue and my sheer confusion built till Christmas day. I even had applied for a Tuesday off in late January but could only tell the boss I needed the day off but not why! However when I opened my Christmas card and I spotted a great photo we took of a Meerkat at Taronga Zoo I knew something good was round the corner.

Unbeknowinlgy to me upon our arrival in Auckland back in June during one of our often brochure grabs at the Tourist info centre I had remarked that Auckland Zoo conducted behind the scenes tours and how cool that was. So Anja hid any brochures from the Zoo and any time for the next six months when I suggested we visit the Zoo she somehow took me off on another tangent.

My present was to be a Primate tour giving me the chance to feed some lemurs as well as cotton top tamarins in a small group. The sheer uniqueness of this present knocked me off my feet and I started to count the sleeps till my day on January 29th arrived that I would take this tour. It was a bonus that January 28th was Auckland anniversary day so we gave ourselves a four day weekend which was to be rounded off with my first visit to Auckland Zoo.

We arrived bright and early awaiting for the Zoo to open at 9.30am and with school back we only had the pram convoy to contend with on what weather wise was to be a truly spectacular day. Anja went and purchased her normal admission ticket and we entered together for me to be ushered to the information area. To our delight the only other person booked on the tour was an older lady from Aberdeen, Scotland (where my great grandparents hail from) so Anja was able to come along at no extra charge as well as the Aberdeen ladies husband and grandchildren.

So we gleefully walked hand in hand listen to the tour guide who was a lady with a fountain of knowledge and not too shy to offer it gave us a rundown of this zoo. We were fortunate to come across some staff getting the first glimpses of some baby meerkats making their first time out into the open and this was just the start of a magnificent day.







The Meerkat-Babies


We headed to the back of the lemur enclosure to see some of the zoo keepers areas and then we got our first plastic gloves for the day ready to feed these friendly creatures. Upon entering the enclosure it was obvious we were expected and they don't do the tour daily so as not to make the lemurs complacent. After being reminded not to walk on their tails we crouched down as they came to us and knew what we had!







Seemed like the Lemurs were quite hungry...








... no more food?








She has food.... he might, too!


Their paws were so cold and they were so trusting and it was truly a mid blowing experience and to share that with Anja was extra special. We were told to feed them the raisins one at a time and hide the rest in your other hand but they knew that trick! Luckily our tour guide took plenty of photos during these moments but in your mind it is easy to recount how lucky you were to be in this environment.







Yeah - Lemurs!!!








Hungry!!!!








That's it - I am full - I am done!


Sadly it was time to leave and bid our new friends good bye but once we were out of supplies I think the friendship was over...at least for them. Still though we continued to walk through the Zoo with our guide who was never short for a word and we arrived at the spider monkeys. One of the best things of these tours is that the keepers understand how you are and the spider monkey keeper held off feeding till we arrived. So the normal would be at a zoo to try to catch a glimpse of them but we had the fortune of the whole gang coming to us! We even caught glimpses of the babies and this view was another thing to make this day and my Christmas present even more special to me.










Spidermonkey Mum and Baby


We made it to the cotton top tamarins after fetching their truly disgusting feed of worms (still alive). Again on came the plastic gloves but no complaints there for this one. These guys are so small but also very attentive to anyone feeding them and again we found this quite a lot of fun.







Cotton Top Tamarin








These guys were quite hungry, too!








Yum, worms!








Bah!


The tour was meant to take about ninety minutes but after two and a half hours our guide had to go and we really found this to be a great experience. We even scored a CD of photos documenting the day and apart from the slight confusion upon trying to pick this up we spent the rest of the day seeing what Auckland Zoo had to offer.










One happy visitor!


They were enduring a slight upgrade but after making our way around this zoo it stacked up well against what we had seen already but after enduring our tour we knew it was time to go home and let soak in what was truly a remarkable day. Makes my task of thinking up something unique for Anja's birthday all that more challenging but well worth it!

Jason

Fußball in Neuseeland!

Well Anja and I have a thing for going to obscure sporting events in countries that we are in. Put that down to the fact that Jason is a very typical Australian male and loves his sport but he can at least justify sometimes the occassion. Early into Anja's stay in Australia we attended the Oceania championships for men's handball out in remote western Sydney and of course it was a slight difference to what she had seen back home. However whilst in Germany Anja's father Hans discovered that a Rugby Union game was on in Hanover so that was also an interesting experience for all parties!

So keeping to form Jason discovered that New Zealand were hosting the u/17 women's soccer world cup later this year so they were having a small tournament as a test involving Australia, USA, New Zealand and yes Germany! On the last day of the tournament USA was to play the also undefeated Germany and Australia and New Zealand faced off for the third place after not winning a game yet. Sadly Australia were well beaten by Germany during the week so Jason was spared that.

After reading the paper we realised it was in Northern Auckland so it involved a bit of a bus ride but also a new Westfield had been recently opened there so Anja could enjoy some retail therapy. It was at North Harbour Stadium but once we found out the tickets were only five dollars we discovered it was on an outer oval. Still this was good as the first game was the USA versus Germany and we could sit quite close on the sidelines. For this age group the game was quite physical and to our amusement the German girls were criticising the Americans not realising Anja understood every word!

The Germans started well and scored early and the pace was quite frantic. As I said the girls were quite physical and I think the NZ ref was out of her depth. At the main interval they held onto their slight one goal advantage but whatever the USA girls had at halftime worked very well. Within minutes somehow the USA was up 2-1 and it took a while before the Germans after repeated attacks slotted in the equaliser.
A draw would have been a fair result and the crowd that was increasing in numbers for the main game were being treated to an absorbing show of skill.Sadly the USA were awarded a free kick just outside the box and that was converted to allow them to win overall but both sides were applauded equally.

Then it was time to renew the trans tasman rivalry Anja has now seen up close and personal. You would have thought with this involving girls under the age of seventeen it would have been pretty amicable on the sideline. However the psyche of the average Kiwi shows a terrible dislike of their closest neighbour. Still we enjoyed the game and even more so when the Aussies were granted a penalty shot by the NZ ref and the crowed booed!
It was stopped but much to the distaste of this crowd it was re-taken and much to the delight of these two travellers it hit the back of the net! So Australia once again triumphed and we had another day of interesting sporting entertainment. I was soon to try to educated Anja on the subtlety's of the gentleman's game being cricket with a match between England and New Zealand but I will blog that unique experience later!

Jason

Sky Tower Conquered

Now normally we are very inquisitve people and when we arrive somewhere we jump at the chance to head to the best vantage spot. Upon arriving in Auckland we have had the imposing Sky Tower looking over us and we had vowed to go up once we had perfect weather. Well in September Anja's brother arrived and took the opportunity to scale the heights whilst we were both at work. Even with a discounted voucher from him we found no need or want to head skywards.

December arrived and time had passed since our June arrival and yet still no visit. My friend Shuan arrived and had the wettest week ever during his time here but still he made the journey to see over Auckland. Again we had a discount voucher from him and as December slowly was fading

Christmas Eve arrived and it was decided to head on up finally.

Jason with Rangitoto Island in the background.

Auckland Harbour

Auckland Domain with Auckland Museum

View to One Tree Hill

View over Auckland

We hoped to be sneaky and see the sunset but the sun wasn't shining that well but the timing of our visit was very fortunate. Being Christmas eve it was fairly quiet so once we made the descent we really enjoyed looking over the city we had made our temporary home. They have cameras there so you can zoom in on landmarks and this was even better understood as since we have lived here for a while we know a little bit about New Zealand's biggest city.

Scary glass floors

Alas I couldn't convince Anja that the glass floors were safe but still we both lapped in the scene whilst having a coffee in the cafe. At 328 metres Sky Tower is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere so we can now say we have came and conquered and hey it was ok!!

Jason

Aucklands Harbour Bridge

That's where we live...

It's all about the fun :)))