Okay, I did it. I saw a kiwi

It was actually pretty cool. Kevin and I went up to Orana Park this Saturday to check out the not-so-local wildlife. But we did see the famous nocturnal kiwi bird in a very dark room with lots of loud children. The way they walk sort of reminded me of the dodo from looney tunes, which is appropo since they would be extinct if it weren't for breeding and release programs.


No pictures, sadly, due to the darkness of the room. But there was this enormous kiwi, aptly titled the Big Kiwi on the map, which we enojyed thoroughly. Some of us more than others. We almost got to see the owl that lives in the kiwi cage eat a mouse, but it was being slow and we had LIONS to see!


The lions didn't seem to have much room to run around, although apparently they don't care so much, since the keepers have to run their food around in a truck every few days to get them to take any exercise. But they sure perked up when the bucket o' meat came out! Climbing on the cage and growling at one another and whatnot. Definitely the closest I've ever been to something that would eat me without a second thought.


We didn't get to strap meat all over ourselves and give the lions some exercise, but we did get to feed the giraffes! Kevin was totally stoked, and we got some great video footage of the event. "Cool."


This is the flying fox, a totally kickass zipline. Kevin gets mad props for going down first before we knew if it would run into the ground. The sign reads, amongst other things, "Sensible behavior is required at all times."


I also had fun with the rest of the playground.


A considerable amount of fun.


This is my arty photo for the day. Also evidence of the numerous small children at the park.


And this is my cheesy almost-a-postcard shot. All in all, it was a pretty great day out in Orana Park