If you ever find yourself in the Hunter Valley region of NSW, or in Sydney and looking for a day trip, I highly recommend the Hunter Valley Zoo. It costs $80 for 2 adults and 2 kids and while you might think that sounds like a lot for a small zoo on the way in, you just may have changed your mind by the time you leave. Although still a very small zoo (compared to big city zoos like San Diego or Denver) it offers so much more. Almost every hour there is a 10 minute presentation at one of the animal cages where you are in a small enough crowd that you could ask as many questions as you want and learn some interesting tidbits along the way. You could literally spend all of your time going from one presentation to another and staying after each one for 15 minutes to watch (or feed) the animals before heading to the next presentation. Or skip the free presentations all together and wander at your leisure. You could spend an hour or all day. Bring a picnic lunch as there is very little food available but ample picnic shelters and several BBQ grills. Definitely spend the $2 at the door to buy animal food - you get a bag of pellets and 2 ice cream cones. The parrots eat the cones and the other animals like camels and kangaroos eat the pellets. You can feed the animals whose cages you are allowed into (like the parrots, emu, kangaroos, wallabies) as well as the camels who will stick their heads over the viewing rail to get food. You cannot feed the animals that are behind cages, like monkeys, tapir, lions, cheetahs, dingoes, wombats, etc. The day we were there, volunteers were walking around with animals to pat (crocodile, snake, wombat, koala, etc). There is also a small petting zoo with very insistent goats and sheep willing to eat your paper bag and all its contents. At the koala presentation you can pat a koala and get photos.
I have visited this zoo almost every time I have been to Australia in the last 15 years and it has improved a lot. The cages are impeccable clean. The presentations are highly personal. And the ability to feed and touch so many animals is what makes this zoo a must see for me.
Note: I was not paid or compensated in any way for this review.
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