Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch                                       January 21, 2000

This educational and environmentally focused park is just outside of Chch and about 400 yards down the road from our golf club, McLeans Island.  It houses native NZ birds and animals, as well as an assortment of African Plains animals. The animals are displayed in natural environments, generally separated from people by moats or by fences hidden below eye level.  Since the Park is on the outskirts of town, there’s plenty of room; it’s got picnic areas and a open-air trolley to take you around.

The most interesting of the native animals were the kiwi and the tuatara. The kiwi is a 5-lb, nocturnal bird.  After walking into an area that initially appeared totally black, our eyes adjusted and 10 minutes later after searching hard and looking into the rather large habitat area, we got to see a live kiwi.  It’s a funny looking animal, with its large round body and long, thin, whitish beak, which it uses to uncover worms in the undergrowth.  The natives are apparently happy to be named after this bird, but I can’t figure why.

The tuatara is a living fossil, whose ancestors date back 200 million years to the days of the dinosaurs. Today these animals are almost extinct; there are only a few locations on islands near NZ where this reptile still flourishes.  The species is on the endangered list and breeding programs are underway.  Even so, I got to hold a tuatara on my arm. Check it out!

Other park highlights included the lions and the giraffes.  We paid the extra US$5 each to be in a fenced-in cage that was driven into the lion habitat.  From here the staff hand fed the lions through the cage meshing.  The raw meat was pushed out into the waiting mouths of the lions, which were climbing the cage walls, to everyone’s delight.  (Sometimes the lions get on top of the enclosure and their tails drop into the cage, but not on our shift).  It was exciting to be so close as seven lions growled, fought a little, and asked for more food.

The giraffes were another high point (no pun intended).  The display was set up so that visitors were standing on a raised wood structure up about a story.  In the wild, giraffes don’t have any predators; they apparently can kick the sh_t out of any animal that comes their way.  This is one reason to have visitors elevated.  Another reason is that the park allow all the visitors to hand feed the giraffes.  Everyone gets a thin stalk of greenery, and the giraffes pull the leaves off the stalk as you try to hold on. You can touch their long smooth necks and get up close and personal.

There was one other especially fun thing: a children’s "toy" called a flying cox.  Next to the elephant-shaped monkey bars and the swings is this 70-yard long, elevated cable.  Attached to it is a pulley connected to an upside down T-bar with a rope attached to the bar.  We had seen this before. Dad takes the T-bar to an elevated platform, sets junior (aged 6?) on the T-bar, and then while mom holds the kid and T-bar back, dad gets down below.  Then junior and pulley system are released, and the ride begins.  Dad runs below, just in case the kid falls off!  The Kiwi’s are much less coddling of their kids! Anyway, this "toy" was just about 2 stories high, and since no one was around, we each tried it.  Quite a fun ride.  Maybe it’s a warm-up for our bungie jumps.  Once everything is set up, all you need to do is let go.