New Year Activities - Beach & Zoo

New Year's Day

We headed out to Rabbit Island for most of the day with Grandma (Robyn) and Grandad (Malcom). It is about a 20 min drive from our house. Robyn and Malcolm brought their trailer and set up camp in a nice location not far from forest, toilets, and beach.

Our home for New Year's Day at Rabbit Island.

The day began with Grandad launching his home made bottle rocket high into the air and the boys chasing after it. It was a good idea to do this before the place got too busy! Then we had a water fight followed by lunch. It was getting pretty warm around lunch time so the beach was on the menu post lunch. The boys had a blast digging, running, rolling in mud and waves. Amy enjoyed a quick dip in the ocean too.

 

Near the end of our beach adventure!

Natureland 

A few days later, we decided to check out Natureland, which is a zoo at Tahunanui Beach. We were pleasantly surprised with the diversity of animals and the lovely layout with plenty of play structures and shade for children. The boys enjoyed seeing several species of monkeys, large lizards, and many local birds like moreporks and keas. There were meerkats which followed the kids around from inside their enclosure and a large sleeping porcupine.

 

I think this large iguana was Mathieu's favorite. He would ask, "is it alive?" - so then I would lift him up to look at him and the iguana would always turn his/her head to look back at Mathieu. 

At first, Nico was a bit afraid of feeding the farm animals but he came around to it and was very proud of himself for feeding goats and chickens. 

 But the highlight for the kids was probably the large trampoline near the center of the zoo. They got into it and ran around like mad. Their feet were moving so fast it was like they were superhuman! It was rather hilarious.

 We ended the morning with a chocolate ice cream snack before heading home. 2019 is off to a fun start!