Taronga Zoo

Day 4 – Sunday, July 6

Sunday was ‘zoo day’ and Neil and I headed to the Taronga Zoo.

The day started out with us buying an ‘all day pass’ to ride the ferries that take passengers around the Sydney Harbour. There are a group of different ferries that take passengers to different areas and you can board them at Circular Quay, the ferry terminal.

The first one we hopped on took us to several different stops and was about an hour in length to get to its destination and to take us back to the terminal.

We then decided to go the zoo. And so we took the ferry that would take us there. The ferry ride was about 15-20 minutes. The neat thing about these ferries is that they provide you with different views of the city and so between Neil and myself we had snapped tons of pictures of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House.

Fortunately for us, this day was a nice one. Finally a rain free day!!!

The neat thing about this zoo is that it’s built into a steep hill that faces downtown Sydney. The entrance of the zoo is at the top of this hill. To get to the top you have two choices: you can take a gondola or a bus.

We chose the bus for two reasons: 1) there was a half hour wait to get on the gondola, and 2) there was no way that I would be getting on the gondola with my insane fear of heights.

(*Side note: Some of you may have heard the stories and others who have had the joy of witnessing this in person; and I assure each and everyone of you that I HATE this, but I don’t think there’s anyway in this lifetime that I’ll be getting over it without someone throwing me over the side of a cliff. But I’d like to see someone actually try that and live. Not likely.)

The zoo is laid out in such a way that you can see every exhibit without having to make your way back to the very top. There were also different points during the walk through the zoo that offered a great view of downtown Sydney. At one point, I even snapped a picture of the giraffes not realizing that there were buildings in the background. While it’s not at all like their natural habitats, it is unique. I mean, can the Toronto Zoo say the same thing?? Hmm??? :)

There were a couple of neat exhibits here as well. The first one was the wallaby/kangaroo exhibit. You could actually walk through this one and get up close to the animals. There were quite a few people who were even petting them, but neither of us wanted to get caught doing that because we were pretty sure that it wasn’t actually allowed.

The other exhibit that caught our attention was the penguin exhibit. This one was similar to those described at the Sydney Aquarium, where you could walk underneath and watch the animals swim around. Well, we watched as the penguins swam above us, which was kind of funny to watch.

At the end of our trip, Neil and decided to take one last ferry ride that evening. This time we opted to take a ferry ride that would take us underneath the bridge. It would also give us a view of the city while the sun was setting. We passed the amusement park, although the name escapes me. We also snapped some pictures of a few of ships that were in Darling Harbour.

As we passed under the bridge on our way back to Circular Quay, I thought it was neat to see groups of people doing the walk up the bridge. My next thought after that was ‘there is not enough money in the world to get me to do that’. Much to Neil’s disappointment…>:)

And so our fourth day in Sydney, and in Australia came to an end.

P.S. Neil will be posting ferry pics so stay tuned!