Oddly today, we have to check out of the hotel even though we have another night here (we added another night to be able to do an activity tomorrow, with hope of better weather)

We do so and get on the road to Rise & Shine café for bacon & egg muffin, chicken & leek pie and two flat whites

Just round the corner from here is a large green space made up of two parks; we head first to Brooklands Park which has a zoo with free entry!

It seems most of the animals are cuddled up at the moment so we just walk through the free-flight aviary and then wander back out to walk around the parks

We find the Bowl of Brooklands, an events venue; Poet’s bridge and a tea house on the lake – the latter two being in Pukekura Park – where there’re a number of ducklings and little pied shags

We do a loop of the lake and head back to the zoo where it’s feeding time

This time, we get a proper glimpse of a lot more of the animals, including a capybara, a couple red-rumped agouti, and a threesome of asian small-clawed otters

After, we head back into the town where we park up and pop into the Centre City shopping centre

Kenko Bites serves us a $10 classic burger meal each

Following a feed, we give City Barbers a visit and get Dave a haircut before getting back to The Devon Hotel to check into our new room and do a bit of admin

A few hours later, we emerge into society again and head towards the coast where we join the seawall and get lovely views of the rock formations out at sea (see the featured image)

We find Frederics Restaurant and Bar and it’s having a little happy hour for drinks and food – we get a couple rounds in and a BOGOF plate of chicken tacos

Nice to enjoy some hot sauce with it too that’s locally made (hard to come by as kiwis don’t typically get on with spicy!)

Around the corner there’s a food court-style venue including a pizzeria, called Ms White, where we share a margarita pizza too

Next, we’re pretty knackered so just walk back to watch All Dogs Go To Heaven and then get some rest for a big day tomorrow