KEY POINTS:
Not many 9-year-olds get the chance to start the day with an elephant.
But Hope Whitehead (scratching Kashin's trunk) from Mt Eden won that opportunity ahead of 4000 other children when she won ASB Bank's competition for young account holders to have breakfast at Auckland Zoo with Kashin the elephant.
Hope, who took along friends and family for a private tour of the zoo before gates opened yesterday, also got up close and personal with Kashin's counterpart Burma under the watchful eyes of zoo staff.
