The NZA is kind of out of the way and sits just past the Scrivener Dam which gives Canberra its Lake Burley Griffin. I'd been told that it was something that should be visited and as I hadn't been inside yet, Isabella agreed to accompany me. I was kind of looking forward to it as something new and exciting. The entrance fee is a hefty $30/person so we were already expecting quite a bit.
We first decided to visit the aquarium portion of the NZA and found it to be quite small. It had some interesting exhibits like the wonderfully colourful Sea Apple and the large fish tank but it wasn't all that impressive. There was also a section dedicated to Australian reptiles but that also wasn't particularly interesting.
Having decided that the aquarium was a bit of a bust, we decided to walk around the rest of the NZA. The first enclosure was that of the grizzly bears but Isabella had already had her fair share of adventures with wild ones in Alberta. Further on there were the Sun Bears, bears from southeast Asia with a sort of halo of fur on their chests and extremely long tongues. One thing that was impressive was the small pride of white lions the NZA had. I'm sure they would have been even more impressive if they'd been awake.
The zoo portion is divided into zones, each corresponding to a type of animal, like mammal or perhaps by geography. In one section there were red pandas, another had playful meerkats while another was the haunt of primates. Further on was the African sections that had zebras, giraffes and springboks. There was even a section for Australian marsupials like the Tasmanian Devil, a cute sleeping wombat and koalas. Across from them were 2 enclosures, one for cougars and the other for cheetahs. There was even a play area for little Fairy Penguins.
Perhaps most impressive, though, was the tiger enclosure. There was a demonstration happening to some school kids or something and the zookeeper managed to coax a large Bengal Tiger out of its den with some meat. You can't help but be impressed by that animal and it's almost a shame to keep in caged but due to poaching in the wild, this may be the least of all evils.
By about mid-afternoon, Isabella and I had seen everything and we decided to head up Mt. Ainslie for a good view of Canberra. We both agreed that while the NZA had potential, it didn't really live up to its admission price; it's alright but not great. In my opinion, this is something you should see if you've never seen it before and after going to the other, less expensive, options in Canberra.
The summit of Mt. Ainslie offers excellent views of Canberra and was supposedly used by local aboriginals as a sort of scouting platform. The top now has a radio beacon and a landscaped lookout and you can see virtually every Canberran landmark from there. And on a sunny day in January, there aren't many better places to be in Canberra. I think the views from the top somewhat compensated for the shortcomings of the NZA and as we only had 1 more day in Canberra, I was hoping to take Isabella to one of my recently-found favourite spots in the city.
1 comment:
Sounds like the zoo is functioning under a cost recovery scheme. If there is limited value for money, then it will not be sustainable and will not attract visitors in the long term.
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