Feeding Lions – Wellington Zoo Encounter

I was so thrilled when I found out my partner had decided to surprise me with the early Christmas present of a Lion Encounter at Wellington Zoo. Now, when I say surprise I mean to say I was given a few days warning. I typically like to plan everything pretty far in advance, so this is sort of my equivalent of a surprise. He was trying to keep it under wraps for a bit longer, but I got it out of him! And thank goodness I did, as he had got mixed up on the date that I was finishing work for the year, and I needed to ask him to try changing the date to the next day, so I didn’t need to arrange an extra day’s leave.

We have both been wanting to do this encounter for a long time, it promised to be one of the most exciting of the close encounters you can book at Wellington Zoo and is also one of the priciest. We had previously experienced the somewhat more affordable, and still amazing, red panda and meerkat encounters. Lions have always been one of my favourite animals. A previous visit to Wellington Zoo had me right up against the glass as they were finishing their lunch, smearing bloody meat all over the window pane and staring down fellow visitors. Getting so close to them was fantastic, and I was really excited about the prospect of getting even closer!

We arrived at the zoo half an hour or so before our encounter was due to begin and made our way to the meeting point at the suggested time. We introduced ourselves to the two young women who would be joining us and watched a rather strange duck wandering around outside the café.

The keeper who would be taking us into the lion’s den met us and began leading us to our destination. Before we went in, he ran through some basic safety information. Nothing sounded too worrying, I felt very safe – after all, there would still be a barrier between us and the lions.

We were led through a narrow passage way that went through the enclosure and into a large rectangular concrete room.  On one side of us were a series of rooms where the lions would be coming in to be fed and on the other side was the back of the lion enclosure. They certainly have a lot more space back there than is apparent from the viewing area. As we walked in the three lionesses were directed into their own small rooms in front of us, with the doors behind them being closed so they could be fed separately. It was really interesting getting a behind the scenes look at how the keepers operate all the different doors and locks, to keep the lions from getting too close to one another for comfort and into the area where he wanted them to go. As we each found a place to stand and watch them one of the women with us asked timidly, “if you were to go in there, would she just kill you straight away?” The keeper’s response was an unequivocal “yup”. He advised us that the two male lions were outside, and we could end up with lions on either side of us. He also mentioned that one of the male lions sometimes likes to try to pee on people inside this area, so to keep a look out for him.

He introduced us to each of the three lionesses in front of us by letting us know their names, and the features they use to tell them apart. He then began talking us through the various methods used to check them for any signs of ill- health or injury as we watched in awe of the magnificent creatures before us.

One of these involves putting the lion into a ‘crush,’ very similar to those used for cattle. This allows the keeper to get a close look at parts of the lion that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to as well as to administer any shots they may need. During this process we were all able to touch the lions tail. I was surprised at how it was so completely not-soft but quite coarse feeling. I suppose lions do look this way, but somehow it’s still not the sensation I expect when I touch a cat – even one so much larger than any I’ve ever touched before! I felt a bit bad for touching her when it’s clearly not something she’d invite but going into the ‘crush’ every now and then is an important part of caring for these creatures.

Next up was feeding time. The keeper brought out a bucket with lots of chunks of horsemeat (definitely not something I have a lot of experience with) and demonstrated the best method to use to feed the lions. Basically, you want to put the meat so it fits nicely into the base of your ever so slightly curved palm and put your hand straight up to the fence (you’ll probably want to bend your fingers back from the openings a bit) at which point the lion would surely jump up and remove the meat from your hand.

I didn’t actually realise that hand-feeding the lions was part of this encounter, and if you had told me I’d be doing that I would have said “What? No way am I going to feed a lion from my HAND.” Once there, though, it seemed perfectly safe. The lions want the meat more than you, and their paws are too big to go through the openings in the fence. You’ve got nothing to worry about. So long as you don’t go sticking your own hand or fingers through, of course.

Still, logic aside, coming face to face with the lionesses’ penetrating stares and sometimes bark like growls can be pretty intimidating. As we were all talking, Zulu, the smaller of the male lions, came around the corner and paced up and down the fence-line a few times before settling down to sit in the sun in front of us. As soon as the keeper said, “you can feed Zulu if you want, too.” I thought, he’s the one for me. He didn’t look as much big as I know he is because he was on a slightly lower level than the lionesses, and his whole demeanour was so much more relaxed than theirs. I guess that comes from thousands of years of “let the women do the hunting” being engraved into your DNA.

I chose the biggest chunk of horse flesh from the bucket, figuring that the less of my flesh was visible, the better.

I was a little unsure of myself when placing the meat up to the fence, sometimes knowing how clumsy I can be just makes me worse at everything. I wanted to be sure I got it in the perfect position, not half through one opening and half through another. As soon as Zulu reached up to take it, my fears (or at least 98% of them) melted away as I got to look into his eyes and felt a huge tongue lick all the way across my palm. He stared at me pretty intently as he went back down and I tried to hold his gaze until he started to turn away, ready for someone else to give him more.

When myself and another of the women confessed to being a bit intimidated by one of the lionesses opposite us, the keeper told us not to worry as an All Black (I forget which, I barely knew who it was in the first place) had recently visited and been unable to bring himself to do it.

I highly recommend doing this if you’re in Wellington and are an animal (in particular big cat) lover like myself. Now I have just the Cheetah and Giraffe encounters to go!

Below is a vlog I filmed of our visit to the show, including lots of footage of the lion encounter.

Valentines’ at the Best Little Zoo in The World – Wellington Zoo Meerkat Encounter

For the past two years or so I have wanted to go to the Zoo on the evening of Valentines Day. However, being in a long distance relationship, the timing had just never been right, until now.

For the past few years Wellington Zoo have been opening in the evening on Valentine’s Day for adults only and allowing couples to experience the zoo in a more romantic fashion than you might typically – they include packages that include a sit down dinner or the option to buy a picnic hamper to take around the zoo with you as well as animal talks that focus on the more sexual sides of the lives of the zoo’s residents. You can also book onto one of the zoo’s close encounters. After having loved doing the red panda encounter a couple of years ago, we decided to meet some more of the zoo’s cutest creatures and booked ourselves in for the meerkat encounter.

 

We spent a while exploring the rest of the zoo before heading to the meeting point for our encounter. We met with another couple who were going to be meeting the meerkats with us and ran over the safety (more so for the meerkats benefit than ours, naturally) information in the little entrance room to the meerkat’s enclosure.

One of my biggest concerns about doing this was that either Zak or I would accidentally step on one of these incredibly small creatures, causing a situation that would be both tragic and incredibly awkward. This fear was taken care of as the keeper explained that when we went into the enclosure we would need to take really small, shuffling steps, hardly lifting our feet off the ground. She gave us a hessian sack to sit on when we got to the rocks where we would be feeding the meerkats.

We sat down and the meerkats began congregating around us immediately, except for the one on watch, of course, who dutifully remained in position.

I had dressed a little bit inappropriately for the occasion (if you’re going to do this, learn from my mistake) as I was wearing tights. The keeper advised me that the meerkats might tear them as they clambered on me but I wasn’t worried about that, I break enough of them all by myself. However, they did seem to find them a bit difficult to climb onto, although they were still really eager to do this given the corn I had to feed them.

The encounter basically consisted of us sitting down and feeding and awing at the meerkats while they climbed all over us and the keeper told us lots of interesting facts about them and answered our questions. They are simply adorable and really fun to watch.

After the encounter finished we continued exploring the rest of the zoo and it was definitely the best Valentines date ever. Not that we’ve ever done anything that great for Valentines’ day before, but even if we had, this would still be right up there!  If you’re in Wellington next year, I think this would be the perfect Valentine’s date for any animal loving couples.

Stonegrill Dining at the Grand, Wellington

After reading some absolutely horrifying review on menumania.co.nz and dineout.co.nz I headed to the Grand on Monday night, with my flatmates and a friend of theirs, to take advantage of their two for one stonegrill offer.

I’ve always felt that The Grand, looking like  a (albeit large) suburban pub, was a little bit out of place in the middle of Courtenay Place. When you step inside, though, the seating and decor is a tad more upscale than what you might expect to find.

The downstairs area was very busy and buzzing with plenty of people, no doubt in town to watch the Guy Fawkes display later on in the evening.

Things were off to a bad start when the staff looked very unhappy to see us approach the bar and groaned as we arrived. To be fair, one of my flatmates does work here so it’s totally understandable that staff would act much more casually towards her, especially as she would understand how things can be on a busy night. But I just worried that the other patrons, who didn’t know she worked there, would think this was just how people are spoken to!

We took some seats in the upstairs balcony area and took a look through the menu. My flatmate and I decided we would order the Beehive which is a piece of steak with bacon wrapped around it, service with a béarnaise sauce. The other two decide on the Cake Tin which is a steak that comes with a prawn kebab as well.

We went downstairs to order and the girls had decided to share a bottle of wine between them. Not really being a wine person, I decided to get a cocktail. I had read the small cocktail menu that was upstairs and decided to order a French martini (vodka, Chambord, pineapple juice). When I ordered it, the bartender said he couldn’t guarantee the quality of the cocktail. I kind of took this as a joke at first and it didn’t bother me, I had figured that this wasn’t really a cocktail place. But then the fact that he asked us what was in it and got my flatmate to read the ingredients to him was too much. I would expect them all to have a basic knowledge of the drinks that are on their menu (if staff aren’t taught how to make them, don’t have on the menu) and if they’re not sure to have the ingredients written on a sneaky note underneath the bar so at least customer would think they knew what they were doing.

Luckily, the cocktail ended up being really nice. Even though I am not a pineapple fan the Chambord seemed to balance it out nicely. We were all having a pretty good conversation so I can’t really say how long it took for our stonegrills to come out, but it was not long. Which is good, as I guess it shouldn’t take long to serve a piece of practically raw meat. The steak sizzled away on its place and was accompanied by some decent fries and a salad. The béarnaise sauce tasted good, though I suspect someone who eats that more often than I do would have deemed it average. It was great to be able to have your meat cooked exactly as you like it.

One problem was that one of the girls had an extra one of the accompaniments on her Cake Tin dish than the other girl. My flatmate said that they had probably run out, in which case bot should have received the lower number. If there’s one thing I remember from my cafe and restaurant training course (and I don’t remember much), it’s that dishes should appear consistent.

Overall, when it comes to taste, I can’t fault the meal. Not a revolutionary culinary experience by any means but a decent, tasty, and fulfilling meal. They seem to use good quality meat and the food was presented fairly well.

When we went down to pay we split the bill between what we each had and I found that the cocktail I had ordered was not $10 (as advertised on the menu), but $15. Normally, I would have just casually said ‘oh but it said $10 on the menu.’ However, I wasn’t very comfortable with this as I didn’t really know any of the people I was with and had the cocktail been advertised as $15, I would have paid that much. Also, I had read on the review websites that the restaurant is terrible at dealing with any complaints so I thought we’d all have a much happier night if I just left it.

All in all, I did enjoy my experience here but bear in mind I am not someone that rates service particularly highly when it comes to what I want in a restaurant/dining experience. If service is very important to you, perhaps be wary.

A Walk in Wellington in Photos

 

Maranui Cafe, Wellington

This is one of my favourite cafe’s in Wellington. Maranui is in the Surf Life Saving building on Lyall Bay beach. It’s the perfect spot to head to for brunch.

The place usually gets pretty busy, the staff generally keep you pretty well informed about how long you’ll have to wait for a table, and how long food will take.

The decor is retro and busy, and there is always a buzzing vibe. There is a large window in the main room with views over the ocean and there is outdoor seating, although it can get a bit window out there.

I typically order quesadillas, as you can see I have made quite a mess of them but they are absolutely delicious. There are two different choices of filling, and I always agonise over which to pick. They also have all your typical breakfasty brunchy offerings, the portion size is good and the prices very reasonable.

Great India, Wellington

Last night I dined with a friend at Great India on Manners Street.

As a starter I had the vegetable samosas, these were what you’d expect but very tasty and good quality. My friend had the Aloo Set, which was a dish with potatoes in a very bright, pinkish red sauce encased in a sort of pastry dome. I tried a bit, and the flavours were not exactly my favourite but it was still pretty good.

When we ordered our mains we were a little bit surprised to learn that the curries do not come with rice included in the price, as this is usually the norm in Wellington. Obviously, we ordered rice with our curries but were just the tiniest bit miffed. We also both ordered garlic naan.

There were quite a few dishes on the menu I was keen to try but I ended up going with a vegetarian option. My friend ordered the Butter Chicken, wanting to compare it to the Butter Chicken at Tulsi, where we have eaten numerous times. I ordered the Bombay Aloo, which was basically the same as the Aloo Set flavour-wise. I enjoyed the spiciness of the dish, but wasn’t so in love with the flavours. Overall, I did enjoy the dish, though.

 

The Butter Chicken was proclaimed to not be as good as Tulsi’s, as the chicken was a bit dry. The naan was nice but we both agreed it wasn’t the best we’d had.  After finding out that the curries didn’t include accompanying rice I was glad I had ordered a vegetarian dish as most of the meat curries are $18.50, which is a bit more that most Indian restaurants in Wellington, especially given that rice and naan are not included, for no better quality.

I had heard such fantastic reviews of this place which is why I wanted to try it, so I feel a little bad – like I’m getting it wrong with my less than glowing view of the place. Maybe, if I had tried another dish I would’ve been more wowed. Their venison curry is supposed to be great, and I do like venison. In saying that, I am glad I tried something with very different flavours to my usual choices of Tikka Masala, Balti or Madras. One thing that bugged me about the menu, and may have helped me with my choice of dish, was that it was not very descriptive. For example, it would just say ‘in the chef’s special sauce.’ It would have been nice to have had a bit of a description as to what ingredients and/or flavours went into the sauce, so I could better identify whether a dish appealed to me or not.

Overall, I thought the restaurant was trying to be too fancy for what it is or needs to be. From the cloth napkin planted across your lap as you are seated to the hot towels offered at the end, it was all a little odd and out of place.

I’m really glad I tried a new Indian restaurant, branching out from my usual haunts of Tulsi, Little India and The Balti House, but I don’t think I would go back to Great India – not because the food was bad, it wasn’t at all, but just because it doesn’t seem worth the price in comparison to what you get elsewhere. Except perhaps for their $10 lunch special, which does sound like good value for money and I would still suggest giving Great India a chance because you may find a dish that is exactly to your liking – they do seem to have a greater variety than a lot of places in town.

The Balti House, Wellington

I arrived here for lunch at around 11.45am. There was a guy on his own who went in just before me. The woman that was in the dining room seemed quite annoyed to have customers at this usually quiet time. To my mind, the place is open so take what your given and be glad to take people’s money! Plus, a restaurant with people eating in it is much more appealing to prospective diners than an empty one. Not everyone is comfortable to be the first person to go in and eat somewhere. So, you’d think she would have been happier to have customers.

I took my seat and was promptly given the menu. I was only given a short time looking at it before I was asked for my order, luckily I had it decided upon. I ordered the Chicken and Broccoli Balti, which comes with naan, and a lemonade.

My meal came out very quicky, almost too quickly, you might say. Anyway, the meal was delicous as their food has been when I have eatern there previously. I had ordered my curry ‘medium,’ to gauge what spice levels they work with. My curry was pretty mild, but that flavours were good.

Balti cuisine is known for being somewhat milder than the general Indian restaurant fare and what I personally love about it is getting vegetables in my curry. Most Indian places in Wellington typically serve only meat and onions in the sauce, unless you go for a more unusual dish. I’m always looking for the one on the menu that has something else in it eg capsicum, broccoli, peas.

As I was nearly finished my meal the woman from before and two waiters were standing behind the bar, basically watching me. It made me feel quite awkward, self-conscious and as though they were vultures waiting for me to leave so could pick at my leftovers. Of course I knew that they were wanting to get the tbale cleared up before the lunchtime rush. I have visited before and it does get quite busy around 12.30pm. However, having all three of them standing in this line up was very awkward. They could have just had the woman at the bar, and as soon as I left she could have fetched them from the back.

Anyway, I do quite enjoy this restaurant – I go there for the food not the service, which is usually fine anyway – and I’m sure I will go back.

Pipi, Havelock North

I have dined at Pipi many times since it opened and it has been a great addition to the village. I like being able to just go and grab a drink from the ‘help yourself’ fridge if I want one and not having to wait to have our orders taken.

One thing that could perhaps do with improvement is the plastic sheet menus, I do like a good menu. In saying that, part of Pipi’s charm is it’s casual bohemian feel, with lampshades and wall hangings left purposely skewiff and wax encrusted candlesticks.

As always, their pizzas are wonderful. On a previous visit I ordered a pasta which was fine, but didn’t quite live up to the expectations set by my experiences of their pizza. I think it’s probably best to stick to the pizzas as you can’t really go wrong. The pizza’s are served on a delicious super thin base, using simple but tasty ingredients.

Another plus is the usually buzzing atmosphere, although it can be difficult to get a table at times. Every time I’m away from the Bay I end up craving one of their pizzas so I try to head to Pipi whenever I do have the pleasure of visiting the Bay.

Osteria Del Toro, Wellington

I’ll start by saying that probably the worst thing, for me, about this restaurant is that you can’t book. So, you might have to sit in the bar area and have a drink before you get a table… fine by me.

I love the decor of this restaurant, it’s perhaps a bit OTT with all statues etc but it really suits it somehow.

I particularly love the bar area.  The restaurant has an extensive cocktail list, which I have thoroughly enjoyed sampling over this visit and a previous one. There is also a good selection of wine and beer.

We started with the mezze platter, which was very nice.  For my main, I had the Sicilian meatballs. I have to say, the flavour of the tomato sauce was quite bland, there was not really a lot to it at all in terms of flavor.  However, my partner thoroughly enjoyed his seafood pizza and , last time I went, I quite enjoyed my meatlovers pizza (the Berlusconi).   For dessert he had the Churros and I had gelato. Basically, the churros were churros and the gelato was gelato.

We enjoyed our meal with a shared jug of refreshing white sangria and a couple of cocktails.

We had a lovley waiter. He was very friendly and didn’t make you feel bad for any food you left on the plate. I always feel bad in restaurants that they’ll think I’m not eating cos I don’t like how they’ve done it but usually I just don’t eat that food. In this case, it was the olives on the meze platter and our waiter just laughed along and said that he didn’t touch them either.  He was always doing his job, taking opportunities to upsell but in a manner that was never intrusive or pressuring.

So, all in all, Osteria del Toro does not having AMAZING food but , in general, it’s absolutely nothing to complain about at all and I love this restaurant.  Mix the decent food with the fab drinks list, friendly staff and opulent decor and you have the recipe for a good night out.

Oh, I have to add that the bathrooms were some of the best I have ever seen in a restaurant due to the adorable wallpaper and beautiful Moroccan lights.

Monsoon Poon, Wellington

Address: 12 Blair Street, Wellington, New Zealand

Phone: +64 4 803 3555

http://www.monsoonpoon.co.nz

Opening: Mon to Thu – 11am til 11pm

Friday – 11 am till Midnight

Saturday – 5pm till Midnight

Sunday – 5pm ’till chef sleepy’

I arrived here with my partner at around twenty to seven on a Friday night, we were going to a movie later that night but arrived quite early so we were in no rush. I liked the decor straight away as it was busy and interesting.  Zak was a bit confused at first; ‘there’s a Vietnamese poster but around the corner was a Chinese one,’ until I explained that it is an Asian Fusion restaurant serving dishes from all over the continent.

We asked for a table for two and were told we would have to wait around half an hour, I had expected this due to reviews on dine out.co.nz. The restaurant does not take booking, no doubt to encourage you to have drinks at the bar while waiting for a table to become available, which we did gladly. The fact that Monsoon Poon offers a wide range of cocktails was a key factor in my choice to eat there.

The selection of cocktails ranges from classics like the Singapore Sling and Mai Tai, Iced Tea cocktails,  Dessert cocktails, a range of non-alcoholic cocktails and their own creations, two of which I tried. The first was the Fortune Cookie – Mandarin vodka, Cointreau, sweetened raspberries, lemon juice, creme de cassia. While I like all the individual ingredients in this cocktail, I was unsure of how they would all work together. However, they did all work together – beautifully. The drink was presented in a martini glass with a fortune cookie on the edge. While I don’t personally like Fortune Cookies all that much, this was a nice touch. Next, I tried the Jimmy Choo – apple  infused Bacardi Superior, Cointreau, fresh lime, apple sourz with lychees sitting at the bottom. This drink didn’t please me quite as much as the  delicious Fortune Cookie but was still very pleasant. Presented in a martini glass with joined chopsticks on the edge to decorate. Monsoon Poon also offers a selection of South-East Asian beers and a wide variety of wines. The bar staff were polite and helpful. I had just ordered my Jimmy Choo when we were told a table was available, and it was brought over to our table.

We were seated near the back of the restaurant, which is large. A small part of the kitchen is visible and there is a slanting mirror over the bench so you can see all the various spices and ingredients assembled.

I had read many complaints about the music at Monsoon Poon on dineout.co.nz – that it was so loud you had to shout to your dining companions to be heard. I did not find this to be the case, while you did have to speak up a little bit, neither of us felt it was difficult to converse and both agreed that we enjoyed the buzzing atmosphere. The menu is, perhaps, limited compared to other Asian restaurants in Wellington but I was still left with several dishes I would like to try and I think only the fussiest of diners would fail to find something to tempt them.

We would have loved to have tried some of the entrees if we had more time and bigger stomachs, particularly the Peppered Squid and the Tiger Beer battered prawns. All the traditional offerings are there; spring rolls, satay chicken, aloo naan.

Zak and I have rather different tastebuds – he doesn’t like hot food, I love it. Last year I ate at the Monsoon Poon in Auckland with my mum and I originally ordered the Firecracker Chicken (wok-fried chicken rubbed in Malay chilli paste) dish as a main, but the waitress warned me it might be too hot so instead I ordered the Tandoori Duo (boneless chicken marinated in tikka and korma spices). On this occasion, when the dish arrived I was little dissapointed as, to my tastebuds, it was incredibly mild and I had been after something a bit spicy. This sort of thing has happened to me often at various restaurants, they never seem to believe that the little white girl can handle it. So, I was tempted to order the Firecracker Chicken again but decided to avoid dealing with the inevitable warning and choose something else. I suggested the Tandoori Duo to Zak, as a dish short on vegetables (he is not a fan of these, either) and heat. As I recall, it was a pleasant dish – just not what I had been wanting on that occasion.

The waitress serving us, who seemed very friendly, assured him that the Tandoor Duo was not a hot dish. Oh, how it mortifies me when he pleads for these assurances. I ordered the Kashmiri Potato Curry, from the vegetarian section of the menu. I am not a vegetarian, but quite often find my self gravitating towards vegetarian option. We couldn’t decide on roti or naan bread, so we ordered both along with two servings of rice.

The meals came out quite quickly, with the rice served in one big bowl. There are many complaints about this on dineout.co.nz, but I don’t mind this method, so long as you’re not with someone who takes much more than their fair share – I know I am prone to do this when it comes to rice so I usually serve myself last.  The bread was what you would expect, the food was nothing spectacular but still very enjotable. After finishing our dishes, we were visited a few times by various staff enquiring whether we were fnished. They were obviously trying to move us on, which is fair enough as it was busy, but we never felt too pressured, saying we were still going on our breads was all it took to placate them.