I went to this place back in late January. It was a miserable rainy day which may have been partly responsible for the weird feeling. There was practically only me and my friend and half a dozen others there. It seemed an odd mix of species and not to quite know what it wanted to be. Chimps were mentioned but we didn't see any and I was kind of glad because it didn't seem as though they'd have a very big enclosure. The reason we went was because it said in a guide that the kiwi exhibit was good. After the previous places we'd seen kiwis they had been behind glass* it was very different. Again there was only me and my friend in there and the kiwis were scampering around busily. The fences were really low and I was practially nose to nose with one that seemed oblivious to my presence. I guess it is supervised when busy because they seemed very vulnerable to lunatic visitors who would think it a good idea to do goodness knows what to them. *Apart from the wild one on Stewart Island
the kiwi house at Willowbank is a shocker. Its not supervised at any point of any day, and I have heard many stories of people hopping the fence to chase the birds and various other activities. The worst thing from my point of view is that it is so bad from an animal welfare perspective but to your regular visitor it is an awesome experience and they think all kiwi houses should be of the like. The fact is that captive kiwi get very stressed by noise and this house provides absolutely no barrier to that. There are something like ten kiwi in the house at any one time (all divided by hidden fences) so you can usually see at least one - or even several - if you're the only one in there and you're very quiet. Having said that, the park does have an extraordinary breeding record for North Island brown kiwi (in the outside pens, not in the nocturnal house) and they are very active in the Operation Nest Egg programme for several species of kiwi. The chimps were a father and daughter, ex-circus animals, who were old (I think the male Charlie was about 40). They were housed in the cage next to the ring-tailed lemurs and weren't very active. They were sent over to Mogo Zoo in Australia last year or early this year. Apart for the kiwi house I quite like Willowbank. Its only small but of the two zoos in Christchurch I would recommend Willowbank over Orana Park for families, on the basis that it is what you might call "more personal", and the kids can buy bags of pellets to feed to some of the animals. There's a Clydesdale in the farmyard who is a delight, and the evil goat is always fun. In the winter its not so great though as it does get quite muddy.
