Animals Archives - Adventure, baby!

Golden Ridge Animal Farm: Best Animal Experiences in Sydney

April 23, 2015 / Animal Experiences, Cheese, Sydney, Sydney Life / 4 Comments

We’ve raised Cheese thus far as quite the city kid. She, like our whole family, loves animals and we try to get her out to experience the bush and country life where we can. We had the opportunity recently to enjoy a day trip to Dural for a birthday party at Golden Ridge Animal Farm.

Golden Ridge has been running as a children’s farm for 41 years. It has been owned and run by family of the current owner, Alisa Nye, for the past 26 years.

The animals at Golden Ridge are all pets (you can see more info on the animals and their names online.) and they absolutely love visitors.

A standard visit to the farm follows a path of activities, for which you must be on time to be able to enjoy. The farm opens at 10:30 am weekdays, and 11am on weekends. Activities are guided and hence if you are late, you will miss out.

The visit begins with holding baby animals. On our visit, this included ducklings, chicks and rabbits that were only a few days old. We were told how to hold them and asked to assist the children in holding the animals correctly. It was had to tell who was the most excited about holding the baby animals, the kids or parents.

Next was a walk around the farm feeding and seeing the larger farm animal varieties. We bought the $5 feed bucket option and had a wonderful time feeding the various goats, lambs, deer, ponies, cows and alpacas, all of whom were most excited to see visitors bearing delicious food for them.

Our tour concluded with feeding a baby goat with a bottle. Cheese thought this was awesome.

Afterwards, it’s lunch time, which can either be a picnic lunch or a barbecue using the farm’s facilities, or you can buy lunch from the canteen. After lunch the ponies come out and kids can take a little ride on one of the very friendly farm ponies.

One of the best things about the farm is the space. While the activities are guided, kids can return after the tour to see the larger animals, pat and feed them, or just run around and enjoy seeing a range of other animals roaming around, like ducks and a very friendly little dachshund.

For a day of hands-on country activities, Golden Ridge can’t be beat.

Golden Ridge Animal Farm
686 Old Northern Road,
Dural NSW 2158
(02) 9651 1028
Hours: Mon-Fri 10:30am-2pm, Sat & Sun 11am-2:30pm.
Prices: $15 per person entry. $5 extra for a pony ride or a bucket of feed. Babies under 1 year free.
BOOKINGS ESSENTIAL.
Get directions.

Prospect Park Zoo, Brooklyn, New York

March 27, 2013 / Animal Experiences, Brooklyn Bites, Cheese, Eat & Explore, New York, New York Life, Outdoor Play, Prospect Heights / 0 comment

Nestled in beautiful Prospect Park is the sweet little Prospect Park Zoo. It’s a tiny zoo – perfect for people like us with a toddler. We saw everything in an hour and 20 minutes with our 19-month-old walking everywhere herself. I don’t like zoos much – I usually find them a bit depressing. The Prospect Park Zoo, however, is filled with well cared for animals and exhibits.

Miss Cheese’s favourite animals of the day were the sea lions, whose exhibit is smack in the middle of the zoo. Make sure you catch the daily sea lion feedings at 11:30am, 2pm and 4pm, to get a really good look at the sea lions performing their natural behaviours with some help from the keepers.

Kids of all ages (including us!) will love feeding the animals in the barn area of the zoo. Cows, goats, sheep, alpacas and chickens are housed in barn-like pens, with slats and holes in some of the fences so you can feed them the designated food. Watch out for the goats and sheep – they are so used to being fed that they climb up onto the fences and reach their long necks over for better access to food – funny for us, but a bit scary for little toddlers. They’re super gentle and tame though, and Cheese had no problem feeding them with animal kibble straight from her little hand. The best bit: baby lambs, just two weeks old. Squeee!!

The other highlights for us were the baboons, housed in a large enclosure adjoining one of the visitors centers, with floor to ceiling glass, and the Discovery Trail, a winding path through gardens and scrub lands, with animal exhibits like prairie dogs and red pandas. Cheese particularly loved the ducks, including eating the duck kibble instead of feeding it to the actual ducks.

Cheese watching the ducks, Prospect Park Zoo.

What to eat: This is the sad part of our post. While the animals are well fed, the humans aren’t. There are a lot of outdoor picnic tables to sit at, but inside the cafeteria lies only vending machines. We highly recommend you bring your own lunch, or leave the park and eat at a nearby cafe or restaurant. Check out our personal fave in Prospect Heights, Gueros, or download this guide to eating in Prospect Heights for a larger directory of places to eat.

Prospect Park Zoo
450 Flatbush Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: (718) 399-7339
Hours: Spring/summer (Mar 23–Nov 3, 2013) Mon-Fri 10am-5:30pm, Sat-Sun 10am-5:30pm.
Fall/winter (Nov 4, 2013–Mar 28, 2014) Daily 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m

Buffy is home!

December 31, 2012 / Animals / 0 comment

We had some wonderful news as we flew into New York. Buffy was found! The little scamp had gone wolf in the bush for two weeks. She had made a den in some used car parts down the back of the pet sitter’s property. The son saw her and tried to catch her, but because she tried tried to bite him (!!!) he had to trap her. Unbelievable. She’s looking pretty good for two weeks in the wild. She’s lost 1.5kgs (from under 5kgs anyway!) but is otherwise fine. Miracle!!

Help Bring Buffy Home

December 28, 2012 / Animals / 0 comment

I just found out the devastating news that while we were on holiday in Hawaii, my 8 yr old Havanese, Buffy, escaped from her pet sitter back home in Sydney. Please help me find her.

NAME: Buffy
LAST SEEN: Lot 10 Minerva Rd, Wedderburn, NSW, Sydney, Australia where she was staying with her pet sitter.
DATE MISSING: Dec 15th, 2012
COLOUR: Yellow/blonde
BREED: Havanese
AGE: 8 yrs
SEX: Female, desexed
SIZE: Small toy – weighs under 5 kgs.
TEMPERAMENT: Extremely friendly and good natured.

CONTACT: Owen and Kay Knight, 02 96020661. Address: 12 Hope St, Warwick Farm. Email either myself at clknight@gmail.com or my parents at okayknight@gmail.com.

Please keep an eye out for this tiny, very beloved dog. She has been missing for 12 days now and the situation does not look good.

Thanks for any tweets, shares etc.

Christine

Most current photo: Buffy just had this haircut a few days before she went missing.

A Very Poochy Christmas

December 18, 2010 / Animals, Family / 0 comment

Getting into the Christmas spirit.

Welcome Summer!

November 28, 2010 / Animals, Family, Sydney Life / 0 comment

Sydney is suddenly tropical. Stinking hot days, followed by days of non-stop rain.

I can’t wait till Christmas this year. After last year’s insanity of planning a wedding, this year is looking calm and relaxed by comparison.

Yayyyy summer!

Family outing at Manly

BFFs at Balmain

Poser

California and NYC Trip

October 9, 2010 / New York Life, Travel, USA / 0 comment

I haven’t felt much like blogging lately, so this is a brief account of my recent USA trip. It was mostly for work, but I managed to squeeze in a trip to NYC and Monterey. Most of the trip, when I wasn’t working, I was catching up with friends and family.

First stop, San Francisco.

Catching up with Isis, Mansi and baby Maya.

Dinner at Greens Restaurant in SF with Jamie, Lisa and Isis.

One of Mansi and Jason’s Abyssinian cats.

Another of Mansi and Jason’s pets!

Filming an AdSense video with Victoria in Mountain View.

Drinking the Koolaid on campus.

Next destination, NYC! I stayed with Masa for a few days in Brooklyn.

View from the Brooklyn shore.

Making a new friend in the park.

One of seven bridal couples I saw having photos taken in the area.

View from the Metropolitan Art Gallery rooftoop garden.

Doing what I do best 😉

Goofing off with Masa.

Dinner with Janice and Calman.

Hello Jersey Shores!

At the Google NY office with Olah.

And Nadia …

… and Isa!

Then it was back to Mountain View…

On campus, taking in the sites.

Nom nom nom.

My friendly tour guide, Gus, and giant green Android.

Making a new friend! Meeting Zoe Pollock.

Alec met me in Mountain View. We were able to spend a long weekend in Monterey.

My favourite animals at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the jellies!

Drive down the coast to Big Sur. Amazing scenery.

Gorgeous water.

Gorgeous, jet-lagged, husband.

Beautiful!

Admiring the view.

The red woods in Big Sur.

Small husband…

Tiny wife.

Meeting the locals.

My brother and Michele drove down to nearby Carmel for the end of the weekend.

Back in Mountain View with the Ring family – Jeannette and little PJ.

Making more friends on campus! Meet Lola.

RSPCA Million Paws Walk 2010

May 19, 2010 / Animals, Sydney Life / 1 Comment

My favourite day of the year isn’t my birthday, it isn’t Christmas, and, despite what Alec thinks, it’s not the chocolate holiday otherwise known as Easter. It’s actually the annual RSPCA Million Paws Walk.

I’ve attended the walk for the past six or so years since Kahlua came to live with us. I’m not sure how much the dogs actually enjoy going and being around thousands of other dogs and people, but it’s one of my highlights every year because it’s the one day where you get to see so many animals lovers en masse.

I am a huge supporter of the RSPCA and have a difficult time hearing about how cruel people can be to animals and the numbers that are dumped and put to an early death every year. This one day is the day that restores my belief that there are also a lot of people out there like me and Alec who really love animals. This year the walk is at Homebush again, starting at the Olympic Cauldron.

Go pooches, go!

This tiny pug was smaller than Alec’s hand.

Well, it has paws …

Kahlua hitches a ride.

The girls walk in tandem.

I’m a sucker for the cute, funny-looking dogs.

Buffy wants to be picked up!

Happy Million Paws Walk Day everyone!

Hawaii Honeymoon: Kauai Part 1

May 11, 2010 / Animals, Hawaii / 0 comment

For a change of pace we spent our second week on Kauai. We stayed in a boutique hotel on the beach in Poipu. We had a gorgeous view from the window and it was amazing falling asleep and waking up to the sound of waves crashing on the shore.

Lovely decor.

Not a bad view!

Just another perfect day in Hawaii!

At the hotel pool bar with the first of many cocktails.

Staying on the beach allowed for many walks in different lights. Thanks for being such a good model Alec 🙂

Sand bar on the beach in the dying light.

I was hoping to spot a rare Hawaiian monk seal on our visit, but since they’re classed as critically endangered (only around 1500 left in total, 150 of which are on the main Hawaiian islands), so we were stunned to see a seal on the beach right outside our hotel on our first night. The next morning we went for a walk along walk along the beach, and saw a second one. Two days in a row, what amazing luck. The seals had hauled themselves out on to the sand and lay there for hours having a snooze. Local life guards set up barricades around them to keep people away.

Ignoring the paparazzi.

We stayed in an area where we saw amazing sunsets every night, right outside our room.

We also stayed right on a beach with great snorkeling. The water was crystal clear, so we had perfect visibility. There was a surprising amount of fish as well – in amazing colours. The fish were really relaxed about us snorkeling all around them, letting us get really close.

How’s the serenity?

Doesn’t get much better than this.

Monk seal spotting #2.

We hadn’t realised Kauai was famous for … chickens. That’s right. There are wild feral chickens running all over the island. You literally can’t take a step without tripping over a chicken. They are thought to be a cross between the chickens the Polynesians brought across many years ago, and the more recent fighting chickens, making them a very hearty breed. I’ve never seen such healthy, happy chickens, so island life clearly suits them well.

No, I’m not your dinner …

Woof – The Dogs Settle In

April 5, 2010 / Animals / 0 comment

I’m loving having the dogs living with us. They’re settling in more and more and their personalities are coming out again. Kahlua has been extremely happy as well (she can be moody and depressed, so it’s great seeing her so happy all the time). I play games with Kahlua each morning when we get up. She likes playing fetch with her rope – I captured her playing in the little videos below.