Auckland Zoo's newest and heaviest addition has arrived at last - the nearly 9-year-old elephant Anjalee is settling into a slightly colder climate.
The 1.7 tonne female Asian elephant was brought from Sri Lanka to New Zealand, via Niue for a 3-month quarantine, to keep the zoo's 32-year-old female elephant Burma company.
Burma had been lonely since her friend Kashin died in 2009.
It was not a straightforward trip for the young orphan, who stands 2m tall - she was flown from Colombo to Auckland in March on a freight plane, before being transferred to a New Zealand Defence Force C-130 Hercules and flown to Niue, a 30-plus hour flight, for quarantine and testing to confirm she was disease free.
She arrived at her new home yesterday and will be quarantined there for a week.