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Published: December 20th 2007
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Today we headed to the park that features on the Sky tv series Lionman....a park with 43 big cats...some wild, some hand reared....black leopards, cheetahs, lions, pumas, bengaly tigers, white tigers, white lions and an old rescued retired gibbon. For those of you that watch the show we also saw the most famous of the residents...Zion...he was used to model Aslan from the lion the witch and the wardrobe.... also features in the rugby lions tour commercials ....a true superstar.
The park is a really special place and you do not get to just walk around it yourself, you have to be guided by one of the keepers, and as Graham and I treated ourselves to the "cub encounter" we got our own personal keeper showing us around which was rather nice...
So more on the cub encounter, we are still smiling about it now, and as it was not planned on our itinery of must do things, but we used our chrissy money from Mum and Dad..it was an expensive 20 minutes, but worth every penny.......drumroll......we played with four white lion cubs who were only 11 months old!! Now when I say cub's in those 11 months they
have grown to the size of overfed rottweilers, so you did not turn your back on them. For those watching the series on Tv, they are the 4 white's that have just been born on the show...
we played with the cubs who were great fun, really playfull, and one of them wrapped its paws around Graham's legs, and tried to pull his shorts down, just as a big tour went past! One of the Cubs loved giving you a handshake too, it was amazing how heavy their paws were. we clapped them all over for the full twenty minutes, with one of the males, particularly loving a good tummy rub! Afterwards, we were amazed to see a filmy substance, not unlike marmite on our hands, which is apparently a natural oil on their fur....Yes I am allergic to lions too, as well as household cats, but the hives were well worth it!
the pictures will follow soon, as no facility here to upload, but so excited about the experience, I personally have a sore jaw from smiling so much!! Graham joined me last minute, and he is so glad he did!
Anyway, I cannot believe I
have written this much and not mentioned the weather! Well I am very pleased to report its scorching today, perfect in every way...great drive to the bay of islands where we parked up before taking the short ferry trip to "Romantic Russell".
Before we got the ferry, we noticed a large area along the seafront cordonned off CSI style and assumed that some poor bugger had been knocked over, a lot of cops buzzing around, but as the ferry pulled out we noticed that there were also forensic types mulling around in their boiler suits and masks out with their chalk and markers taking photo's....but more on that later....
The ferry arrived in Russell, and it soon became apparent why it is known as romantic, it was stunning, and we had a lovely walk along the chic promenade, taking in a few bars and art gallery's before catching the return ferry.
Upon our return, we were wondering aimlessly, and merrily along the shore when we realised we were walking on top of the crimescene, as the police cordon had been removed, and we had not realised the extent of what had happened!!! Looking down at our feet
we saw a chalked outline of where we can only assume a body lay, as various droplets of blood were circled, numbered, and measured along the road towards the pubs!! We felt pretty rank about it, as we later found out a guy was stabbed and has since passed away. We have been assured that this is strictly a one off, and all the locals are really shocked, as nothing ever happens like that! ( no need to worry mum )
I know this does not follow on too well, but we later, searched out the finest eatery in town, quiet simply THE MOST amazing chippy ever for the tastiest fish supper we have ever eaten in our combined 66 years of eating chippy's! First up you get to pick your own fish type, and you are charged by type and weight, Graham had red snapper, and I chose lemon fish, for an extra $3 they cook it in the scrummiest of batter and serve it to you with chips and a big slice of lemon......heaven in a paperbag..which we ate on the beach of course...along with 20ish seagulls who clearly recognised that the food was from the Northlands
reigning champion for best chip shop.......mmm mmmm mmmm
So we are now camped in Paiha and settled down by a lovely river with a pack of Mac's Brewery Wheat beers, .......dolphin swimming tomorrow, hope they wont be scared of us big whales after the chippy and beers tonight!
At the moment, just trying to pluck up the courage to sky dive......
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louise
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Wow!!
Sounds like so much fun =) xx