There is so much to do in Sydney! Whether it is a special event going on around town, or one of the sights that Sydney always offers, I don't think you could ever be bored here! Despite the rain, last weekend Kurtis and I decided to head to the zoo!
After taking a bus, a ferry and a gondola, we reached the top of the zoo! The view of downtown Sydney from the top of the zoo is incredible! The zoo itself is on a hillside. When we got off the ferry, I thought, that's weird, where is the zoo? There are so many trees around and in the enclosures, that from the ferry it just looks like a forest on a hill... but what we found under the trees was a spectacular zoo, filled with active, happy animals from all over the world.
Zoos are one of my favourite places to visit, and the Taronga Zoo is certainly one of the coolest zoos I have ever seen. If it weren't such a trek to get there, I think I could happily visit the animals once a week! The photos speak for themselves, but one thing that really struck me was how active the animals were! It was incredible to see them this way because it didn't feel like they were in enclosures necessarily, but in their habitats. My favourite photo of the day is the tiger! He was napping under some leaves and then all of a sudden opened his eyes.
We checked out the reptiles (which always gives Kurtis goosebumps!) and got to see an endangered Fijian lizard, which was only discovered in the 1960's. It has very unique blue, green and white colouring. Another neat animal was the pygmy hippo (like a large hippo, but smaller, and with longer legs). The chimpanzees were pretty cute and I loved seeing one of them at an ant hill with his little stick! He pushed the stick into a tunnel in the ant hill and pulled it out, sucking off the ants which had climbed onto the stick! A tasty afternoon treat! We laughed when we saw the platypus in their tank: they were frantically swimming around, chasing a shrimp! Sometimes they would disturb a crab on the bottom, who in turn would put out his claws as if to say, "Hey! You want a piece of me?!"
The giraffes were not very happy about the rain and all cozied into their little hut to wait it out. You can only see 3 giraffes in the photo, but in total their were 5 giraffes in there! They kept peeking out to see if the rain had stopped, and when it finally did I could just imagine the sigh of relief that they made as they ran out of the crowded little hut!
The red pandas were munching away at their bamboo. It was all I could do to restrain myself from reaching over the ledge and plucking one into my purse to take home - they're just so darn cute! The snow leopards were exquisite. I had never seen a snow leopards face straight on before and was surprised by how different their eyes are then those of a lion or a tiger. There were 3 snow leopards in an area and they were all very playful with one another. I love their gorgeous fluffy tails! It is so sad that they are endangered in the wild!
While we were a little wet and chilly at the end of our afternoon I was so glad we had gone! It wasn't very busy (most people aren't crazy enough to go out in the rain!) and sometimes it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves! Also, we got to see a lot of the animals at their feeding time, which is when they become very active. What a great place to visit! I love the zoo!
Oh, and if you are wondering what I am doing with my umbrella at the top of the photos: I was trying to make the peacock show it's tail feathers! It didn't work.
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