Buffy Bunny's New Zealand Adventure
Dear Samson and Rella,
You’ll never guess what happened to me! My visit to Easter Island didn’t quite go as planned, I’ll tell you all about it when I get home. When I left, I somehow managed to get on the wrong plane! I’ve ended up in… New Zealand! At first, I wasn’t really sure what to do, so I wandered around a little. Then I met some nice little Kiwis. They took me to a beautiful park nearby. While I was playing on the swings I met Leuan and Seren, they live here with their family. They were very nice, they showed me around where they lived.
The first place we visited was the Wellington Zoo. There are animals there from all around the world. They took me to meet lots of animals who are native to New Zealand. There was the Korora, who are cute little blue penguins. I meet the Kea, Kiwi and Kaka birds who were all very beautiful. They even had a farm set up. There were Kunekune pigs in the farm and two Flemish Giant Rabbits! Did you know that these kinds of rabbits can weigh up to 10 kilos when they are fully grown, and the longest one ever was about 81cm long? Their names are Kumara and Spud, and they are very nice. They showed me around their hutch which sits just outside the barn, next to a vegetable garden. I was tempted to stay there with them, it was very nice. Leuan, Seren, and I got to learn about endangered native animals like Otago skinks and Maud Islands frogs. We also got to explore the slide and worm tunnel, and built our own fort!
That night they made me the most amazing Purple Carrot Soup. It was delicious! I traveled up to the middle of the North Island to a place called Ohakune. It’s right near some mountains called Mt Nauruhow, Mt Ruapehu, and Mt Tongariro where I got to go skiing! It was very scary. You strap bits of wood to your feet and throw yourself down a mountain! The very first time I tried I ran into a whole group of people trying to get up the mountain. The next time I tried I fell right near the top and slipped the whole way down on my poor tail. After that, I decided to sit in the cafe and have a hot chocolate and watch the other people ski for a bit.
In Ohakune there is a giant carrot! I thought that it was a real carrot, so I took a giant bite out of it. Turns out it’s actually made out of fiberglass, which doesn’t taste quite as good. After this, I traveled back down and over to the South Island.
I got to visit the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves. You catch a boat and they take you into the caves, where you get to see thousands of tiny, twinkling glow worms. The look like little stars.
I went whale watching in Kaikoura which was amazing. The mountains there go all the way down into the ocean, and then the bottom of the ocean just keeps going down and down and down! You travel out on a boat into the ocean to watch the whales. I got so excited that I accidentally leaned too far over the side of the boat and I almost fell over the side. I’m glad I didn’t, the water would have been freezing!
I even got the courage to try bungee jumping in Queenstown! I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, you just jump into nothing with a little rubber band wrapped around your legs! But I did it, and it was one of the scariest but most fun things I have ever done in my life.
I headed back up to Auckland and visited the Sky Tower. It is amazing there. You get to walk around the observation deck, which is all glass. It feels like you are walking out into the sky, like a cloud floating around just looking down on the city and the people. I’m going to hang out here in Auckland for a while, my friend Asher invited me to stay with him. There is a Carrot Carnival here at the end of May and they have asked me to come and be their guest judge in the carrot cake competition! I can’t wait.
In fact, I have had so much fun accidentally ending up in New Zealand that I think I might spend a little bit more time traveling around the world before I come home. I’ll send you another postcard from where ever I end up next. Lots of love, Buffy Bunny.