14 November 2006

Blue Skies and Big Cats

WOW... Blue Skies, fluffy white clouds and lots of green, lush hills... this is what New Zealand looked like as we flew over the top and landed in Auckland. We look forward to going back and exploring more!














The first couple of days was spent catching up with friends (Ryan in the front, Nick, Richard and Meryl). Richard was so generous with his time and picked us up and showed us around on a couple of ocassions. Other days were spent exploring the sites of Auckland using the 'hop on and hop off' but as well as relaxing, relaxing and relaxing some more.

We did also manage to take a leisurely drive up North as far as Whangari. Ryan was very generous to lend us his car while he was away working. While up North we visited Zion Wildlife Garden and spend some time with some big cats as well as some cuddly cubs. Zion Wildlife Garden is a lion and tiger sanctury ran by The Lion Man (which can be seen on The Australian Network in Asia). He has a number of lions and tigers that are no longer in the wild... it was great to get up close and personal. To read more about it, I've placed a link to his website under 'Favourite Websites'.

We spent about an hour on a guided tour and then I spent 20mins in with some cubs... check out the photo's below. The first two photos are 8 month old Barbary Lion Cubs - 2 boys and 1 girl (the girl is on her back waiting for a tummy rub and the one who's enjoying the bottle).














I was also very lucky to spend some time with a white tiger cub who loves having a bottle and is only 6 months old.

He made little chuffing noises as we approached him. Tigers chuff when they greet people and he was soooo gorgeous!





3 comments:

Anonymous said...

wow Nicole - SO surreal!

Glad you had a fantastic time and welcome back to Hong Kong.

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful experience! Fantastic photos, and I'm sure, many wonderful memories to go along with them :)

DanniL

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous shots and what an amazing experience. So glad you had a wonderful holiday. :)