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Zookeeper Cafe
A great find! An eclectic mix of animal related decor inside and out creates an awesome ambiance. The Ibis is a great central location and the bed especially is really comfortable, in our room anyway the big downside was the condensation - there were literally puddles of water dripping off the window sill!
If anything the weather is even worse today, heavy rain and very cold temperatures, however our day started on a really positive note when we wandered into the Zookeeper Cafe for breakfast. Not surprisingly given the name the decor has a distinctly animal theme! It is an extremely eclectic mix to be fair - from the friendly looking polar bear (complete with mosaic collar) outside, a Cheetah on a racing bike sprinting across the ceiling of the main dining area, to an absolute menagerie scattered throughout the rest of the interior, all in all it created a really cool vibe. There was even a parrot (on the counter, not the menu) to greet visitors. The atmosphere was awesome and the food excellent, we are only in Invercargill for a few days but this will be our breakfast base for sure.
From there we split up again with me doing some more work (I know not such a holiday so far) and then having
Zookeeper1
Note the parrot on the counter - awesome! a look around Ivercargill with Jody, including a bit of a tour around her 'hood which was good fun. Invercargill is really flat, in general my sense of direction is terrible and I found it almost impossible to work out where we were at any given time! However from what I saw the town has a nice feel to it, there are heaps of lovely old character buildings dotted around the place, the prison is basically in the middle of town (which is odd) and the streets are really wide. Highly recommend the Batch Cafe for lunch. Jeanette was going to do some more shopping but in light of the bad weather decided on a trip to the movies to see X-Men instead.
Then it was back to the Hotel for a rest and a bit later over to the Times to organise the aforementioned gift basket. I presented that at about 4.15pm and it all went very well. Included were Kapiti gourmet cheeses, Craft beer from Panhead (from the regions bogan heartland, tragically sold to Lion Breweries between purchase and presentation) , Garage Project (from the too kool for skool kids from Aro in central Wellington) and Tuatara
Official Gift Basket Handover
Presenting Fairfax Invecargill (Southland Times) team with their hard won gift basket. And having some fun at the same time:) (the granddaddy of craft beer in the capital). Chocolates from Whittakers of Porirua (and some random place in Pahiatua), wine from Hawkes Bay, dips from around the region, dipping breads from Wellington, plus hand cooked chips from Marlborough (there's a tough job-hand cooking chips - dip chip in fryer, fat on fingers oow, put in packet, repeat until packet fill!) and a few other goodies - all in all a pretty good haul.
Arthur was a bit of a dark horse, showing himself to be something of a racing expert and he was chuffed to win the Jimmy Cassidy signed bottle of wine! There was some really good banter around footy, basketball, our respective regions etc. Also a good chance to talk about the restructuring we have been going through at work and where things are at for us as we're a few months further through the process-was nice to be able to give the local team a positive but also realistic view on how things are moving. Then it was off to pick up Jeanette and off the the basketball! Go the mighty SAINTS!
STADIUM SOUTHLAND
Is a fantastic facility with basketball/netball and squash courts, a
Stadium Southland
Incredible facility and a real credit to the local community international class velodrome plus climbing wall, meeting rooms etc. A fantastic community facility. Tonight it's all about the basketball though! It's NBL semi finals night! We had corporate lounge tickets for both games. First up it was Canterbury Rams v Super City Rangers. Although the Rams won the regular season, and well done to them for that, they always looked vulnerable and so it proved as the 4th placed Rangers steamrolled them to book a place in Saturday nights final.
Then it was Saints v Sharks, the stadium was a sea of orange (Southland Sharks colours) and the crowd was unbelievably vocal. We've been to a lot of live sport and the atmosphere here was right up with the best - it was so worth the trip down to be part of this. Veteran B'ball commentators later described it as the best game and best atmosphere they had ever experienced in New Zealand basketball. Jeanette did her best to stand up for our boys but her voice was well and truly drowned out by thunderous and continuous noise generated by the Orange Roughy school! The Sharks mascot (Shooter the Shark - AKA our Katherine) played an absolute blinder! She
Shooter the Shark
An unexpected highlight of the Saints v Sharks semi was the outstanding performance from the Sharks mascot - Shooter! certainly did her bit to add to the occasion with a series of outstanding cameo appearances as she went head to head (blow for blow) with the Saints Magilla Gorilla. I'm calling it a draw but you could make a decent case for a narrow points victory for the southern shark!
In spite of the enthusiasm of the home supporters the classy Saints maintained a slim lead for most of the game and ran out narrow four point winners. It was just a great evening! Our last catch up with Jody before she headed of to Brisbane and awesome to watch such an exciting contest with her - and to win one for a change!
Tomorrow we head across to Bluff in the morning and then back to base for the NBL grand Final Wellington Saints v Super City Rangers. It's going to be HUGE! Hopefully the crowd will turn up now the home team has been knocked out. Confident they will support the Saints if they do. Couple of the Auckland players have stuck the boot in about the Final Four being in Southland. Plus in general people outside of Auckland just don't like Aucklanders!
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