Taranaki III :: Pukekura Park and Brooklands Zoo

In the middle of New Plymouth there is a gorgeous park, called Pukekura. From what I’ve heard, it’s a man made park, but it’s been done so beautifully, and there are lots of things to do I the park. There’s a great lake, with a read bridge, and a café, and at the top of the hill there’s a little zoo, and flip, it’s cute. While we were in the Taranaki the other week, we had a free afternoon, so we headed to the park, and followed the signs around and around (seriously, it actually took a while) until we found the zoo.

We didn’t really know what to expect – none of us had been there before – so it was an awesome surprise to discover that not only is it a ‘real’ little zoo (‘real’ being more than farm animals, I think I mean), but it was free! We headed on in and spent about half an hour in there (it was about to close and so we didn’t linger long).

They had monkeys (which, in my mind, makes it a ‘real’ zoo), and otters, meerkats (although, I can’t confirmed that there was more than one, because that’s all we saw), pretty birds, and then a mini farm section with guinea pigs, alpacas, a donkey, chickens etc etc.

It was good fun, and nice little break in amongst out hectic schedule. If you’re ever in New Plymouth, do to go the park; it’s beautiful and such fun to walk around. If you do manage to go to the zoo, it’s well worth it. There’s a playground for the kids too, and some of those stick-your-head-through-the-hole-and-you-become-an-animal photo booth things, which event adults can’t walk past without shoving their heads through.