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December 2nd 2009

Published: December 1st 2009

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Marie and Mike

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All set up and ready to go!

Hey!

I hope you are all good, I cant believe that it is December already! it seems that 2009 is just zooming by and I cant quite believe that we are heading into Christmas. Believe me, its really weird having our first warm Christmas, I keep seeing the sky at night get lighter and lighter as well as all the blossom coming out on the trees...it really doesn't compute in my head at all!

It seems ages since I last wrote to you all, so allow me to fill you in with what we have been up too since we went to Taupo.

Firstly, it was a very busy time at the Zoo, we had a very demanding four year old Orangutan, named Madju who wanted a star studded birthday bash! he he ! (well not really, he was actually very well behaved!) But, we thought that it would be a good idea to throw a party for Madju and at the same time highlight the plight of Orangutans and other animals who live in the Rainforest by launching our "Don't Palm Us Off" campaign. This campaign seeks to highlight the fact that palm oil plantations are destroying

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My office, its not messy, its creative!

the animals natural habitat, and in short the Orangutan could be extinct in the next 10 years if the plantations continue at their current rate! So, as a team we thought it would be a good idea to lobby the food standards agency into labelling all supermarket products that contain palm oil and its derivatives as "palm oil" so please see a link to the page for more info and to sign the petition http://www.aucklandzoo.co.nz/default.asp?sectionID=420 also watch the video with Rhys Darby, very funny!

The event was a great success, we had a palm oil free bake off (you can see Burma our elephant sampling some of the cup cakes) and Madju had a great time, we decorated the enclosure with presents and treats which kept the whole Orangutan familly occupied - as you can see Madju's dad got to the presents before he did! which was a bit cheeky! It was a great day and one I think me and Mike will never forget! - If only we could take Burma home with us!

Sadly, my contract at the Zoo has now come to an end...it was a great time and although I am sad its over,

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Mike and Burma, she likes cake as much as Mike!

I feel very lucky that I have worked somewhere like that - I can truthfully say my colleagues were animals and not get into trouble for it! he he

Last weekend we decided to be outdoorsy for a change and decided we should go to Rangitoto Island and climb the Volcano there (like you do!) It was brilliant! although blistering hot! (the volcano hasn't erupted in the last 600 yers but the rocks are porous so still give out a lot of heat!) plus the sand flies (which bite) where out in full force! The Volcano was 300 meteres high, and I really didn't think we were going to do it but we did, it was a great achievement to get to the top and see all the islands dotted around us.

This weekend just gone, we watched the Santa Parade go down Queen street in Auckland, it was a lot of fun and Mike was pretty hyper on all the free candy canes they were giving out... (mental note, don't give Mike sugar....ever) It was good to get all Christmassy, as we miss all our friends and family! It was also good to have a bit of

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Me and Burma, possibly the prettiest elephant I have ever seen!

a giggle ( a lot of the people in the parade looked bored as hell!) and there was a lot of "British stiff upper lip-ness" going on when people in the parade tried to interact with crowd! some people looked as scared as hell, which was funny!

Anyway, I'm going to sign off now and we will be in touch soon - and all the best for Christmas if we don't do another blog entry before then.

Remeber to scroll down for all the photos, and if you get a chance, drop us an email, it would be lovely to hear from you, thanks for all your comments on the blog so far, its been great to hear from you, really made our day!

Mwah - much love

Marie and Mike

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