Visitor Reviews

This review submitted by Niels Johs, Legarth Iversen April 2001

To find the zoo, walk throught Waikiki towards the extinct volcano Diamond Head. You will see the zoo on the inland side of the road and the Waikiki Aquarium opposite, towards the sea. According to the homepage of the zoo, it dates back to a marshy area where king Kalakaua kept his collection of exotic birds. In 1877 the area was named after the King's wife and opened as Queen Kapiolani Park. During the Depression years, the Zoo faltered and nearly closed. In 1974, the donation of a camel, elephant, chimpanzees and deer by the Dairymen's Association sparked a renewal for the Honolulu Zoo. So far the history. The zoo still has an impressive collection of birds. At my last visit there were not only paradise birds, which is rare in itself, but they were breeding. And some of the few surviving native species were represented, which is just as well because foreign species are just about the only ones you will see in the wild. But the most impressive feature of the garden is at the far back: here an extensive area has been transformed in an African veldt. You walk along a path hidden between red rocks and look at the animals around corners and through peeping holes. The procedure is used in many zoos for for instance big cat enclosures, but it is less often to see a whole section made up in this way. The rest of the zoo is more conventional, but pretty. It is not very big and fairly flat, so in spite of the luscious vegetation it is fairly easy to take in. In this section you also find a road-sign cluttered with distances to other zoos, and they are all VERY far away!