Saturday: Taronga Zoo Sydney

My guide book recommended a day at the Sydney zoo -- even if you had just one day in Sydney. So we put it on our Itinerary.

Saturday morning, we took the train to the ferry at Circular Quay (say "Key"), then bought a ferry pass. The ferry chugged out into the harbor between the Famous Sydney Harbour Bridge...

 

... and the Famous Sydney Opera House...

... to the zoo’s own ferry wharf.

Our Melbourne zoo membership cards were good for the Sydney zoo too, so we moved straight from the wharf to the Sky Safari terminal, to take a gondola up to the top of the hill to the zoo. From the gondola, we could look back out over the harbor to see the Famous Sydney Harbour Bridge, and the Famous Sydney opera house, and the city skyline out in the distance under a blue sky.

 

The views alone were worth the twelve dollar round trip ferry ride. And the zoo was an awesome bonus!

We started the zoo tour with the Australia exhibits, and wound our way down the hill past kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, a large platypus, echidnas and koalas.

Not too far into the walk, Jonathan started noticing spiders. 

 

The spiders hung in the trees above our heads and around the exhibits. They were just part of the natural zoo setting, not caged up.  Living there.

 

A friend had told me that because Sydney was warmer than Melbourne, the spiders in Sydney grew much larger. I thought of her words as we kept spotting larger and larger spiders. 

I am not afraid of spiders. You see how I smile in the spider pictures? I am not afraid. My mind is not afraid of spiders. My mind knows that if I do not touch the spider, it will not touch me. The spider will stay there happily, the size of my palm, just a few feet over my head on its extra strong web. My mind knows the spider will not touch me. My skin, however, does not understand. As we saw more and more spiders around the zoo grounds, my skin began to crawl. Just looking at the spiders caused me to break out in goose bumps. All over. And then, later, just thinking about the spiders caused my skin to break out in goose bumps. All over. My mind is safe from spiders. My body was totally freaked out. Get me away from here!

 

But back to the zoo, forgetting for now the spiders (who can forget the spiders?) our tour of the animals of Australia was followed by lunch, and then a tour of the animals of Africa. Such as these giraffes.  They get a pretty good daily view, eh?

 

We were getting a little tired by then. We left the path about an hour before the bird show to sit down in the bird show seats and contemplate the upcoming bird show. Off of our feet. Sitting down so early wasn't a total waste of time -- some zoo keepers were feeding a couple of cute little echidnas. I hadn’t realized just how cute a little spiked ball with a long nose could be in real life, waddling around looking for tasty lunch.

 

And the view of Sydney from the bird show area was amazing. 

 

An hour later, we did indeed enjoy the bird show. Australia has very pretty birds. And then we were done.  We exited the zoo by way of seeing a few more animals, then out.

The sign at the exit directed us back to the Sky Safari.  It was free! We could go again!

Yes! said Jonathan.

And then he realized he would have to walk all the way back down the hill on foot. So we just got on the ferry instead.

Back through the harbor we chugged, between the Famous Sydney Opera House and the Famous Harbour Bridge ...

 

... to the Circular Quay (say “Key”).

 

And that is the end.

Almost.

We still needed to eat. 

We walked to the right, into the Rocks district, where the lower classes lived in the early days of Sydney’s settlement. We found an Italian restaurant there, and ate an early dinner. It was a little too Italian for Jonathan, who has decided he doesn't like real Italian pizza or pasta. Crazy. After Tim and I enjoyed our meal, we let him buy an ice cream cone back at the Quay, while we listened to a man play a didgeridoo, and hawk his CD.

Kangaroos, views, and didgeridoos. It was a truly Australian day for a tourist.