This past week.

I've got exactly two and half days left here in Ellerslie. On Saturday I will be boarding the bus for my Kiwi Experience. To say I'm excited would be an understatement. I'm dreading heading back to hostel life. And it's gonna be COLD down south but I've just gotta grin and bear it. Despite this I can't wait to see what New Zealand has to offer outside of Auckland. Need to pack me some thermals.

I've got this plan to visit every volcanic area thingy in Auckland before I leave. A full list can be found at this wiki article. So far I've made it to 7. Seven out of 51 ain't bad. I need to go through the list properly and find out if I've accidentally stumble to one. Like Little Rangitoto, that's just known as 'Skate Board Park' in this household. Turns out I've been sitting by a volcano all those times I took the kids to the park.

Sarah helped me check two places off the list this weekend. We ventured up to One Tree Hill, braved the freezing winds and beheld the lack of tree. Read about the lack of trees here. FYI, "I don't wanna be" by Gavin DeGraw is the perfect length song for driving into One Tree Hill all the way to the top. That's right, Sarah and I played that full blast and sang along the whole way up. And yes, we didn't walk up because it was getting dark and it was just waaay too cold.

See, no tree! Anyway, from there we went over to Mount Wellington. And we actually had to walk up to the summit and there was just enough light! In the car park we met some drunk hobo. He probably wasn't a hobo, as he had a car. Or with someone with a car. But he was definitely a shady character. He tried to direct us into the crater and as we were walking away he asked us whether our mum was a terrorist. Confused, I told him no. His response "'Cause you da bomb!" That's right, half way up a volcano, getting chatted up by some dodgy fella. We got up to the top in time to take a load of silhouette photos with the sunset.

Today I went to Auckland Zoo with the kids. The family has an annual pass so we can go whenever. Naturally, I only found out about the pass last night so I doubt I'll be putting it to much use. Unfortunately we only had an hour at the zoo because Toby decided to see how the board marker worked on every surface in sight. Luckily, the marker came off quite easily off the kitchen counter, chairs and glass living room table. It didn't not come as easily off the carpet, bean bag, walls or sofa. Today I learnt the best way to get felt tip off the wall is with an eraser. Thanks Wiki how! Thanks to the wonder that is carpet cleaner and Napisan (that's Vanish Oxi Action to us Brits) I managed to get it out of the carpet and less noticeable on the faux-suede couch. The bean bag however was a lost cause. This whole activity took me about 45 minutes (I kid you not) and then I had to finish my morning chores. And by this point the kids were going wild and getting ready to leave the house was not on their agenda. By the time we got to the zoo we saw a couple of birds before we stumbled across the playground (Harrison planned it, I'm pretty sure) and wasted 20 minutes of our zoo time there. By the time we made it to the red pandas, Toby was so groggy that we needed to leave so he could have his nap. So we didn't really see all that many animals. But I went for free so I can't really complain.

I saw tigers!

Toby got up close to an Emu in the Australian walkabout. I also saw Kangaroos.

There were meerkats being compared.

And the red panda came to say hello. I then had to coax the kids out with the promise of treats.