Willowbank

Today we had a Correspondence School outing to Willowbank. The teachers are based in Wellington so they try to come down once a year to meet up with everyone.
Kerry and her youngest three traveled through to town with us. It was Kerry who first told me about Correspondence School.

Can you spot the eel?
Touching the eel. Rachel and Layla both touched it with their fingers too.

The only picture I got of Kayla and one of the twins. They stay quite close to Willowbank and as they have just started home schooling this year I thought it would be nice for them to join us. Layla also wanted to get to see Rachel again - so it was a good opportunity for the two of them.

And those feathers are supposed to look like that.

The highlight for me were these tame wallabies.

What an amazing experience. Ingrid (our friend who stays close by) knew the little bags of food that you buy when you come in are very handy at this point. So thankfully the boys were very willing to share the treats and our girls got to feed them too.

As we walked past the lemur's cage they were given their food. Great for Ruth to see them picking through their fruit for their favourite pieces.
Hannah loved the old tractor (of course) and so the two of them had a nice "ride" together.

Tiny little chicks under lights to keep them warm.

I have never seen such small horses. A perfect size for little ones to pat.

These Kea were so friendly and loved the bread that Ingrid had brought to give them. We could tell she had been here before because she had her food ready and she knew were we should stand and wait. We waited for a few minutes wondering if there were in fact any birds in the walk through enclosure. And then sure enough they started to come towards us. We counted 5 that came for a snack.

Such lovely birds and they had such different characters too. A few of them screeched so loudly and then the one just sat quietly and did the following little "meow" (almost).

Ruth was very brave in giving this big pig some treats. Just look at that mouth!

The piglets were very friendly. And very cute.

We had a lovely day and only when I loaded the photos onto the computer did I realize that I had not taken a photo with Ruth and the Correspondence School teacher. What a pity. It was great for Ruth to meet her in person though.