Orana Wildlife Park

On the Bucket List – finally  a visit to Orana Wildlife Park.  New Zealand's only open-range zoo, sitting on 80 hectares of land, it was opened in 1976, and is owned and operated by the Orana Wildlife Trust, a registered charity.  We paid our entrance fee (reduced prices for pensioners) and set out to explore.

First up was to see the ever alert meercats.  While one or more are on sentry duty, the others busily go about the very important business of digging around looking for insects to eat.

There was one lonely little meercat in with the porcupines, she was a solo female and it was not safe for her to be put with the other family group as she was in danger of being attacked.   She was zipping in and out between the porcupines (we had never seen a porcupine before)  as they were being fed their breakfast, making off with several tasty morsels.

Two porcupines and their meercat house guest

The native bird aviary was close by and we saw pretty little kakariki (red crowned parakeet) gobbling up a selection of fresh fruit.  And I was thrilled to see a bell bird – this is only the second time I have seen one of these elusive little songbirds – they are not easily spotted in the wild.

Kakariki and bell bird

We decided to jump on board the free shuttle and get an overview of the park, and a running commentary.  It was a stinking hot day and this would save our legs.

The Great Ape Centre was next, and the Orang-utans were happily perched up high, enjoying the sun shine in their outdoor enclosure.  They had some sacks, which they placed on top of their heads while snoozing, then removed them, luckily for us to take some shots. 

Next door were three gorilla brothers, Fataki, Fuzu, and Mahali.  Fataki, being the silverback, was much bigger than the other two.  He was a real poser, and certainly knew that a crowd of people were watching him through the glass, looking straight at us, then turning his face away.  Then he wandered outside to sit in the long grass – such a magnificent animal.

Fataki the silverback gorilla

We hopped back on the shuttle bus to take us to the other end of the park to see the big cats.  On the way we passed by:

Rhinos snoozing in the sun

Bison and Water Buffalo

Himalayan Yaks

The big cats are always crowd favourites,  and we entered Tiger Territory to see the two male tigers being fed.

They pounced on their hunk of meat which was tossed over into the enclosure, and settled down to enjoy their meal.

Feeding the tigers

When we think of Orana park, we think of lions.  When the park opened back in 1976, it contained 18 lions (including 6 cubs), 2 tiger cubs, 2 donkeys, 2 camels, 2 water buffalo and 2 Shetland ponies. The donkeys and camels seem to have departed, but the lions are still going strong, with two separate prides.

And for a mere $45, a customer could go on a “Lion Encounter”, and stand on the back of the truck while the lions were fed. Not for us, we thought.   Hopefully they are keeping all their body parts safely tucked away as the lions climbed up on the cage on the back of the truck.

What’s on the menu?

We had a great day and enjoyed our visit to Orana Wildlife Park. That’s something else now ticked off our list.  Later in the evening we returned to see son Michael one last time during our trip to Christchurch (we were departing the next day) and shared a real Kiwi meal of fish and chips with him.

Michael and Robin

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

It was “all aboard” the Mirimar 11, a catamaran built in 2009, which took us up the Brisbane River to Lone Pine.  She is 22m in length, 6m wide with a draught of 1.3m, and is powered by a couple of 330HP John Deere Motors.  Our Captain Matt gave us a very pleasant cruise at 10 kph.

 

An interesting commentary told us of the history of the river, the various floods over the years which have done so much damage, the interesting bridges, all quite different, and the mansions worth a fortune which boast a glorious river view.  Such as the Walter Taylor Bridge, a heritage-listed suspension bridge.  The bridge is unique among Brisbane bridges in that the two towers of the bridge house residential accommodation, which were occupied until mid 2010 when the last members of the original toll master's family moved out

The Walter Taylor Bridge, with living quarters in the towers

Several references were made about the terrible floods which caused so much damage over the years.  We were told that the water rose right up to the upper balcony of this lovely building, the Regatta Hotel.  A customer tied his boat up to the balcony rail and ordered a beer – hard to imagine, by quite true!

 

After a very pleasant hour’s cruising we arrived at Lone Pine.  There was just the matter of the 28 steps and a steep path to negotiate (we had been warned) and we were there.  With our pre-paid tickets clutched in our hand, we bypassed the queue and walked straight in the door.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was established in 1927 with only 2 koalas; now with over 130 of these cuddly creatures as well as a variety of Aussie wildlife, it holds the Guinness World Record for the first and largest koala sanctuary in the World.  But before we got to the koalas, we checked out the platypus – those cute little egg laying mammals which took the world by storm when they were first discovered by the early settlers.  We saw them, but with flash photography not allowed, didn’t manage to photograph them at all.  These little creatures are so quick, they zipped under the water, behind a log, up to the top for a quick breath, then back down again.  There were snakes in this area too – Australia has many deadly snakes.

Glass painted sign at the platypus enclosure

Taipan and Diamond Python

Lone Pine Sanctuary started with just two koalas, and with a dedicated breeding programme now have about 130.  They are sleepy little creatures and spend their days eating for a while, then sleeping soundly.  The koalas make rather fierce grunting noises at each other, which seems rather loud coming from such a small animal.  And can you see the baby cuddled up with Mum in the final picture?

The wallabies and kangaroos were in a large open enclosure and the public were allowed to get up quite close to them.  The kangaroos in particular were very relaxed with all the visitors.  People were walking right through the group, and young children were trying to put food in their mouths.  I had always thought that large kangaroos could be quite dangerous with their strong legs and sharp claws, but these are obviously well used to being the centre of attention.

Wallabies and kangaroos

The Free Flight Raptor Show was a real hit with the visitors too.

Sea Eagle and Peregrine Falcon

Barn Owl

Sign on the way back to the boat : Auckland and Wellington, where’s Levin?

Ice-cream time

Another leisurely hour’s cruising took us back to the big city.  Even the yachts were out on the river.  And there goes the Mirimar, after all the passengers had been dropped off.  It was a great day, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Yachts on the river, and the Mirimar

A Walk on the Wild Side – Part 2

It had been some years since we last visited Wellington Zoo, and there had been many changes made, and areas still under construction.  At the “Wild Theatre” the keepers arrange twice daily talks on different animals – we were between sessions so just walked on, arriving at “The Roost”.  This was another new addition since our last visit.  The incubation room was full of eggs being kept warm and carefully watched over.  Chicks are hand reared, and the staff are careful that they develop only bird behaviours and do not grow up thinking they are human.

Lucky for us that the popular red pandas are  active in the afternoon as we were quite keen to catch a glimpse of these pretty little animals.  The red panda was first discovered by Western explorers in 1821, and their Chinese name is “hunho”, meaning fire-fox, due to their colouring and similar size to a fox.  These little animals were real crowd pleasers as they climbed in the trees and walked a circuit around the pathways.

Red Panda

Two male lions were quite happy sunning themselves on the warm rocks.  Oh, what a life, sooner or later dinner will be delivered.

Two big cats

The male baboon was not quite so laid back as we stopped outside his enclosure to check out the family group.  He came running down the hill, raced up to the fence as he muttered and snarled at the onlookers, gave the fence a mighty thump, then raced away again.  Wonder how many times a day he does that?  Guess he doesn’t like all the nosy humans looking through the fence.

Male baboon

Ostriches and giraffes were sharing another enclosure.  While the birds had their heads down at ground level fossicking around for goodies to eat, the giraffes were enjoying nibbling from their high feeders piled up with leafy twigs.  Giraffes can spend up to 20 hours a day feeding when they can eat up to 66kg of food. 

 Giraffes – standing tall

There is a troop of 13 chimpanzees at the zoo, and Malika, the youngest, was born in 2010.  The chimps were enjoying themselves in the sunshine just hanging out together.  Chimps first arrived at the zoo from London Zoo, and these young chimps used to participate in the very popular Chimpanzee Tea Parties.  I can remember taking my young children along, joining the crowds of people who loved to see the chimps performing.  Zoos are run with much different guidelines these days, with the emphasis on normal animal behaviour.  

A lazy chimp afternoon

We wandered past the kangaroos and wallabies, the meercats and porcupines, and made our way to “The Tuck-Shop”, which was the Elephant House many years ago.  Time for an ice-cream and a sit down, we decided.

 

   The Tuck Shop, formerly the Elephant House

“The Nest” is yet another new complex built since our last visit.  The veterinary team have all the top of the range equipment needed to give the best of care to all the animals.  The two main surgical rooms have large viewing windows and visitors are encouraged to watch procedures taking place, and the vets give a running commentary and invite questions.  We saw a white faced heron having an x-ray, to try and determine what the problem was.  Pacific Radiology have very generously donated all the zoo’s x-ray equipment.  

Vets at work

Last stop was to look at the the otters.  The Asian small clawed otters are the smallest of the otter species.  Their streamlined, sinuous bodies make them marvellous aquatic hunters, and they enjoy a bit of rough and tumble as they play together in their enclosure.  Clyde the otter caused an uproar in 1999 when he escaped from the zoo, and he was found hiding in a household property nearby.  Escape artist Clyde was later moved to Mogo Zoo in Australia.

Asian small clawed otters

We stopped for a chat at the zoo shop on the way out to find out how successful the $5 Wednesday promotion had been.  The staff were over the moon, they told us, and 3000 people had come through the gates that particular day.  We reckon that 95% of them were young mothers with toddlers in pushchairs, and pre-schoolers, they were everywhere.  It just goes to show what a combination of nice fine weather and dropping the prices will do – it certainly gets people out and about.