Hamilton and Auckland

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May 9th 2009

Published: July 10th 2009

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NibbyandMatty

Hamilton Zoo

Spider Monkey

So the main reason for visiting Hamilton, apart from seeing Kylie, was to do some work experience with her at Hamilton zoo. She is a vet nurse there and was able to sort out a weeks work exp for me. I was a little nervous on my first day as I haven’t done an honest days graft in a while and thought I might struggle. I spent the whole day with Kylie and she was in change of Rhinos, Bison, cheetahs and Goats. I was really lucky because one of the female Rhinos had given birth 4 days before I started so I got to get up close and personal with the 65kg baby. He was all ears and feet, the cutest thing. We had to shovel poo around and make the enclose ready for the Rhinos to go on display. Also got to feed the Cheetahs and release them into their enclosure once we had picked up all the poo. They don’t poo nearly as much as the Rhinos but they make up for it in smell! POOOOEY!
Over the week I worked with all the different animals at the zoo, having to pick up the remainders of a horses

Hamilton Zoo

Spider Monkey

head in the Tiger enclosure, hand feed the Ring Tailed Lemurs and my favorite of all, meet Cheeto the zoos Red Panda. He was adorable. He would eat grapes and kiwi fruit out of your hand and let you stroke his soft fur. I really wanted to bring him home but I think customs might have had something to say about it! I had a fantastic week at the zoo and was sad to leave. It has really helped to confirm that I would like to work in a zoo when I eventually get back to the land of reality. Imagine waking up everyday and looking forward to going to work!?! Thanks for everything Kylie.

Our time in New Zealand is coming to an end and it really started to sink in today as we drove back to Auckland. We got checked in to the hostel and dropped the hire car back walked around the shops and then went on the piss with Justin & Becky pretty messy had a good hangover the following day which was a bit silly coz we got kicked out the hostel at 10am and our flight did not leave until 10pm that day

Hamilton Zoo

Baby Rhino only a week old (think he was weeing when I took this photo!)

so we wandered the streets of Auckland and found ourselves at the cinema where we watched two films back to back before heading back to the hostel and to the airport, the flight was mega delayed - we were on the plane, off the plane, on it again but it did get us safely to Hong Kong and that was the most important thing.

Additional photos below

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