Auckland Zoo

Whenever I visit a new country I like to visit the local zoo. Most of the time this means that in addition to some cool exotic animals, you might also see lots of native animals and birds that you may not see in the wild of the country you've chosen to visit.

Image by Gouldy99 via Flickr

Auckland Zoo is a pleasant surprise, the enclosures are a good size, so you don't feel bad for the animals in captivity; and they do have a good selection of native animals and birds as well as rhinos, tigers, lions, elephants, cheetahs, springboks and lots more. Unfortunately the two New Zealand creatures I was really looking forward to seeing weren't on display the day I visited - blue penguins and Kiwi birds... but I still had a fantastic day out with my friends.

The Zoo itself is set out in a really nice layout and even though the carpark was full when we arrived and we expected crowds and crowds of people, there was a nice number of people there and you were still able to spend time viewing all the animals at a leisurely pace without having to wait for people to move on so that you could get a quick glimpse of something.

"Some of the monkeys were clearly just showing off..."

The primate enclosures at Auckland Zoo were probably my favourite because in each one there were heaps of platforms, ropes and toys for them to play with and swing like tarzan! Some of the monkeys were clearly just showing off to the people watching and others, like the orangutans, looked they'd just eaten a hearty Sunday lunch and were chilling out and having an after dinner nap.

Image by Gouldy99 via Flickr

A close second to the primate enclosures was the viewing area for the sea-lions. They were so graceful and alot larger than you think they will be.

At the moment Auckland Zoo also has a baby giraffe. It's still large but compared to it's parents he's just cute! We were also lucky enough to be in time to see the elephant being fed on one of the grassy areas with no bars or walls seperating it from us.

All in all a visit to Auckland Zoo is a really nice way to spend the afternoon and marvel at some amazing animals. If you do go, try out the meerkat tunnels and domes - hard on the knees but very funny and a great way to see the incredible meerkat at eye-level.