During New Year eve, we visited the Werribee Zoo. This is an open range zoo. Open range as in, you are free to walk together with most of the animals. The zoo is about 37km away from where we stay.
Together with my officemate and his family, we made our way to the zoo at around 930am.
The Werribee Zoo is made up of 4 main sections. The bus safari-like section, the normal zoo section, the water saving plant section and the Australian animal section.
The idea of the bus safari-like is something like Open Safari in Africa you see on TV but a much milder version.
Animals here are free to roam around. The environment setting is pretty much like the animals own habitat.
There’s bison…
Antelope…
Wild horse…
Giraffe…. The normal ticket does not include animal feeding. If you want to feed the giraffe up close like those shown in the picture, additional ticket need to be purchased.
Zebra… The bus driver literally has to stop the bus for the “Zebra Crossing” 
Rhino… Once again, to feed the rhino, additional ticket is needed.
The bus tour took about 1 hour. The zoo also provided benches and shelters for picnic.
Lunch time. It’s advisable to bring your own food as there’s only one restaurant/cafe in the zoo. Food’s choices aren’t that many. The price is quite on the high side. After lunch, we continued our visit to the remaining 3 sections.
In this section, we can see hippo…
Meerkat…. the weather for the morning was relatively cold. That’s why you see the meerkat are so ‘friendly’. In the late noon when the temperature rises, this is what you get…
The normal zoo section has not so many animals. There are cheetah, lions, african wild dogs etc No pictures were taken because when we were there, these animals were sleeping and it makes no point for photo taking.
Then, we proceed to water savings plant section. Since water is a big issue in Australia, the planting of water savings plant become more and more popular.
This picture is showing part of the garden. You’ll get the idea by looking at the soil type at the base of this plant. These plant are pretty lasting under dry condition and are quite nice for house decoration too.
The last section is the Australian animal section. Sadly, the kangaroos are sleeping (as they always do). We only manage to see emu roaming around.
Comparing this zoo with Melbourne zoo, I would say the latter one is much worth visiting. This zoo didn’t give me a “WOW!!!”. Regardless, it’s a nice way to celebrate the New Year Eve.
