Saturday, October 23, 2010

Taronga Zoo

Gorillas from the SkyRide.
Two weekends ago, Ethan and I decided to head across the Harbour (more u’s!  I’m learning!) to Taronga Zoo.  You can drive to the zoo, but by far, the best choice if you live on the south side of Sydney is to take the ferry across.  When you get there, you have the choice of taking a bus to the top, or the SkyRide.  The SkyRide is pretty neat.  It doesn’t swing at all, it isn’t super high, and you get to check out the animals from above.  Then, you walk downhill through the zoo, back to the ferry.  If you drive, you have to park at the top, walk down and then either walk back up or pay additional for the SkyRide to take you back to the top. 


The Taronga Zoo is a really nice zoo, with a wide variety of animals.  We arrived at the giraffe pen just as they were having a feeding, so we got to see the giraffes take carrots from other visitors.  From the squeals this lady emitted, I gather the giraffe’s tongue is very slimy!

Carrots, yum!

I want a carrot too!

They had a lot of animals I’d never seen before, including tapirs

Tapir:  piglike animal with a weird nose.
Meerkat sentry




meerkats

Not actually related to the black and white panda






and a red panda.

They also had some cute babies, including a couple of baby elephants.

Baby elephant playing with his toy.
Socializing.
One of the best parts, however, is the view.  Check out this view of the harbour (they were giving a bird demonstration).
The Harbour, the Opera House, and the CBD.

I have heard from other Sydneysiders that the zoo is awesome, and now I see why they love it.  I thought the tickets were a little pricey at first – $99 for the both of us – but they did include the ferry ride and the SkyRide/bus ride, so in the end I felt like it was worth it.  Overall, a nice way to spend the day.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Was the description of the skyride not being too high or swingy meant for me? (so I'd be willing to try it when we get there.)

Sounds like a neat place. We saw meerkats at the Toledo zoo - they are really cute!

~M

L said...

Yes, that comment was for you, Mom!

The meerkats were really cute, but some idiot was feeding them, and they got kind of vicious. I was worried they were going to jump out of the pen -- but also kind of hopeful that they might attack the idiot who was feeding them.

Anonymous said...

Amazing how many people either can't read or think that a sign doesn't apply to them...Go Meercats!

~M