A kiwi experience

We are from Puhoi & came down to visit family who took us to the Wellington Zoo. Fantastic, you feel like you could touch the kiwis as unlike most zoos in NZ when visiting the kiwi enclosure. There is no glass barriers. Go see for yourself. It's fabulous!

Riding a giant

I can remember riding on the elephant at the zoo in [the] early 1950's? No OSH regulations then but what an amazing experience as a child.

A chimp for tea

I remember going to the Chimps tea-party at Wellington Zoo in the 1960s. It was wonderful.

Sweets and other discoveries

Thirty days hath September, thirty things we remember … (#25 of 30)

On Saturday evenings Dad took us out in our 1953 Ford Prefect always to the dairy on Constable Street in Newtown, to buy the Saturday Evening Post. Rob and I were given three pence to spend on sweets and all the way there we would debate what our purchase would be - 6 spearment leaves of 6 oddfellows, perhaps 3 of each, or a hokey pokey bar or 6 milk bottles. At home we tried to make our sweets last as long as possible while we read the centre pages of the paper with Ripley's Believe It Or Not! column and Jeeves and Neville Lodge among the cartoon strips. [I] fondly remembered fun and simple pleasures in our lovely home city of Wellington where I especially loved going up and down our hilly streets and discovering new and interesting places. (Judy, Visitor Services Host)

Stay tuned for our daily stories throughout Wellington’s Heritage Month 2013 - where staff and volunteers share one of their favourite stories of the Wellington Region.

11 long months

My husband got a job in Wellington a couple of years ago and he had to go ahead of the family - so we were apart for 11 months, except for 1 week (Valentines week 2012) when I came to see him and he took me to Wellington Zoo as a Valentines present, to have a close encounter with a cheetah. We are all here now (+ our 5 children) and I work at the zoo as a volunteer. I love it!  

Urban penguins

Once I found what I believed to be a very sick penguin under the city bridge. I called almost every animal related organisation and only the SPCA answered. They wanted me to bring the bird to its Newtown branch but the only available transport was a bus. In the end, I found out that penguins just nest and sleep from time to time (under bridges).