Looking for a rainy day activity for you and your family when visiting Franz Josef Glacier? The the West Coast Wildlife Centre may be just the place for you as it is open 365 days a year and the best part is that it offers you an opportunity to see a rare New Zealnad Rowi Kiwi.
The centre is broken down into a couple of major areas, the kiwi, which is well worth the money spent to go here, and the glacier area that just seems a little too fake for me. So let's start with the positives.
The kiwi area does a great job in educating you about the work they are doing to breed a very rare kiwi. It starts with an educational video that gives you some great information ( like did you know the kiwi egg is so big, it would be like a human giving birth to a 6 year old sized child? Ouch!)
You then go into a darkened area lit only with the red darkroom lights as kiwi are nocturnal. In the pens are the baby kiwi before they are released back into the wild. You can stay as long as you want in the darkened area and since this is the shining star of the centre, I'd suggest you spend plenty of time here. And if you can't find the kiwi in the darkened room, go and ask someone who works there. They will happily seek them out for you.
As you exit the kiwi area, there is another short video to watch about the breeding program that the centre does. Pretty interesting stuff.
The next area really didn't do much for me as it is an area of plastic glacier models. I get that the idea is to educate but with the real thing not that far away, these models just fall flat, although the water dripping sound effects are nice. And maybe a kid would want to climb up and explore, but for this grown up? I walked through as quickly as I could.
And finally, there is another video which talks about all the great wildlife you can see in New Zealand and then you are out in the gift shop.
All day passes will run you $35 per adult (I feel like I must have missed something as I can't imagine what you would do in this place all day). I was in and out in probably an hour or so. There is also a small cafe for coffee and snacks.
All in all, the kiwi alone are worth the visit on a rainy day. read more
