Butterfly Creek Butterfly Creek Review

So I visited Butterfly Creek today for the first time, and here is a brief review.

Website: BUTTERFLY CREEK - Home Of The Crocs

This attraction is located very near Auckland Airport, in South Auckland and consists of a small aquarium, butterfly house, a few reptile exhibits, a bug display room, which are all indoors; and a farmyard area, minature train, and a wetland (read large pond with domestic ducks) outside. It is possible to visit just some of the attractions in different combinations, so me and my partner just visited the inside sections, although at $15 per student it was not cheap visit. To be fair, we could have forked out an extra dollar each and seen everything, but we are saving for MAWZT...

You enter via the gift shop (which conveniently doubles as the exit), and the first stop is the 'Aquaria'. The tanks on one wall are for freshwater tropical fish, with the first, smaller, tank holding Pacu and cichlids (my fish ID is terrible so I could be wrong). The second tank, billed as NZ's largest tropical freshwater aquarium at 10m long, holds Silver Arawana and more cichlids. Signage was pretty average here, but both tanks were well stocked and landscaped, and very interesting. On the next wall is NZ's largest tropical marine aquarium, which was probably 3-4m long. This too was well stocked and included Clownfish, Blue Tang and other small tropical reef fish (can you guess where my knowledge of such species originates?) Again this tank was well stocked and very interesting to watch. It also had better signage.

After the Aquaria is the Butterfly House, which was apparently home to 700 Butterflies, of more than 20 species (don't know if there was anything especially remarkable however). This was basically a lush greenhouse, with several water features and palms, dense enough to appear much larger than it really is. There are Carp in the ponds, and we also saw free-range Turquoisine Parakeets & Chinese Painted Quail. This area also housed terrariums for a young Saltwater Crocodile, Eastern Snake-necked Turtle, Eastern Blue Tongue Skink & Eastern Water Dragon. The websites mentions the presence of Reeve's turtles, red-headed parrot finch and red-cheeked cordon bleu, but we saw no signs of (or for) these species anywhere.

After leaving the humid heat of the butterflies, we entered the reptile area, which was dominated by two exhibits for large Saltwater Crocodiles. There enclosures were similar and adjacent, and viewed from a raised boardwalk. They did seem a little small, probably if combined into one exhibit for one croc it would be better. I am not the best at estimating exhibit size, but I don't believe the enclosures would have exceeded 20m by 20m. Signage was excellent here, and the travelling crate one of the big boys arrived in was displayed as well, most interesting. A small alcove nearby includes two exhibits for Inland Bearded Dragons and three for young American Alligators, two were kept singly, and then there was a group of three.

WInding our way towards the exit, the last area is Bugs About. This is basically a collection of insects and spiders terrariums, but was really good, and while not as exciting as the preceeding areas, certainly of a very high standard and with awesome species. First was a house-shaped exhibit for American Cockroaches, followed by a terrarium for Migratory Locusts and one for a Green Tree Frog. This was followed by 14 small terrariums set into a wall with NZ's best diversity of tarantulas: King Baboon, Bolivian Blue-legged, Thailand Black, Pink-toed & Costa Rican Zebra Tarantulas were all on show. This was followed by four small terrariums for False Katipo, Grey House Spider, Gisborne Cockroach & Black Field Crickets. Finally, three large terrariums held Little Barrier Island Giant Weta & Common Tree Weta. The Giant Weta I saw was the largest I have ever seen, and I doubt many people realise how large this species is (world's heaviest insect). Auckland Zoo's Te Wao Nui should definitely add this species to its collection, could easily evict one of the duplicate Chevron Skink exhibits in the Islands precinct and replace it with a couple of these awesome insects.

After this it was back to the gift-shop, and a quick late lunch in the cafe (expectedly over-priced but pretty good). The visit itself took just over an hour, and we certainly didn't rush, but if we had caught one of the croc-feeding or butterfly-releasing shows we may have spent longer. Overall a nice, if expensive, attraction, with a good invertebrate diversity but no particularly exciting other species. The saltwater crocodiles are the only ones in NZ (but not the first), and (apart from the alligators) all other vertebrates can be kept as pets. Hopefully Butterfly Creek will import some more exciting reptiles in the future and market itself as NZ's best invert/reptile attraction. Accreditation to ZAA could also see it acquire some small mammals (e.g. tamarins and otters) to go for the tropical zoo theme, which would probably make more sense commercially.

Photos to come once gallery is added.

 

Photos now added to the gallery (Butterfly Creek Gallery)

 

Thanks for the review of this interesting collection. I always like reading reviews of the lesser known places. For a small privately owned business they have quite a few cool species. The tarantulas and weta especially.

 

Alligators have moved to a new outdoor enclosure that is vary basic but is being modestly refurnished to add some visual barriers from each other in the next month. New Kiwi and native section is due to open next April that will house 2 or 3 North Island brown kiwi, tuatara and better Wetapunga enclosures. We now have a mixed species parrot aviary which is being refurnished at the moment. Pretty much all of our reptiles have moved to more appropriatly sized enclosures and there is talks of importing some more interesting reptiles over. We do house Franklin Zoos retired tamarins. Vary exciting times here at the moment as we are slowly improving for the better here. Love reading these honest yet concise reviews as it does give me some honest food for thaught while Im working ...