Orana Wildlife Park, Christchurch Overview

Orana Wildlife Park is New Zealand's only open-range zoo spanning 80 hectares of land. It is located on the outskirts of Christchurch. It opened in 1976 and is owned and operated by the Orana Wildlife Trust, a registered charity. The Trust aims to provide quality recreational opportunities for local people and visitors to Christchurch, conserve endangered native and exotic wildlife, educate visitors (especially children) about environmental and conservation issues, and support research on endangered animals.

It took six years of planning, fundraising, and hard work before the zoo opened. First, the society set out to develop an open-range, drive-through zoo. Volunteers cleared the site initially with just hand tools starting with almost unusable land – a dry, stony riverbed. As fundraising results increased, second-hand equipment was purchased, resulting in significant development progress.

On 10 September 1976, Orana's first animals arrived from Australia. The' Noah's Ark' consisted of 18 lions (including six cubs), two tiger cubs, two donkeys, two camels, two water buffalo and two Shetland ponies. The dream of the South Island Zoological society became a reality when Orana Park (now Orana Wildlife Park) officially opened.

Timings

Orana Wildlife Park opens daily from 10:00 am until 05:00 pm.
Last entrance is at 04:00 pm, although it is recommended to allow at least 2 hours visit duration to make the most of one’s Park experience.
The Park is CLOSED only on Christmas Day and is otherwise open every day of the year (including statutory holiday)

What to Do

Animal Exhibits

The exhibits include animals from New Zealand, Australia, America, Asia, and Africa. Orana participates in 23 zoo-based breeding programmes for endangered species. Notable success has been achieved over the years with cheetah, scimitar-horned oryx, white rhinoceros and giraffe. They also preserve the national, endemic bird, the Kiwi.
From the beautiful continent of Australia comes a hoard of lions, meerkats, rhinoceros, and even ostriches. A variety of snakes and birds have been supplied by Australia to make this endeavour a possibility.
Then, from Asia comes the Bengal Tiger, the common buffalo, and even Orangutans.
The Americas supply the already rich park of Orana with even richer species coming straight from the jungles of Amazon.

Guided Tours

A range of guided tours is provided daily to enhance the visitor experience. Hop on board the complimentary Safari Shuttle for an overview tour of the Park. The shuttle is driven by a wildlife expert who provides a commentary whilst driving a circuit of the Park (a circuit takes around 25 minutes to complete)

How To Reach Orana Wildlife Park

Orana Wildlife Park (Christchurch, New Zealand) is located at 793 McLeans Island Road, 9 kilometres from the State Highway 1 turn-off.
The Park is within 15 minutes’ drive (north-west) of Christchurch International Airport.
Please note, there are currently no public bus routes that service Orana Wildlife Park.
There is a shuttle service available called “Steve’s shuttle” which will transport you from your door to the park.