December 27th Butterflies, Crocs, Auckland

December 27th

Butterflies, Crocs, Auckland

Today we got up and ate breakfast before loading the car for our trek back up to Auckland.  I can’t believe the time has gone so quickly.  We have seen so many amazing things on this trip it has truly been breathtaking.

We had nausea inducing winding roads for the first half of the trip, but then we had a four lane highway with straightaways!  In case you are wondering, even some of the locals have trouble with the roads around here-the kids we stayed with at Thames were never taken on road trips more than a few hours at a time.

After more than three hours we decided to stop at Butterfly Creek to check out some butterflies and crocodiles.  The kids had fun stopping between an aquarium, a butterfly house, a croc/alligator house, and finally a bug house where we were able to see some of NZ’s wetas.

I forgot, this is Gabe's Birthday party with NZ lemon filled lemon cake with lemon frosting and Gum Drop Ice Cream.

A croc.

Brody petting a baby croc.

Gabe petting a baby croc.

Tara petting a baby croc.

Tara with a butterfly on her head, it loved her and her headband which was very colorful and had pics of flowers.

Tara is getting irritated with the persistent butterfly.

A giant weta.

Tara points out a medium sized weta.

After our day of traveling we had to return our rental car which was no small task.  It has been our home/base of operations for the last weeks and we have accumulated quite the load of stuff!  We eventually found our hotel, Novotel, which is right across the street from the international check in, before heading to the car rental return.  We caught a shuttle back and then hung out in the room and organized our bags for our trip to OZ (slang for Australia).