Orana Wildlife Park — Attraction in Christchurch

I took my two grandbabies and 18 year-old son to the park and frankly was underwhelmed by our experience. We arrived well after opening time, my grandbabies were looking forward to seeing the tiger and zebras and after paying were told the Tiger was having a procedure today and would be not be on display, (fair enough) the one? Zebra wouldn't be on display either, the New Zealand Bird Aviary was closed....We walked around saw the three meerkats, one porcupine, several otters, the giraffes, loved the gorillas and single thumb-less monkey and baby, couldn't see the lemmas at all, eventually after several hours saw the Rhinos after staff had finished putting hay out and checking stuff...etc, we couldn't see any geckos, frogs, lizards, Tuatara, (okay was a cooler day), couldn't see any mork-pork-owls maybe a couple of parakeets briefly as they flitted against the wire at the top of the aviary, the enclosures are so overgrown difficult to see anything. As for the kiwi-house couldn't see a bloody thing, there may, may not have been kiwi in it, they may or may not have been walking around, who knows even after waiting for sufficient time for the eyes to adjust, TOO DARK!!. The lions were good although doing what they usually do, Lion-around, excuse the dad-joke, I felt sorry for the sole cheetah pacing around a small enclosure mewing, appeared to be lonely and looking for another, don't know if there were any others at the park or whether they use the bigger area?, I hope so. The cafe-floor and table-tops were filthy despite having opened at 10am. The good side, food was good, a nice walk in the sun but the experience left me feeling short-changed and deflated, I won't be back sadly. I do acknowledge this was a week-day visit and animal welfare, health must be prioritized and other work completed, off-peak, I hope I read all this wrong and things are better organised for peak periods or maybe a different entry fee for the times likie these could be considered so folks know they a re not going to get the...

My partner and I recently renewed our annual pass to Orana park due to the promotion they have going in the month of November and because despite the negative press Orana park has received lately, we are still supporters of the park...However

We arrived today and took a walk around the park, what we saw was pretty disappointing

To name a few

Empty enclosures Cheetahs rarely on display...we never see them Rhinos weren't led out into their enclosure until after 12pm Overgrown enclosures

My partner commented that you never see anything new at the park, it's always the same, I completely agree, it's tired and in dire need of revitalization.

I understand these things cost money, but didn't the council just approve significant funding in their LTP 2024??

There's always several sides to a story but I couldn't help when Lynn Anderson announced her resignation, but to cross my fingers that things would actually start improving at the park

For one, the food at the Cafe is minimal and inadequate, it's not that hard to offer proper meals, like burgers etc as options, you have a fully equipped kitchen, burgers or fish and chips or smaller fried options are a good idea

Maybe consider liasing with Ecan at the possibility of public transportation options to the park, I feel so many more people would come to the park if public transport as an option.

Australia Zoo offers overnight stays/experiences at the park, whilst Orana Park is smaller than Aus Zoo and logistically its a lot to work out, but it could be an option?

We ended up just walking around the park to increase our fitness progress (walking apps) and stopped for coffee.

On a positive note, it's good to hear that the vehicles have been upgraded and the keepers/volunteers we encountered were friendly and engaging, it's just tiring of seeing empty enclosures and nothing new at the park

Christ, even the Kea aviary was empty!!

Despite this negative experience, I still have my fingers crossed for the park, bring on a fresh pair of eyes, fresh...

Would've like to have given a 5.. but there were a couple of things that bothered me. I think it's a nice park, because some of the fields are way back it's hard to see some of the animals from afar, especially take good pics of them, I guess the good thing about that is it means more space for the animals to move around in. Guess you need a good proper professional camera. Also lots of fence between you and the lions hard to take good photos without getting fence in the way. It's a big park, alot of walking and it does make it hard for those who are not good at walking and although there are shuttles you still need to walk a bit to see some of the animals up close and visit other enclosures that aren't close to the shuttle stops. The shuttle is nice. Possibly needs one more section on busy days as really didn't want to wait another 30mins to get from one stop to the next because no one else wanted to hop off. In the end on another round I was offered a seat up the front so that was nice. I saw a bit of rubbish around in the grounds and quite a bit of over grown grass or rubble... the gorillas are amazing, and feeding the Giraffe is cool. I didn't get to see all the animals because of all the walking. And I don't think the wheel chair would be good for those paths.. lots of gravel and slopes unless it was an electric wheel chair. But I did see what I majorly wanted to go see.. the Gorillas.. because I've never seen them before.. just majestic.. hope to get the money to visit again to see other parts of the zoo. And see more feeding times. The staff are nice.. the hot chips in Cafe weren't cooked properly and the Chai tasted weird I didn't even drink half of it.. Overall...