Taronga Zoo

On Wednesday, 28.12., we went to the Sydney Zoo, Taronga Zoo, for a day. It was a really nice day and we saw many new animals. The zoo opened at 9:30 a.m., but since it took us so long to get to the city, we had to leave Gymea at 8 a.m. Sol was already awake so early and was so kind to drive us to the train station so we didn't have to leave even earlier. In the city, we drove to Circular Quay and took the ferry from there to the zoo. It was really nice route with great views of the harbor and the city.

From the zoo ferry terminal, we walked to the Cable Car, a cable car that goes from the ferry to the entrance of the zoo over the enclosures. The cable car ride was included in the zoo ticket and it was really something special! It's great to be able to look at elephants and monkeys from above. At the entrance of the zoo, we first got a park map, put on sunscreen, and then went inside. By the way, we bought our tickets online the night before and there was even a student discount, so we only paid just over 30$. That's great!

The first animal we saw at the zoo was a Tree Kangaroo. That was really cool because these animals can also be found in the wild, for example in the Atherton Tablelands, but we never saw one back then. After that, we went to the nocturnal animal house where there were various Australian animals like possums, mice and owls. At 11:00 a.m. there was a sea lion show and that's where we went next. Unfortunately, it was crowded and we didn't get a seat anymore. The standing places were also in the sun and it was quite hot, so it wasn't ideal. But it was still fine and the show was really cool. They introduced the sea lions, they did some tricks and there was also a lot of interaction with the audience. One sea lion swam along the edge of the pool and splashed the first rows with water! I would have liked to sit there too :D Another sea lion jumped really high out of the pool and even did some somersaults. Really cool!

After the sea lions, we went to the male elephants and the over 100-year-old elephant house, and then to the Tasmanian Devils. There was a feeding at 11:30 a.m. and we wanted to learn some things about this animal that we had never seen before and that only exists in Tasmania. It was really interesting and great to see a Tasmanian Devil.

After the feeding, we went to the bird show, which started at 12:00. There were also no more seats available, but luckily we were allowed to sit on the stairs. There we could comfortably eat our sandwiches and watch the birds above our heads. They showed owls, parrots, cockatoos, an eagle and an albatross. It was really cool, and the view was fantastic!

After the bird show, we walked past the gorillas to the children's/farmyard area and looked at guinea pigs, rabbits, sheep, and chickens there. There were such cute guinea pigs and even cuter fluffy chickens! They looked really funny, I would have liked to take one home right away.

From the farm animals, we went back to the Australian animals, where we looked at platypus, echidnas, kangaroos, wallabies, and emus this time. We already knew most of them, but the echidnas were really cool. Strange animals! After that, we went to the reptile world via the koala enclosure, where we could see various lizards and turtles. Unfortunately, we didn't have much time there because Andi really wanted to hear the talk about the sunbears. The caregiver mainly told us the story of that specific bear and not much about the breed in general, which we found a bit of a shame. But it was still good, and the sunbear was quite active.

Next, we walked back to the farm animals because the spider talk took place there and I was very interested in it. But before that, we took a look at the quokkas and wombats, which were also in the children's area. Andi was very happy that there are quokkas in the zoo, and we even spotted one shy quokka hiding under a branch. It's really cool that we saw so many of them in one place on Rottnest Island! The spider talk at 3:00 p.m. totally fulfilled my expectations. The keeper was very enthusiastic, and you could tell that he enjoyed sharing his knowledge. The theme of the talk was the three most famous Australian spiders, which were introduced and shown. These were a huntsman spider (not poisonous but gross), a redback spider (quite poisonous), and a Sydney funnel web spider (the most poisonous spider in the world, only found in the Sydney region). It was really cool to gather some background knowledge like that and see the spiders in real life!

After the talk, we went to see the lemurs, did the African Safari Walk with meerkats, zebras, bongos, and giraffes, and then walked through the Rainforest Trail, where unfortunately we didn't see any animals except for a few birds and a fake leopard. We went to see the penguins and sea lions, which are the last stop in the zoo. Oh no, there were also red pandas behind them, we saw one of those too. But it was just sleeping on a tree :D

We left the zoo by the water around a little after 5 p.m. and wanted to take the ferry at 5:12 p.m. Unfortunately, more people had the same idea, and we had to line up pretty far back in the queue. When the ferry arrived, not everyone fit on it, and we also had to wait for the next ferry. Totally annoying! Thankfully, the next ferry came just 15 minutes later, and we managed to get on that one. The return journey was just as beautiful as the outward journey.

When we arrived back in Gymea in the evening, we had a barbecue for dinner. Delicious! It was still so mild that we could eat outside because the day was so hot. For dinner, I had a cool cider and Andi had a beer, and it was just perfect. It's really great to have such a wonderful host family!