adventuring

Saturday turned out to be a beautiful day here in Melbourne. So after calisthenics photo morning finished up for Miss-R we packed a picnic and headed out to Werribee Open Range Zoo for an afternoon in the sunshine and fresh air.

I love that the zoos here in Melbourne are all about promoting animal conservation and fighting extinction rather than just putting animals in cages for people to stare at. This teaches our kids to value the animals that we have and look after them for the future. They even have a project where you can recycle your old mobile phones to help save the gorillas. A good idea for all of you who have just upgraded to the iphone5!! I have a few envelopes around here that I intend to fill. It gets rid of all those old mobile phones laying around too!!

We enjoyed eating our picnic lunch out on the grass and the kids loved the fact that there were lots of other kids willing to play with them. Apparently everyone else had the same idea as us and the carpark was actually full when we got there. The zoo staff are wonderful though and were parking cars in a field close by. Even though there were lots of people at the zoo, it didn't seem crowded which meant I wasn't stressed out all afternoon about losing the kids.

We went on a safari after lunch. For those who haven't been to Werribee Zoo, they have all of the animals in BIG enclosures sorted by their country, so there's an arabic enclosure, an african enclosure etc. This is included in your ticket price and they book you in at the gate making it very family friendly, no massive pushy lines and no extra money to fork out for safari bus tickets.

Miss-R noticed as we were going through past the giraffes that one of them was licking his nostril. She tells me that this is because he has no fingers to get out the boogers. (SO CUTE!!)

There are a lot of endangered animals at the zoo and the zoo does have lots of breeding programs to try to build up their numbers which is great.

The zoo also has an area set up called the village dance party. There's a big screen, music, dancing and pots and pans to play. This was lots of fun for the kids after our safari. 

We also got to look for dinosaur bones.

All in all, it was a great afternoon out and with the zoo not being far from our house it wasn't a long drive and I am considering becoming a member of the zoo so that I can take them more often not only to Werribee zoo, but also the others around Victoria.

Do you like to go to the zoo?
What is your favourite animal to visit?