Werribee Open Range Zoo

We are trying some advetures in and around Melbourne over this Christmas break.  It's very expensive to travel within Australia now because it's Christmas AND summer holidays so sticking close to home seemed like a better idea.

Today we went to Werribee Open Range Zoo. There are 3 zoos in Melbourne and when you become a zoo member you get unlimited access to all three of them.  Becoming a zoo member is an incredibly good deal for us as a family since seeing animals is probably Cian and Emily's #1 favourite activity.  Werribee is the last stop of the train line that runs very close to our house so it seemed like a good trial of a longer train ride as well.  We took our 30 minute train ride and 20 minute bus ride to the zoo without a hitch.  Cian is extremely good on all modes of transportation (has been since he was a baby) and Emily is good if she is strapped into her stroller and constantly entertained by Keith or Cian (the boys seem to be more entertaining than me).  We have now been to 2 out of the 3 zoos in Melbourne and I have to commend the planners/designers for doing such an amazing job at making the zoos visually stunning and incredibly fun for kids.  Werribee is on the way to Geelong and at the edge of the city so there is more room to roam and as such it's the "African Savannah" of the Outback.  There was an 11am "Junior Safari" which was the safari ride (which is included in admission) geared for kids 5 and under.  They played lots of music and explained things in kid-appropriate detail.  It was great.  Cian was totally engaged and would be easily able to do the adult/older kid safari (probably cause he's already done real safaris) but Emily was definitely on the right ride.  She is very strong-minded about what she wants to do - I have no idea where she got this (I like to blame Auntie Sue).

So we went on the safari ride first and had lots of space to get up close to the giraffes, zebras, ostriches, antelopes and rhinos (Cian said his favourite animal today was the rhino - he's consistent on his rhino love).  It was a beautiful ride and very similar to a real safari - it was great fun.

After the safari we walked around to see some of the different exhibits.  Most of the herd animals are on the safari part of the tour but there are exhibits for the gorillas, hippos, cheetahs, lions, meerkats, monkeys, etc.  We got to the gorillas during feeding time and the kids were very close (behind glass) to the silver backs which were beautiful to watch (Emily's favourite animal was the gorilla). Lots of the exhibits had multiple areas to view the animals, lots of space for the animals to roam around and cool playground-structure areas for the kids that were themed.  This was really neat.  For example, at the vervet monkey exhibit they had an elaborate rope course like the monkeys had that the kids could play on.  At the lions there was a safari truck that was built into the side of the glass enclosure that you could sit on to watch the lions.  They also had giraffe stilts to pretend you were a giraffe - there were lots of really good ideas.  What a brilliant move for conservation and love of wildlife to inspire children through play at an early age.

Emily was getting pretty tired in the heat when we got to the last part of Werribee where the bandicoot breeding ground was.  She was definitely ready to go home and Cian was still raring to go and wanted to see the "Aussie" exhibit which we only saw a part of.  We told him we'd go back and he was a really good sport.  We did get to see an original sheep-shearing barn which he really liked.  We'll definitely have to get back to do that river trail and see the bandicoot.

On our way back we had a bit of detour on the bus and ended up going to Werribee South but saw the ocean which was stunning and some of the wineries at that side of town and Emily got a bit of a chance to have a nap.  I sometimes forget how close we are to the ocean and seeing the wineries definitely made Keith and I want to get to a winery at some point while we are down here.  It was a wonderful day merging our new life here with my old love of the African continent.