Auckland and more

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A day of several things. After breakfast there was some more horse riding. Rachel had a go on Mikado up and down the field being led, and then switched to the shetland, where she rode first round in a circle, and then completely free around the field. Then she had another go trotting around in a circle, but had a fall on one of the circuits that rather took her wind away. However after a couple of minutes she was back on the horse and riding again. Meanwhile Simon was up and down the field on Mikado. The session came to and end when a rain shower hit and we all had to run for cover.

After that, we had a quick hot chocolate and a cake, we set off for Auckland centre to have a look around. We drove over the Auckland bridge and back first, and then went to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter aquarium.

We rushed through to one of the pools as the large stingrays were about to be fed by a diver. It turned out to be two divers in the pool and the stingrays came up and swept past them back and forth to get their food.

We then had a bite to eat and a ride on the penguin bus that took us into the antarctic zone and we got to see their penguins swiming underwater and on top. They make 3 tons of ice and snow each day to keep the enclosure refreshed, and have a good breeding program too (Cath got chatting to one of the managers later and found out all sorts of facts). Then we went underwater in the aquarium and sort lots of sharks and things, and then a diver came out and fed the fish. He was hard to spot a lot of the time as he was completely mobbed by the hungry fish! I got a quick movie of a ray eating a fish.

We did a few other things, including watching the penguins being fed. Then we left and went to downtown Auckland looking for the skytower, which is quite hard to find when you get close to it.
Anyway, we found it and got some tickets to go right to the top. The lifts have glass bottoms to them, so you can see how far up you are going. At the top there are three levels you can look out from. Some have glass floors so you can see right down to the street. They also allow you to jump from the tower on a sort of harness thing and drop to the ground, but we decided not to bother with that. As we were there fairly late we saw the city turn dark, and the lights come on.

Then it was back to the farm for a roast dinner and to find all the washed clothes ironed and folded - RESULT!! (Cath)

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