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Published: March 5th 2012
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A few days ago we awoke to the sun shining and the cicadas chirping. It was officially the sunniest, warmest, most beautiful day I had seen since my arrival. Upon discussion, we decided that this would be the perfect day to venture to the Auckland Zoo. Being one of the best Zoo's in the world, and seeing as we had never visited it while living here, it seemed a must do.
It was a jungle that surrounded us as we made our way over quite highly elevated wooden walkways. First Giraffes and Zebras, then Baboons and Spider Monkeys, which are the most fun animal to watch. We stood there mesmerized by their swinging and jumping and hanging...what seemed to be laughing and teasing as well. There were babies and old fellows all playing together. They cleaned each other and batted at each other and held each other close. It was hard to tear ourselves away but around every bend lay something exotic and exciting just waiting for us to see. Lions and seals and my least personal favorite, the fresh water eel. They are huge and apparently live in the rivers, and lakes of New Zealand and can actually climb
Breakfat
I sit out here almost everyday. out of water and travel across land, breathing oxygen for up to two whole days.
After leaving the zoo we ventured over to the adjacent park and made our way around it watching people feeding every kind of bird you could imagine. Black swans and giant seagulls and birds that can only walk that had long legs and bright blue chests. At one point I looked into the water and to my amazement there were a couple of those fresh water eels. As we walked down the shore of this little lake in the park I became horrified to see that there were a never ending amount of eels swimming along the shore. Eeeeek.
I realized recently that I completely failed to mention one of the most traumatizing experiences of my trip. There is a tall thin tower in the middle of downtown Auckland that kind of resembles the space needle in Seattle. It is a huge attraction seeing as it is the highest man made edifice in the city. My Dad and I decided to go to the top on one of my first days here. I mentioned to him about my fear of heights but decided
to be brave and do it anyways. There were people skydiving off the top and you could get harnessed in and walk all around it on this tiny little medal beam, both of which made me sick to my stomach, just at the thought of them.
Let's just say that we got in this teeny little elevator with a window in the floor and a window on the wall that rises at a ridiculous speed, so fast that your ears pop. I pretty much closed my eyes the whole way up and once out of the elevator found that I almost could not move. I immediately sat on a chair right next to the elevator door. I knew my fear of heights had gotten worse but I had no idea that I wouldn't be able to handle this. After sitting for a bit and questioning if I could even make the trip down, my Dad got me to walk once around the loop and then I immediately headed down by myself. Yikes. So glad I did it but don't think I could ever do it again.
Yesterday I felt a bit tired most of the day.
Dad and I had walked by this little athletics store and they had told me that there would be a running group that night should I like to join. I fell asleep for a couple of hours in the late afternoon and awoke with about thirty minutes to get to the group. I threw on my running gear and headed out. There was an extremely diverse group of people in this group. I made some friends and the ran began. I stayed with Carla, a dancer and fitness educator from Les Mills (kind of like 24 hour fitness but much nicer in NZ). We chatted and ran up hill and down hill and all around until we all ended up at what they call a jacobs ladder. They had us running circuits with burpees at the bottom, a sprint up a hill and then up some stairs and through an alley and finished to up with push ups and back down again to repeat it four times.
I don't know about running groups in the states but that was not what I expected and I loved every minute of it. So much fun. And it was nice to hang
out with some new friends. I honestly couldn't be happier.
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