Taronga Zoo

Last Tuesday the 16th, we went to the Sydney Zoo. Taronga Zoo is located on the north side of Sydney, so we had to take a ferry to get there. The ferry left from Circular Quay and took is directly to the zoo. On our way over, we were able to see the Opera House from the back side, which you can't see unless you are on a boat.



For some reason, it had never occurred to us to visit the zoo. However, when we were deciding what to do that day, I realized that we would not get to see all the Australian animals if we did not visit the zoo. So in the hopes of seeing all the famous Aussy animals (kangaroos, koalas, etc), we headed off to the zoo.

The ferry over to the zoo takes about 15 or 20 minutes to get there. As I already mentioned, you get a different view of the opera house and also get to see several of the houses in north Sydney. From the looks of it, this might be the more expensive side of town. Once arrived at the peer, we had two options for getting to the zoo, the first was taking a sky rail, and the second is a bus. We decided to take the bus on the way up to the entrance and we would take the sky rail on the way back once we were done at the zoo.

The first animal at the entrance of the zoo is the Koala. It seems that at the time we arrived, it was their nap time, because most of them were asleep. We were lucky enough to see one or two that were semi awake and eating some eucalyptus. From the picture below, you can see that Koalas are nice, fuzzy and look very cuddly. However, you would not want to hold one of them because they have very sharp claws to hold on to the trees.



I won't go into all the animals we saw or this would take forever. But, we were able to see most of Australia's known animals with the exception of the platypus. We also got to see the most poisonous snakes and spiders in the world. I don't remember the exact numbers, but there was a sign that said that Australia contained 11 out of the worlds most 15 poisonous land animals.



After having lunch at the zoo, and finishing up the rest of the animals we had not seen, we headed to the sky rail and left the zoo. Before returning to the city, there was a trail we could walk along a small peninsula next to the zoo. This trail has several overlooks and access to a few beaches. Being the adventurous type, we walked along the coastline, hoping among rocks instead of walking the trail (pic below).



After finishing our hike, we headed back to the pier and waited for the ferry to come . As we waited and on our way back, there were two military black hawk helicopters that kept circling the bay over and over and doing maneuvers. We wondered what on earth was going on and later that day we saw on the news that there had been anti-terrorism exercise that day.



Since it was not quite supper time yet, we walked around on the side of the harbor bridge and made our way up a hill to view the sunset. By the time the sun had set, our stomachs were talking to us and decided to find some food. A short walk from where we were, there are a series of pubs and restaurants so we walked around a bit to see what sounded interesting. After walking around in circles unable to decide on a restaurant, we finally made up our mind and had dinner at a restaurant where you get to pick your meet and grill it yourself. It is a good thing no one was in front of us because we were both very hungry so we got to grill our food fast.

On the way back to the train station, we could see the opera house all nicely lit up at night. I sure wish I had a tripod to take a good picture. However, I was able to take this one that is not as blurry as the others.