Annual pass member bookable sessions available from Tuesday

Auckland Zoo will begin gradually reopening, starting on Thursday 11 November with limited numbers of Zoo sessions available to members following the Government announcement that Tāmaki Makaurau can move to Level 3, Step 2 from Midnight 10 November.

Currently, only annual pass members with a confirmed booking slot – made in advance through the Zoo website – will be able to visit the Zoo. There will be no general admission tickets or new membership sales available at this stage.

The only other tickets available to visit the Zoo for the time being will be a limited number of free daily community tickets. The Zoo will be working with various charities, front line organisations and community groups across Auckland to allocate these tickets to those whose wellbeing would benefit most from a trip to the Zoo at this time.

“We know that this is going to be massively disappointing to many Aucklanders who are very keen to come back and see all the changes in the Zoo that have happened since we closed back in August. However, the requirements of operating responsibly under Step 2 of Level 3, and the current constraints of our site, mean that we need to significantly limit the number of people we have in the Zoo at any one time.” says Kevin Buley, Auckland Zoo’s Director.

This week’s move to Level 3 Step 2 also coincides with major visitor pathway construction works commencing on site in the Zoo. These works, essential to the completion of the Zoo’s Southeast Asia Jungle Track experience for Autumn 2022, will take 3-4 weeks and will necessitate closing almost half of the Zoo experience to returning members during this time.

“We’ve known these works have been coming for many months and, after 12 weeks of closure, it’s particularly unfortunate and frustrating that they coincide with the first time in months that we can welcome people back to the Zoo.” says Kevin.

“Although we’re going to have a large part of the site closed, we hope that our members, who have not been able to make use of their annual passes for over three months will still appreciate being able to come back and reconnect with us in a limited way.”

Once the pathway construction work has been completed in late November then – Covid-19 restrictions permitting – the Zoo will be able to have a greater number of visitors on site and be able to welcome many more Aucklanders who want to come and visit.

Member requirements

All members and community ticketholders visiting the Zoo during Step 2 of Alert Level 3 will need to comply with the Government’s current Covid-19 protocols and the Zoo’s Terms and Conditions of Entry.

These include mandatory scanning or signing in and face coverings. For full details of these requirements and how to book if you are a current member, please visit this page.

Q&A's

Weather depending, the planned works should be complete by the end of November. Subject to any Covid-19 restrictions, we hope to be able to reopen to everybody after that. Please check our website and social media for updates.

A limited number of sessions are now available at Alert Level 3, Step 2. Details on how to book are on our Get Zoo Ready page.

We will be extending all current memberships for the duration of the lockdown, from the 18th of August until 30 November (depending on purchase date), so anyone who is unable to secure a booking whilst the Zoo has greatly limited capacity, will not lose out.

Unfortunately, the Zoo cannot sell any tickets (General Admission or annual passes) until we reopen fully at the end of November. We will provide regular updates on our website and social media.

We want to give a little back to some of our communities, whose wellbeing we feel will benefit most from a visit to Auckland Zoo in this reopening phase. Called ‘community tickets’ these are free of charge, must be applied for, with priority given to certain types of our audiences.

Priority will be given to application for tickets from the following audiences:

  1. Households on low income/unemployed
  2. People with additional needs and/or disabilities 
  3. Front line essential workers - such as healthcare workers and essential services such as supermarket, foodbank staff, and bus drivers, etc.

This means anyone can apply, but please be aware if you do not fall into one of our priority audiences, you are less likely to be successful in your application.

You can apply here

Any day passes and vouchers that expired between 18 August and 30 November 2021 will be extended until 31 January 2021 to give everyone a chance to use them.

There has been some speculation in the media that proof of vaccination will be required for entry into Auckland Zoo. As yet, no decision has yet been made on whether this will be a requirement when Auckland moves to the Covid-19 Protection Framework (traffic light system) and anyone visiting at Alert Level 3 Step 2 will not be required to show proof of vaccination.

While this important construction work continues on our South East Asia Jungle Track, Te Wao Nui (our New Zealand track), our Africa Safari Track and High Canopy area will be open to limited visitors.