Ems and I began the day with a drive to Rotrua’s Skyline. We had seen a leaflet for it and both really wanted to go on the Luge’s.
Taking a gondola up to the viewing platform we walked around a little bit and took some photos of the lovely views from up high. We did bump into some friendly sheep and Ems took this opportunity to fulfill some of her ‘New Zealand Sheep Challenge’ as set by her friends Bev and Maddie.
We stopped for a lovely cup of Tea before luging!
I wasn’t really too bothered before Ems had mentioned that she wanted to go on this. However, it was hilarious and so we went back for another go!
Choosing next to venture out to ‘The Paradise Valley Springs Wildlife Park’, we drove there eager to touch some animals and we were not let down!
As we arrived the Lions were being fed so we made our way to the enclosure and watched as the eight lions (two males and six females) dug in to their Horse dinner. It was interesting to learn a little about Lions and how their pack works. Today I learnt:
- The dominant male, in the wild, will never actually hunt. His harem will do it for him
- When the lionesses are in season the male lion will not eat so that they can have all of the nutrients and goodness from the food. When the lionesses are back to normal the male will make up for his period of hunger strike and steal food off of all the others in the pack!
- A lion will only be pregnant for about three months
- The lions enjoy eating Horse meat as this is the closest think that the keepers can give them to Zebra, which is what they would eat in the wild. They don’t like beef!
- Lions are actually huge! I had never realized how large they really were and being literally an inch away from one was a little bit scary.
We went straight from the adult lions to the lion cubs and we got to touch them! The keeper lets a few people in at a time and we were allowed to stroke the back and tummy of the baby lions. They are only five months old but really quite big already. It was amazing!
The rest of the wildlife park is made up of a guided walkway that takes you around ponds with lots of Trout. Ems and I weren’t that bothered with the Trout so we continued through to the birds and other assorted animals. We got to touch a Possum and then we fed Goats, Sheep and Alpaca. Alpaca are my favourite animal so I was fairly impressed that I got to touch/feed one.
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