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Willowbank wildlife reserve development began in 1974 from a rough block of scrub, broom and blackberry with a beautiful spring fed stream flowing through it.
The reserve today covers 18 acres of lush native plantings and waterways. The reserve is still operated by the original family who created this special place combining native New Zealand wildlife, rare breeds, nature and culture - all within Christchurch city boundary.
This is our Finn's favourite place to visit and I so agree with him, at the beginning we payed a small amount for some food, one bag of each, bird feed, barn feed, eel food and fish food. First stop was to feed the eels this I let Finn and Neil do as did not fancy this, they spooned the feed right into the eels mouth as the eels got closer and closer coming right up to the boardwalk for more. Walking alone the winding stream amongst the trees as the sun bleed its way through the growth was so peaceful as we came across the deer yard a large group of deer that loved the feed so gentle as the munched it from our hands. Turning the corner was a wonderful group of spider monkeys one of which had a young baby she carried around on her back, they were so close you could almost touch should have one or two good pics. We bumped into a keeper with food in her hand to feed the otters there were three of them it was great to watch them eat. We followed the keeper to the next feed it was the siamang gibbons the female was named Sue who was the greedy one loved to take the food from the other male gibbon, great to watch and listen to the keeper as she talked about each animal. The last ones with the keeper was the ruffled lemurs a fairly big group who where housed in a pen with a non flying parrot who loved this keeper but didn't like the lemurs for some reason loverly big colourful parrot.
Strolling around under the trees many of natural New Zealand animals like weka, kunekune pig ( a big fat ugly pig ) I have never seen one like this with big fang teeth, Tuatara Takahe to name a few. Let's not forget the Kiwi a nocturnal bird so the pen was inside with infa red lighting and you had to be quite but we did get to see four of them shy birds but so loverly in there own way, it was great to see a real live Kiwi. All in all a great place to be and I only wish we lived closer so I could come along with Finn every time. Another fantastic day. Xxxxxxx
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