After we watched the Lion King, we headed to the Melbourne Zoo for the Roar ‘n’ Snore evening. My younger kids had been telling everyone they met, they were going to sleep at the zoo. Part of me was a little bit worried that the experience might not live up to the hype – thankfully it did!
We arrived to some finger food and cold drinks. Our hosts for the evening as well as the very lovely Mandy from Porter Novelli, were Jackie and Michelle from the Melbourne Zoo. After introductions and an explanation of how the evening was to run, we found our tents and set up our beds. You only need to take along a pillow and sleeping bag, the rest is provided by the zoo.
We had the pleasure of being part of this wonderful group of bloggers:
Roar ‘n’ Snore Camp Site
The camp area is situated in the old elephant exhibit. It was built in the 1940s and is now a protected building.
The old elephant house itself is where we dined for both dinner and breakfast. Dinner was barbecued meat and salads. Great food for very excited kids. Mums and dads could even partake in a wine and beer with their meal!
Roar ‘n’ Snore Evening Tour
After dinner, we rugged up and set off on our evening tour. We took along with us a variety of different food stuffs, to feed some animals along the way. There isn’t too many photos of this stage as naturally you cannot use flash photography.
We saw the Snow Leopard, fed Bong Su the elephant by throwing apples into her enclosure and a fed a Peccary a mix of dog food and grapes, amongst other things.
Along the tour we stopped in at the education house and saw a few animals that aren’t usually on display. I think the Slow Loris is now officially my favourite animal. It only moves one limb at a time.
The tour was fun and interactive. Michelle and Jackie both worked really well with the kids. Michelle will always be remembered by me for this useful rule, she has when taking the tours – “No future questions.” No – will we see xxxx? Are we going to xxx? I am definitely using this on my 5 year old!
After the tour it was hot chocolate and dessert. We were in bed not long after 11pm. We all slept well. There was lots of noises and it was a little cold, which added to the adventure. We needed to be up and have our gear out of the tent by 7am for breakfast. Breakfast was direct from the onsite Zoo bakery.
Roar ‘n’ Snore Morning Tour
The morning tour was brilliant. I think I learnt more in this tour than I have done in my last five visits to the zoo. The highlight of course was getting to hand feed a giraffe. There tongues are soooo long!
It was then time to get up close and personal with the Tree Kangaroo. So cute. Michelle spoke to us in depth about the conservation program they are running in Papua New Guinea (home to these Tree Kangaroos). It is part of the Tenkile Conservation program and you can see Michelle’s blog on the work in PNG here.
Our last stop was to see feeding time for the Australian Little Penguins. They were fun to watch. If they dropped a pilchard on the sand, they would just turn back and get another one. Apparently sand in their tummies makes them sick.
Roar ‘n’ Snore Details
Roar ‘n’ Snore was a fabulous experience for us as a family. It certainly isn’t a low price activity, but it is value for money when you consider what is included: two meals, accommodation, two small group tours and access to otherwise off limits areas of the zoo.
Price:
$195 Adults
$145 Children (5–12 years)
Ages:
Children under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Children under 5 cannot sleep at the zoo.
Dates:
Roar ‘n’ Snore runs from September to May on select nights*.
Phone 1300 ZOOS VIC for more information.
The Planning Kids family attended Roar ‘n’ Snore courtesy of Porter Novelli to celebrate the launch of Lion King in 3D. Check out my review of the Lion King 3D to win a fab Lion King 3D pack.