Last weekend…

my friend Anna and her husband came and stayed.  Anna and her hubby are from the UK but I originally met them when Anna did a year abroad studying at my uni in Australia.  We met through church and have been friends ever since (although I’m not very good at keeping in touch!!).

So I decided that it was my job to play tour guide.  Anna is a super organised person and already had the itinerary mapped out so I was more like the tour bus driver and she was the tour guide!  I LOVED being a tourist in my home town.  We went to the local water park that I have scandalously never been to and had an absolute blast!!  I am a little wary of water slides but I think I got over my fear.  The big ride there was the Aqua Loop.

(Pic found here with this article)

You get into a compartment and then there’s a countdown and the floor drops away and you do a massive vertical drop into a loop.  I was terrified waiting for the countdown but the ride itself was so quick that I didn’t even have time to be too scared!  If you don’t get enough momentum, then you don’t make it all the way through the loop.  I was worried that I’d get stuck!!

Then we went to Seaworld (we have one here too!) and Boy Roomie joined us.  I was very excited that we were going because… we were going to go swimming with sealions!!  We started off the day with the sealion show.  This is such a cheesy show but I absolutely adore it.


Then we fed stingrays (which was scary because they were so excited for the food that they seemingly kept trying to flop out of the tank) and we looked at sharks.



Then it was time to swim with the sealions!  We swam with two sealions and one seal.  The water was SO cold.  I couldn’t stop shivering but once I met Wendall, I instantly forgot about being cold.  I gotta admit, I was a little afraid when he got into the water and “stood” up in front of us.  He was just so huge.  330kg or 730lbs for those Americans amongst us, which Wendall technically is being a Californian sealion and all.


Not the greatest picture of me but Wendall looks a babe so I love this picture!!  I’m standing up in the water, so you definitely get an idea of how huge he is!  You’d put your arm around him and he put his flipper around you.  Then once the picture had been taken, he’d use his flipper to push you out of the shot so that the next person could take your place.  Cheeky boy!  We got to play ‘catch’ with him and pet him. 

Then there was an Australian sealion called BJ.  He was super cheeky and adorable.  He seemed about half the size of Wendall but was still a big fella.  We were able to fit a harness to him and I got to tag along beside him while he swam.  It was amazing.  Except for like I said, he was cheeky and decided to do some “dolphin style” diving.  I was so busy enjoying the experience and smiling that I got a mouthful of water.

Then there was a New Zealand seal whose name escapes me.  He was not in the mood to follow instructions and kept darting about in the water, which was breathtaking to watch.  We got out of the water and were able to pet him.  Because he normally lives in a cooler climate, he had fur on him.  I thought he felt like a wet daschund!  He did a few tricks to mimic his natural behaviour in the wild, like washing his face which was completely adorable.

Anna took a ton of photos and hopefully she’ll post them soon so I’ll probably talk about me and sealions again :)  It was such a magical experience.  I am desperate to do it again!!!