Inge's parents were visiting last month, and one of the things that we did with them was go down to Rotorua which is a couple of hours away from Auckland. There is a lot of geothermal activity down there, which makes the whole place a little stinky (sulphur), but it means there is also some pretty interesting things to see. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate and we had showers each day, but still it was a good trip.
Probably the highlight of the trip was patting a lion cub at Paradise Valley wildlife park. They have two cubs which were rejected by their mothers and are being hand reared. Small groups are allowed in to see them up close and pat them, until they are around one at least and then they are too big to control. Christiaan and Liam were VERY impressed and thought it was amazing. (I have some reservations about the moral implications for the lion cub, but couldn't not give them the experience).
We also saw a wallaby with a joey in it's pouch, which was also the topic of much conversation. And of course we saw some mud pools... trying to make sure that they understood that it may be mud but that doesn't mean you can stomp in it for fun.... very hot! There is also a photo below of the boys riding in a mini fire-engine that they thought was pretty cool indeed!
