I turned 33 on Saturday, and celebrated with a trip to Melbourne Zoo with Willie, our flatmate Matt, and Willie's sister Chloe. Chloe has a car. ;)

When we arrived at the zoo, we headed straight for the monkeys and apes. My favourite animal to visit at Wellington Zoo is the capuchin monkeys, and Melbourne's capuchins were just as fun to watch. They're small, brown, clever, and agile, and so remind me of my family's cat Hazy. Willie loved watching the gorillas, and kept remarking that they're just like humans. One of them was fidgeting with its fingers in a very familiar way!

My very favourite part of the zoo was the Butterfly House. It's a warm, humid glasshouse full of plants and flying butterflies. They like to land on people, which was quite magical! Willie took this video of the butterflies:

Nectar-stations and plants for laying eggs on

What a lovely brooch!

Another colourful charmer was the peacock who was competing with the seagulls for stray chips...



And as incredible as the real live elephants were, the painted Mali elephant sculptures were a sight to be seen! We had great fun exploring all the different paint jobs and textures. The painted herd was recently scattered around the city for people to happen across, but now they've been gathered up to be auctioned to fund conservation projects.

A steampunk elephant

A psychedelic one

Annnnnd... a knitted one!

When we finally left the zoo we went for a drive to Brunswick to grab a bite to eat from Chloe's favourite Lebanese bakery, and then headed back to our apartment for a rest and a lovely swim in the pool.

Our vague plan of cake-baking didn't end up materialising, as we were too tired from walking around the zoo and too relaxed from our long soak in the spa pool! Luckily low-key birthdays are my favourites. :)