We have booked to spend this evening at Mitai Maori Village, where we will partake in a traditional hangi meal, and watch a cultural performance. With the ticket came a ‘deal’, free entry into Paradise Valley Springs, a rather unique wildlife park. Not only does it have a good selection of NZ animals and birds on display, it also has its own pride of lions!
We headed off there this morning, and on entry walked round to see their special guests Ella and Chase, 2 very different lion cubs.
As we entered the enclosure we all thought that it would just be a case of one in, one out, and a quick pat each. Instead little 7 week old Ella was proudly strolling around amongst the few people that were lucky enough to share her space.
She took a real shine to our umbrella! The above photo gives you an idea how small she still was.
Chase on the other hand was a 7 month old boy, and liked to play with you, or have his belly stroked!
As they had to have a rest from the public every hour or so we left and went for a stroll around the rest of the park.
First of all Nicola got even with a nasty kea (mountain parrot) for it’s relative at Milford Sound stealing our travelling companion Mr Polar.
We then fed the beautiful deer.
We then went for a drink of fresh spring water at Te Waireka Spring (sweet water in Maori), a place where the ancient Maori tribes used to drink from because they believed it had healing properties.
We then walked (and occasionally fed, depending on how friendly they looked) some alpacas, goats and sheep.
We then walked over to the lion park, which was home to 2 large males and several females.
It was an impressive sight, and a great chance to get up close to the pride.
As you can imagine there are well over a hundred amazing pictures, here are a few of the best ones.
You might have guessed that we had all fallen in love with Ella and Chase, so after hanging around at the lion park we headed back to their enclosure to spend some more time with them.
We rubbed Chase’s belly, and played with him a little.
We then went back through to Ella, and helped feed her.
It was after looking at our watches that we realised we had been in with them for well over an hour! We ALL want a lion cub now!!
We headed back round to the lion park to watch them feeding. We even found out that the largest male in the pride is called Ben…see him below right photo jumping for a piece of meat.
What an amazing day!
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