A day at the best zoo

We caught the hop-on, hop-off bus right near our apartment today and headed toward town, we swapped lines from the blue line to the red line and were headed to the zoo! Perfect and easy way to travel. Karl’s conference started today and so he was off to work - 

Us on the bus

Here is the conference centre where Karl was off to today - apparently this is designed to be the correct angle for holding a glass while pouring a Guinness into it.........or so they say!

A cool bridge by our apartment in the shape of a harp........

Today is meant to be the only fine day for the week and so we went to the Dublin Zoo.  It was a great zoo and the kids saw some animals for the first time.  We saw hippopotamus’ and gorillas - they had never seen these animals in real life before and were very excited.  The whole zoo itself was according to Connor “very, very cool, I couldn’t believe it” and Lachlan said “what an amazing zoo - orangutans were climbing right above you - best zoo I have been too”.  Me and mum also thought it was awesome and one of the best we have been too - it was really well set out; really clear where things were and great viewing points for seeing the animals.    

The Sulawesi crested macaques were so cute - their babies - we wanted one!

Great family group with lots of playing................

The orangutans so cool and their enclosure - the best -

The new orangutan forest was amazing.  They had ropes going between trees and over the walkway - two or three swung above us, so cool and they didn’t throw anything at us or wee on us which can apparently be a bit of a problem.  In NZ health and safety laws probably would not allow this!!! 

The wires right above the path - freaky!

There were also three or four different playgrounds located around the zoo which the kids loved and reasonably priced cafes- it really was fab!  We had lunch at the meerkat restaurant where the meerkats sat watching and playing while you ate - again, very cool!

We had great views of the lions and the pink flamingos were so brightly pink and there were loads of them - they must breed well! . 

The pink flamingos - the photo does not do their colour justice..................

Hippos are so cool and so big - love them even if they are just a wee bit scary..........this hippo was doing circles and you could not see it once under the water, can see how they could sneak up on people and are one of the biggest killers in Africa.

The gorillas were also in a very large area outside and also had an inside area.  It must have been close to lunch time as the outside ones were hanging around the gate and the inside ones were racing around - very cool!  Unfortunately we read that the old silverback and "dad" Harry died at the end of May this year..................there were lots of cards to the zoo in sympathy.

 Finally got some carrots to eat.................so human like - crazy

It also had all the other traditional zoo animals and one very weird mixed breed looking thing- it looked like a horse, had striped back legs and butt and a weird looking face - it was called a Okapi.

And such a cute wee baby elephant - aw......

 And mama elephant close bye!

 The shops were also reasonable priced, we brought some masks for 2 euro - very cool - check out Connor!  The kids brought some and so did I - thought they would be quite cool for work - not sure whether for clients or staff!

 Anyway as you can tell we had a great time at the zoo.  We then caught the bus from the zoo back to base and just managed to catch the last hop-on bus home with the same driver we started with - fantastic!  Arrived home and caught Karl who had popped home during the hour long break - had a quick chat, I could hardly get a word in as the boys were full of excitement and stories about their day at the zoo, and then he was off for the rest of the day and no doubt half of the night!