We Fed Giraffes and Other Stuff at Orana Wildlife Park

This is the giraffe we got to feed. She was hungry, but also wanted to pose for the camera!
Photos by Erin Grigson

Josh and I spent our Labour Day with some unique (and not so unique) animals.

Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch is New Zealand's only open range zoo. Before we went, I didn't know what that meant, but now I can say that it's pretty clearly a zoo that gives animals more room to interact naturally while still keeping visitors safe and breeding endangered species. But since that's too long to put on a sign, "open range zoo" will do.

A springbok, a rhino, a couple zebras, and a meerkat walk into a bar...
Photos by Erin Grigson

The park houses a whopping 400 animals across 70 species. However, the way the park is run, you may not see all those animals.

For instance, I'm a big fan of kangaroos and wallabies, so we went to see them. We didn't. As we were walking away, the tour guide of a passing shuttle was saying how he drives by that area everyday and has yet to see a wallaby. This is a credit to the way the park is run, that the zookeepers let the animals interact as much or as little as the animals desire.

Since I couldn't take pictures in the Kiwi House, I decided we
had to take a selfie with the massive kiwi outside.

One of my favorite things in the park was the Kiwi House. As you might guess, there was a kiwi inside whether you could see him or not.

Kiwis are nocturnal, so the house is dark, keeping the kiwi awake while visitors are in the park. Then they turn on the sun when the park is closed, giving the bird its sleep.

This bird fascinated me. (I didn't get a picture, partly because it was too dark and partly because photography isn't allowed in the kiwi house.) I have seen photos and even videos of it before, but seeing it in real life, I was blown away.

Kiwis are flightless birds and are also why New Zealanders are called kiwis. The birds have 2 legs. That's it. No wings, no arms, just 2 legs. Oh, and a seriously long beak. Because of this, they are kinda funny looking, but super cute.

What I found pretty cool about kiwis is that, first, the females are bigger than the males by about a third of the male. Also, after the female lays the really large egg (about a fifth the size it will end up growing to be), the male is the one that sits on it until it hatches. Way to do your part, kiwi dads!

Mr. Peacock was just wandering
around the park.
Photo by Erin Grigson

Unfortunately, kiwis are endangered, partly because of predators (including but not limited to dogs) and partly because the vast majority of kiwi chicks (about 95%) don't live a week.

But don't count kiwis out. They will rush you if they feel threatened. They will not go down without a fight.

But the kiwi wasn't the only thing we saw.

We walked through a huge bird enclosure where the birds flew free around you. It was pretty cool. There were birdfeeders around the path to bring the birds closer to the visitors, but other than that, it was like a jungle. It even had a waterfall.

Like I said, Orana is an open range zoo. Part of that concept is that some animals literally roam free. Obviously, there were some ducks moving freely. That's not really shocking. What did drop my jaw was the peacock - yes, peacock - casually walking around outside the bird enclosure.

I desperately wanted the peacock to open his tail, but I left him alone... after taking plenty of photos.

The tuatara, a native species of lizard that looks similar to an iguana, was also on display. While I was excited to see the special New Zealand reptile, it honestly looked like any other iguana to me.

What didn't disappoint (okay a little, but I was still excited) were the tasmanian devils. I was expecting Bugs Bunny's devilish friend. What we saw were lazy little balls of fur laying out in the sun. Definitely not a tornado of an animal. However, if the enclosures are any indication of how they act when awake and alert, they could be like that at some point.

The lions were being lazy.
Photo by Erin Grigson

They have lions and tigers, but no bears.

From 1976 to 1995, Orana had New Zealand's only drive-through lion reserve. Yes, that's drive-through, like what you do at McDonald's or Sonic. In fact, Josh's mother told me that she had driven through it with Josh's siblings. Wow.

However, for obvious reasons, they had to stop this practice. Fortunately, since 1999, the park has offered brave souls the opportunity to be in the lion enclosure, in a cage of course, during feeding time.

We opted out of that one.

When we first arrived, we were given a map of the park. In the map, it had the designated feeding times of specific animals, which helped visitors see the animals. And for some animals, visitors got to interact at that time.

We were lucky and got to do just that.

We fed a giraffe!
Left photo by Josh

Josh and I both got to feed a giraffe!

Delicious!

There were quite a few people lined up, but everyone got a branch and we all were able to feed one of the two giraffes eagerly waiting for their afternoon snack.

Our giraffe was a bit greedy and had her mouth full when she tried to take my branch. I held firm and didn't let her take my branch until she finished the other one (she kept dropping them out of her mouth) and she seemed okay with that.

It was definitely a new experience and I'd recommend it to anyone visiting Orana. It's free to anyone once you're in the park, so why not??

Giraffes were not the only animals guests could feed. They had a farm animal area that housed sheep, alpacas, pigs, chickens and more and people could go feed them during their designated time, too.

As per usual, I had ice cream. However, just to be clear, it was Josh's idea. And he got a popsicle, too. Both were refreshing on that hot, sunny day. We slurped on our sweets while wandering by the rhinos.

1 of only 3 gorillas in New Zealand.
Photo by Erin Grigson

After the rhinos, we saw the gorillas. Orana is special in that it's the only place in New Zealand that has gorillas. There are only 3 gorillas in all of New Zealand, all at the park.

The thing I love about Orana Wildlife Park ia that it's a not-for-profit, registered charity. All the money they raise goes to making life better for the animals. More than 15 million dollars have been raised to help the animals.

While we were there, we saw new, bigger enclosures with the animals inside them after passing smaller, empty ones. I love that the park is always working on making a more natural environment while keeping endangered species alive.

I know New Zealand is not the only place with zoos and I'm sure Orana Wildlife Park is probably not the only open range zoo in the world. But if you feel any inclination to contribute to a good animal cause, feel free to follow the link here. This place is desperately trying to save endangered species and is giving the animals in it the best life possible.

The cheetahs had so much room to run. That's one of the many things I loved about Orana.
Photos by Erin Grigson

I would highly encourage anyone in New Zealand with a family, for a date, or on your own to go to Orana Wildlife Park.

It was totally worth the $34.50 per person for the interaction with animals and the unique atmosphere.

Where to next?

How Many Sheep Does it Take to Raise a Kiwi?

Would Carrie Underwood sing that you live in, "a single stoplight town," or can you get "anything you want here except a WalMart store"?

New Zealand is 268,021 square kilometres or
103,483 square miles and has a approximate
population of 4.6 million people*.

In Kentucky in 2015, 4.4 million people were residents. South Carolina had almost 4.9 million*.

In 2015, the population of New Zealand was almost 4.6 million. To put this into perspective, the population of New York City that same year was roughly 8.5 million*.

I really want to explain this because New Zealand is a country and in terms of land size it's only 2.5 times the size of Kentucky and a little over 3 times the size of South Carolina.

It's crazy to think that Kentucky and South Carolina squeeze so many people in so little an area. But then I think about the landscape here and how beautiful and spread out it is and it makes more sense.

When I told people I was moving here, the "fun fact" most of them knew was that there are more sheep than people. That's still true. And driving through the country, it's obvious.




4 out of 5 sheep posing for me is not baaaa'd at all.
(The one on the far left wasn't quite looking right at me.)
Photo by Erin Grigson

But I doubt that most of those people knew the actual number of sheep there are: in 2015, there were more than 29 million sheep in New Zealand. That's a little more than 6 sheep per person. Even more surprising is the historical high. In 1982, there were 70 million sheep or 22 per person that year.

Now back to the people.

The most populated cities in New Zealand are Auckland, Wellington (the capital), and Christchurch.

Let's talk about city size based on population. Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand with a population of 1.57 million*. That's more than a quarter of the nation's people in one city. That's also where Josh's brother and his family live. Christchurch, the closest big city to where I live, is the third largest city in the nation with a population of 367,800*. Savannah, Georgia had less than half that with 146,091*, but Lexington, Kentucky was much closer to CHC with 314,767 people*.

It's kindof funny to think that after Christchurch, most people wouldn't describe urban areas as big cities. They might call them towns, villages, or boroughs.

Cities refer to main urban areas with a population of 30,000 or more. Christchurch obviously falls into this category.

After that, there are "secondary urban areas" which are described as places with 10,000 to 29,999 people. Rolleston is our closest "secondary urban area," with roughly 14,000* people. Josh's sister lives there.

"Minor urban areas" are towns with 1,000 to 9,999 people and there about 100 of those according to Statistics New Zealand. Darfield, where Josh and I live, is one of them. With a population of approximately 3,000* people, Darfield is small, but not tiny. Leeston, where Josh's parents live, is similar, with a population of about 1,850*.

Kentucky is 104,659 square kilometres or
40,409 square miles and has an approximate
population of 4.4 million people*.

After "minor urban areas," there are rural centres or rural settlements that others might call villages. Kirwee, which is just up the road, is definitely a village. It's one of those places that, if you blink, you'll miss it.

I've never thought about the population when thinking about if a city is a big city or a town.

I've always thought about it by what you go there for.

Here are a couple examples.

In Kentucky: Paris used to be smaller, before it got a WalMart Supercenter. Because of that, we used to have to go to Lexington or, on occasion, Georgetown, to get many things. However, once we got the big WalMart, we didn't have to go as far and other stores came, too. But more specifically, people from other places started coming to Paris to get things. In this example, Lexington was obviously the big city, Paris was a town that became a small city and then Millersburg would be a small town.

South Carolina is 82,931 square kilometres or
32,020 square miles and an approximate
population of 4.9 million people*.

In South Carolina: I'd definitely consider Beaufort a small city because you can definitely buy lots there. Savannah would be the closest big city even though Bluffton and Hilton Head are bigger than Beaufort. However, I think everyone will agree that St. Helena would be a town and then Fripp Island would be like a village.

But some people may describe these places, not by population, but by the number of stoplights there are.

If that's the case, it's more of a question of "Are there any stoplights?" here.

Christchurch and Rolleston both have stoplights, obviously, because they are fairly busy and metropolitan areas. But Darfield doesn't have any stoplights.

Paris, with a population of around 10,000* people, has at least 20 stoplights (counting up by memory). To compare it to Darfield, which based on Statistics New Zealand, would fall into the same category as a "minor urban area," is intriguing. But it also speaks to the very different infrastructures in America and New Zealand.

There've been lots of numbers in this post and it might have been boring to some. But when I talk about where I live, I want people to understand what I mean and the numbers put it into perspective.

How would you describe where you live? Is it more Paris, France or Paris, Kentucky? Let me know!

*All information is based off of numbers from 2015. I wanted it to be consistent and that year, there was information for all cities and countries involved.*

English as a First (and Second) Language

When I first started dating Josh, I noticed, little by little, that what I was saying didn't always mean the same thing to him - and vice versa.

First up: y'all.

Anybody who has been to the southern part of the US or even has met a southern person (not unlike myself), you know that "y'all" is a staple.

Meaning "you all," y'all can be heard in almost every conversation.

However, it just sounds wrong coming from a kiwi. Or a Brit. Or really anyone who doesn't have a southern accent. And when I say it here in New Zealand, I can sometimes sense the confusion... What's that saying: you can take the girl out of the south, but you can't take the south out of the girl? Something like that...

But y'all is not the only difference between the two languages. And yes, we both speak English, but it is just not the same English. 


Before we get into the translating, I have to admit, I thought that all accents
from the Commonwealth (places colonized by the United Kingdom that stayed
on good terms with the monarchy, including but not limited to Scotland, Ireland,
South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) sounded the same. Boy, was I wrong.
(Since dating Josh, I've learned how to identify them pretty well.) 

One of the most confusing ones for me: shout.

Yes, that shout. As in, "You know you make me wanna..." or "Twist and..." In America, it's really just yelling, either in anger or excitement. But in New Zealand, it also has another meaning: buy. Someone might say, "I'll shout you," and they won't be screaming. They might be buying the next round of drinks or paying for lunch. I still have trouble with it when I hear it in conversation and I definitely haven't tried to use it when I'm speaking.

Next up, the other difficult one: period.

In America, when you say period, it can have a few different meanings. But I use it in normal conversation to emphasize a point, like "That's all there is to it. Period. End." However, the punctuation that Americans call a period, kiwis call a fullstop. So when I say "period" here, people look at me funny. This one causes me to trip up in conversation, so I still struggle, but I'm getting better about it.

One that has more than one meaning here is "pissed."

It can mean angry or aggravated here, but it can also mean drunk. So if someone yells out, "I'm so pissed!" don't be alarmed, or at least not until you've deciphered what kind of pissed you're dealing with.

Below are some other words that Americans use that New Zealanders (Kiwis) have different words (or meanings) for:

American English vs. Kiwi English

Cookies - Biscuits

Flip flops -  Jandals

      Trash - Rubbish

                            Fries - Chips (but chips can also be chips)

Bandaid - Plaster

                                       Cooler - Chilly Bin (this makes so much sense, right??)

 Vacation - Holiday

Truck - Ute
Afternoon - Arvo    
Tank top - Singlet
Beach house - Batch/Crib
Stroller - Pram
    All good - Sweet as
Electrician - Sparky  

I will update this list as I become aware of more differences in the language.

Getting Here

Two months after I arrived here, I submitted the paperwork for my work visa.

Old Sheldon Church Ruins,
South Carolina, September 2017

A lot of people are confused by that because I'm already here.

When I was in America, I applied for a work visa. Just doing that was difficult. But the specific visa I applied for is based on my partnership with Josh, who is a New Zealand citizen. This specific visa is unique because I don't have to have a job offer to apply.

That being said, they don't make it easy. When telling people I was applying, most people said, 'Why wouldn't they let you in? You're American," or something along those lines. They said it so often that I started to believe it myself.

The application is based on my relationship, so we had to provide evidence.

But how do you prove how much you love someone?

According to Immigration New Zealand, you must provide evidence that you are in a genuine and stable relationship with the intent of staying together long-term.

For us, that meant submitting photos and descriptions of our adventures together, citing weddings and holidays and road trips we took over the last two years. And a letter from a close friend of ours describing what she knew of our love. And a letter from me explaining in great detail all the things we've done and how desperately in love we are and how the separation was killing me.

And with all that, my first application was denied. But the immigration officer who was assigned to us was extremely gracious and gave me an extended visitor visa of 6 months. She did this so that I would have time to come here, get the "evidence" they needed and reapply.

So now here we are. Two months later, Josh and I have been living in our house for a month and have a joint bank account, which shows - shocker - that we are "financially interdependent." However, we know that's not quite true... He has a job and I don't, so I'm basically completely dependent on him. And he is pretty much fully responsible, at least financially, for me.

With a wallet that's $413 NZD lighter, we now wait approximately 81 days to see if this new evidence shows just how much I love Josh.