To break our trip to Singapore we decided to make a stopover to Auckland for 4 days. First we wanted to go to Waiheke Island, an island off the coast of Auckland. It is a half-hour ferry ride to  Waiheke. It is very beautiful. It has a lot of beaches and mountains.  But on Waiheke we wanted to go to to Oneroa, a little village with a beach. There are also a lot of good restaurants with fish (because New Zealand’s special food is fish and squid). We ate and went to the beach. It had many unusual shells. Dad even found a piece of a Paua (abalone) shell. All paua are unique to NZ.

The next day we went to the Auckland Zoo. It is a big zoo with a lot of animals. There are a lot of animals that are unique to New Zealand, like the takahe. A takahe is a beautiful bird with very vivid colors.  I even saw a kiwi (but it was very hard to see because a kiwi is a nocturnal animal)! I also saw a cheetah. It walked right past me (but don’t worry, it was in its enclosure). There were also a few little blue penguins. They were rescued by people. 3 of them had lost one of their flippers. Oh, and I also saw Orangutans. They were big, and I saw 4 of them. Then there were Kunekune pigs. They are very hairy pigs. The owners of the pigs got them out of their enclosure. Evan even got to pet them.

The next 2 days we walked around Queen Street, and saw a Lego christmas tree. After a few minutes of walking around it my dad noticed that it was made of lego DUPLO (duplo is lego for babies)! We also climbed up Mt. Eden, a mountain near One Tree Hill. On One Tree Hill there is also a very good playground. But overall, Auckland is great (and fun!).