March 1-21, 2001 - Part 3 - Sydney, Australia
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| A sleeping Koala at the Sydney Zoo - Sydney, Australia |
I also went to Taronga Zoo, Sydney's Zoo. It's on the north side of the harbour from the Circular Quay ferry/train terminal. For A$25, it includes a return trip on the ferry to the zoo, zoo entrance fee, and a gondola ride up to the top of the zoo so you can go through the zoo by walking downhill.
Yes, lions and tigers and bears oh my. There were a couple of animals that I haven't seen before so it was an interesting experience. The Tasmanian Devil was actually a cute toothy fur ball, unlike the cartoon character. I also saw my first live Koala.
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| I managed to capture a picture of this wild cookaberra resting on this sign - I thought it was pretty funny - At the Sydney Zoo - Sydney, Australia |
They also had a good display of local birds. They fluttered through the large aviary with flashes of bright neon colour. I didn't realize there were so many varieties of colourful finches from Australia.
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| Sharks sleeping on top of the sea tunnel - Sydney Aquarium - Sydney, Australia |
The Sydney Aquarium is right in Darling Harbour. The water front area is actually very nice with only a sparse amount of visitors. You can save A$6 by using your YHA card.
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| Harmless Moon jellyfish glowing in black light - Sydney Aquarium - Sydney, Australia |
The first feature of the aquarium was a platypus tank and unlike the zoo, this one was well stocked with minnows and crayfish and TWO swimming platypus. I this was the first time I've seen live platypus also - very cute animals. After watching them for a while, I headed through the rest of the exhibits.
Most of the exhibits were well kept with a mixture of fresh and salt-water fishes of Australia. They have three large separate walk-through tunnels, each with a theme of different fish in them. One tank had local Sydney harbour fish while another one had the large sharks, rays and other "big" fish.
I would highly recommend visiting any of the attractions during weekdays. The number visitors were sparse, but I occasionally had to walk far away from screaming kids. The parents are so used to it that it became a white noise to them.
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| Sunset on Palm Beach - Sydney, Australia |
I got a little lazy after three weeks of living in comfort at Colin's apartment. It was easy to just veg out for the day and work on my web site or surf the net or play a few games, and then venture out into the city for a bite and entertainment. I had to leave to get myself to be more productive. It's definitely one of the cities I will live in in the future. Best of all, I made a good base of friends here.
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