Fun in the Park

Today Andrew left us to our own devices. He dropped us off at the Central Park Zoo (made famous in the movie Madagascar). It's quite a small zoo - perfect for small children and tired tourists. We saw the penguins, seal lions and seals as well as tropical animals and bears. What we did not see was Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman. Furthermore, the penguins were not trying to escape. That was quite disappointing. Admission included a 4D movie - an Ice Age short and a visit to The Children's Zoo which was a small petting zoo.

We walked through the park to the Hans Christian Anderson statue and on to the Alice in Wonderland Statue. It was a lovely park. We saw the pond where they sail small radio controlled boats. We had lunch at the Loeb Boathouse and then continued to walk to the northern end of the park. Along the way we came across many scenes that seemed vaguely familiar. I really want to watch a whole lot of New York based movies just so I can say "I've been there!" We also came across an old carousel. The girls had to have a ride. The park was full of all kinds of people - old, young, locals and visitors. It's a great asset to the city and has certainly been a highlight of the trip for me.

Once out of the park, we hailed a cab (not as easy as Andrew made it out to be) and drove to Times Square. We had planned to get tickets for a show but the queue was way too long and it was way too hot to stand out in the sun so we flagged that idea. We'll do that on our next trip!

We decided to do a bit of shopping. You will be pleased to know that shopping with teenage girls in NY is the same as shopping with teenage girls in NZ.

We also stumbled across Gulliver's Gate - www.gulliversgate.com - which was an awesome exhibit of models of famous buildings and sights around the world. We really enjoyed it.

Dinner was at The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company - www.bubbagump.com . It was a great meal and a very American experience. The waitress was so happy to see and serve us! They have signs on the table. When you want the waitress to come over, you display "Stop Forrest, Stop" and when you are happy to be left alone you display "Run Forrest, Run". We ate well and left a decent tip.

Finally it was time to leave Times Square and hail an Uber for the trip back out to New Jersey. A lovely day.Read more