Quote: Want an up close and personnel experience with very large pussy cats? Well the Zion Wildlife Gardens is the place to go.

Set in the Northland countryside the Zion Wildlife Gardens is a park devoted to lions, tigers and other wildcats and the continued survival of these species.

We had the best time playing with Khan, a small white tiger cub, in his enclosure. He was beautiful with his lovely white coat with black stripes and he was playful like a small kitten but with much larger teeth. His love bites were reasonably gentle and never broke the skin.

Khan’s father and mother were located not far from him as was an additional couple of males. These guys are big and we only got to view them from a safe distance - on the outside of the cages.

Not far away was a lion which was very testy as he could smell the scent of the lioness who was not far him – he wanted to reach her bad!!! Lo and behold anyone that got in his way – lucky the fencing was there.

The next enclosure we went into was the large outdoor enclosure where three lion cubs were. We had a great game of soccer with the cubs and enjoyed scruffing them up a bit – or maybe it was the other way around - and ended up with large muddy paw prints all over our clothes but - hey – when it comes between dirty clothes and missing out on an experience like this – what’s a bit of dirt?

Further down the track are the enclosures where the black leopard, the sables and Foxy the baboon reside.

The black leopard had only just been relocated to his new home and was still restless. His coat looked totally black until the sun hit it the right way and you could clearly see his darker spots.

Foxy the baboon loves mints and also loves to have her back scratched and will seat there for as long as you’ve got.

The final two enclosures are home to three, hand reared, white lions and two, hand reared tigers. We got to scratch these guys through the cage wire and they were very accommodating.

Roaming around the park grounds is a herd of red deer, with a couple of white deer thrown in and if you approach them quietly you may even get to pat them like I did.

There are a number of tours operating at the park with varying cost depending on the type of tour you go on – please contact the park to find out what times the tours are running.

There’s the general guided tour – $60 per adult, $30 per child – 1 hour
Then there’s the tiger cub encounter tour - $200 per adult, $50 per child – 80 minutes
And then there’s the big cat tour - $250 per adult (+16 years only)

The parks contact details are:

Zion Wildlife Gardens
Phone – 094350110
From journals Whangarei and Beyond