Touring Sydney

After taking the train back into Sydney, we had a more laidback time in the big city. We ate lunch in Hyde Park, walked around Circular Quay, and ate dinner in Darling Harbor. We also took the ferry over to Taronga Zoo on a hot day -- being out on the water in Sydney is a highlight. The water is sparkling blue, the sky is beautiful blue, and the Opera House and Harbor Bridge can't be beat. Besides the humidity, Sydney is a sweet city. On the last night, we caught the end of a fireworks show somewhere close by, and they were higher-quality fireworks with a lot more colors than we usually get in Christchurch, so that was a cool way to end their trip.

Taronga Zoo

With the conference over, it was time to visit Sydney's famous Taronga Zoo!

The easiest way to get there is to take the ferry from Circular Quay (pronounced key). It's only about 10 minutes and a nice ride on the water. There are some small savings if you purchase the zoo + ferry ticket at the ferry ticket counters instead of getting the tickets separately. There's also a zoo salesperson at the ferry terminal who has a little credit card machine with a mini-printer on their belt so you can buy your zoo pass there and get to take the zoo sky tram when you get to the zoo instead of having to take the bus over to the zoo ticket area. The zoo is built on a huge hill, so you arrive at the bottom and then take the sky tram or bus up to the top and work your way down. This means it has great views of the city! Highlights were the red pandas and lots of birds and the Free Flight Bird Show where different kinds of birds swooped in over the audience's heads and did tricks.  Everywhere we went there were birds making noises.

We treated ourselves to the restaurant we had passed by on our first day that had a huge line -- Pancakes on the Rocks. The menu had a ton of different pancake combinations. D got the jaffa orange chocolate pancakes and I got the chocolate berry pancakes. They weren't the most amazing things ever -- his didn't have orange flavoring inside but just some orange slices on the top -- but they were the most actually chocolate pancakes I've ever had. They also like putting ice cream or cream instead of whipped cream in Australia and New Zealand, and while ice cream always seems like a good idea, it wasn’t very good ice cream and so just ended up being quite heavy to accompany the rest of the sugary meal. As an appetizer, we ordered “pizza crust” which was the strangest tasting bread we’ve had. Basically bread with spices but no cheese so it seemed like it was missing something.

koala

giraffes get great views

Free flight bird show was really cool to watch.

cute little otter

different kinds of ducks

 

fishing cat

wombat munching down

wallaby and kangaroo

crocodile

red panda!

kookaburra

lorikeet

we called this "goat mountain"

In the evening, we saw Les Miserables at the Capitol Theatre. It was good. Every time I see it I’m in a different place in life and get something different out of it.