The three of us went to Auckland zoo today, and had a brilliant time. One highlight for L was seeing a family of pukeko being all dinosaur-like and cute in a stream. It's pretty awesome being able to share my adopted country with someone who also thinks that native dino-birds are one of the best things in the zoo.
We did a lot of walking (though it doesn't count as exercise as you're stopping every minute or so to look for meerkats), and in a fit of Scottish frugality made cheese rolls to take with us for lunch. I have to say, eating those and watching the orang-utans play and interact, feeding crumbs to a cheeky songthrush was a far better dining experience than sitting in the overpriced cafe, eating chips and watching other tourist types try to keep their broods in order.
I don't think homemade pizza with garlic bread was the healthiest dinner option, but L and I worked it off at the rink in the evening. I hadn't thought I'd get any skate time while she was here, but she mentioned she'd like to get some exercise in and that she wanted to see what all the derby fuss was about, so off we went to the evening session. I managed to sneak in a 5 minute 26 1/2 laps (would have been faster, but for people practicing other things on the rink which required dodging skills), and we practiced some drills with Mia Vendetta giving us lots of handy advice, but mostly it was ambly skating, nattering with derby ladies and catching up on the festive period gossip. L managed to go from clutching the wall all the way round to doing laps without the wall at all, which I thought was pretty good going given the parlous state of the rink floor as a result of the rain!
I don't want to post pics of L here without her say-so, so here's me doing a passable job of skating backwards while she handles the camera. I'm feeling a LOT more confident with my transitions now, just need to keep on at it...
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