Australia Zoo

This is going back in time now, to day 2 of our trip.

We woke up very early, unsurprising as we had fallen asleep late afternoon the day before and slept roughly 15 hours. It was pouring rain, but since it was warm and not all windy, we decided that it was nevertheless a good day to head over to Australia Zoo, home of the Crocodile Hunter.

We arrived around 10:30, just in time to feed the elephants before the big show at the Crocoseum! Each person gets to give an elephant a couple bits of what looked like sweet potato or yam. The trunk felt very interesting exploring my hand. Chris declined to participate, preferring instead to capture it for posterity.

The show in the Crocoseum was neat, I think Chris wrote a bit about it earlier, and I'll post some pictures when I can.






After that we had a wander, and saw many animals including koala bears, which I loved, various birds and lizards, Tasmanian devils, dingos, cassawaries, camels, all sorts. We went to the petting zoo and I fed some little piglets and lambs and baby goats and things, that was one of the best parts! the pigs and goats were so eager they climbed up my arms and over each other, and the lambs mouths were very soft and warm on the palm of my hand as they lipped up the food. I liked that!





After that I had my photo taken with a Koala named Jag. He smelled of dirt and eucalyptus, very pleasant, and he was warm and heavy and his fur was soft and springy, like very coarse, curly hair. I wanted to take him home with me but they would not let me.

We saw the tigers, and more koalas, and some kangaroos! even one with a baby. We saw all sorts of birds, and some wombats, and many poisonous snakes and things. And crocodiles, of course. Plus american alligators.







I tried on a hat that I loved but Chris said it was too much and he wouldn't let me buy it. He said we would see it everywhere, and we have- but not in my size! I am very sad about that. I want that hat!

We also met two sulphur-crested cockatoos, who were both older than I am!

It was a very full, fun day, and I liked it very much. Australia Zoo is awesome not because of the Crocodile Hunter, but because it is so interactive. You can get right in there with the animals a lot of the time, and and see what a snake feels like, how a koala feels, what a kangaroo likes to eat, that sort of thing. Much better than just staring at them in an enclosure, though with many of the animals, such as tigers, there is that of course.

Sydney

Sydney was lovely!

We landed in Sydney a bit before noon, and had collected our luggage, taken a train to Town Hall, and registered at the hotel by around one. The hotel was just as nice as I had hoped judging by their website, and we had a nice view of the city and St. Andrew's Cathedral. We dropped our stuff off and headed down to Darling Harbour for the afternoon, where we did a bit of window shopping, had some lunch, and went to the Sydney Aquarium, which we both loved. Chris enjoyed seeing all the fish, while I was captivated by the seals, platypus, and fairy penguins. the Barrier Reef exhibit was marvelous, and it was amazing to go in a glass tunnel in the shark enclosure and have the huge sharks and rays and turtles and things swimming all around and above us.

In fact, our trip to Sydney was all about water. Between us I think there were 7 showers, one bath, a boat tour, a trip to the aquarium, and an evening spent swimming in the hotel pool.

The first night we ate supper at a place called the Blackbird Cafe in Darling Harbour, where we split a vegetarian couscous dish wrapped in phyllo pastry and a lovely spinach ricotta ravioli in a creamy pesto sauce. And nummy chocolate mousse! It was very good, and we went to bed early, very sleepy.

The next day, our only full day in Sydney, we slept late and headed down to Darling Harbour again, this time to catch a boat tour under the Harbour Bridge and over to the Opera House. It was gorgeous and sunny, utterly perfect for taking lots of photos! We then wandered around in The Rocks, Sydney's historical district, and down George Street for some shopping. Utterly exhausted by late afternoon, we lay around in the hotel room for a while before heading down to the hotel pool for an hour or so of horsing around in the water. Fun! By this time we were starving, so back to Darling Harbour again for steak at the Meat and Wine Co. where the food was fabulous and the service, despite the HUGE number of staff, was so so. By this time I was so utterly sick to death of having EVERY thing I ordered come with chips (lasagne and chips?) that I had some nice plain steamed rice with my steak. Perfect!

The next morning we flew down to Melbourne, and were met at the airport by Chris' mum Wendy, sister-in-law Lou, nephew Darian (Dash) uncle Charle, Auntie Edith, cousin Paul, cousin-in-law Neelam and her beautiful five month old son Aaron, who promptly fell asleep on me. I love other people's babies! Charlie and Edith also brought flowers for me, which I have no idea what they were but they're lovely, and a "welcome" sign. I definitely felt welcome! It was lovely to meet most of the rest of Chris' family here.

We have lots of pictures to post but as Chris' mum is on dial-up, I think we are going to wait til we head downtown this week, find an internet cafe, and post them all that way. I tried posting some here but it timed out and didn't work!