Australia 2011: Day 23 (and a half)

This morning began the long process of returning home. I got up, finished packing, and showered at the last possible moment so I would clean as long as possible. Dad and I managed to repack our suitcases underweight. Our only crutch was one small duffel bag stuffed with some dirty laundry and leftover toiletries.

Delta said we needed to get to the airport three hours in advance of our international flight. Murphey’s law dictated that we made it through check-in and security in record time (maybe 15 minutes).

But, the good news is that Australians apparently like to shop while they wait for their planes (or maybe when they get off the plane and buy stuff duty free...). I had $25 Australian dollars to spend and I managed to use it all up on a couple of stylish coffee mugs for Evanston.

We got to chill in the Air New Zealand crown room after that. It was so nice! They had a hot breakfast buffet set up AND (more importantly) free wifi that was faster than anything we’d paid for on the trip.

I was feeling a bit peckish so even though we’re probably going to be fed at least 6 times in the next 24 hours I had some toast and a piece of kiwi-fruit (because it just doesn’t taste the same in the states).

We were on exactly the same kind of plane going out of Australia that we were coming in, so the seats were definitely fantastic. And because we were flying through what I considered day-time I was awake to use more of the media features.

In fact, I used most of the trip catching up on all the media events I’d missed out on in the last couple of years. I watched a couple of movies, LOTS of movie trailers, some music videos, and listened to several Delta radio stations, learning that Kristin Chenoweth has a new album called Some Lessons Learned that is fantastic!

The selection of movies on the flight was huge! There must have been more than 100 to choose from. They had a little bit of everything too... Beauty and the Beast, Mulan, Ice Age (1, 2, and 3), Tangled, Inception, Citizen Kane, Harry Potter 1-7a, the LOTR trilogy, Sideways, (500) Days of Summer...

I watched two full length movies, Ice Age and an old classic I’d missed out on, Tootsie. Both were hilarious. Of the movie trailers I watched the list of movies I thought looked interesting and I’d like to see included Never Let Me Go, Just Go With It, Black Swan, and Barney’s Version (note to the reader: I have not checked these out on Rotten Tomatoes yet, so if there are any duds in there I’m not responsible).

Unfortunately, because the flight was mostly during my daytime I wasn’t able to sleep much. On the way over I got almost 8 hours. This time I might have dozed through two play-throughs of a Pink! best of album. I love the noise-canceling headphones they give you though... man, do they make the flight quiet.

Also, the oddity flying this direction is that you get two Wednesdays. We left Sydney at 10:30am Wednesday morning and arrived in Los Angeles seemingly before we left at 7:00am Wednesday morning. This is a fun peculiarity, but doesn’t weird me out nearly as much as not existing for a day going the other direction.

At any rate, we arrived in LA and got our bags/cleared customs really fast. We recheck the bags with a sigh of relief and headed to the Delta Crown Room to wait for our next and final flight to Orlando. I think Dad would have gone to the El Cholo’s in the airport (even at 8am) for nachos but he decided that they probably wouldn’t be as good as the real thing, and he’ll just have to look forward to them in November. (Nachos are traditional Thanksgiving food, right?)

This crown room was not as nice, but they did have some breakfast foods out. Also, I know this is a really random thing to notice (and definitely to photograph) but they had a really nicely decorated bathroom... (jet-lag is my only defense here).

Finally, we got on our domestic flight. The seats were definitely a step down. They fed us a burger and I managed to snooze for another hour and a half or so. Oh, I should also mention that even with all the movies/music/etc I read an entire Kindle book on these flights as well. It was Forever Neverland, an interesting twist on grown-up (gasp!) Peter Pan.

Mom met us outside security at the airport and it was sure nice to see her! We got our bags in about 25 minutes (lightning speed for MCO). Mom drove home, since Dad was jet-lagged and I couldn’t remember what side of the road you were supposed to be on (seriously, I kept walking down the wrong-side of the hallway and going to the wrong side of the escalators).

By the time we got home at 7pm I was kind of on a second wind and managed to unpack, chat with mom, and putter until about 9:15. Then I went upstair, took the best shower of my life, and went to bed.

I’m writing this now at 6:45am the next morning. Jet-lag being the bitch it is, I woke up at 5:00am, managed to doze until 6:00, then finally gave up.

All in all, this has been a really great trip. I feel rested, relaxed, rejuvenated, and enlightened. What more could you ask for?

Australia 2011: Day 22

 This morning’s wake up was profoundly unpleasant. As Murphey’s Law seems to dictate whenever you have to get up early, you have trouble falling asleep...

But we managed to get ourselves and our bags downstairs by 6:00am. I was shocked to see that our ride to the airport was a personal tour bus. We had the whole thing to ourselves! It was... spacious.

It was also raining and cold in Auckland this morning. It seemed like we were getting out just in time, since the rain was supposed to settle in for the next few days.

Once we got to the airport it was indeed a blow to have to deal with all the hassles of flying commercially. As always my bag was 1kg overweight, but the person checking it in was nice and turned a blind eye. Our flight didn’t have a gate posted until about 20 minutes before it started boarding so we camped out on some chairs next to an incredibly over-priced bookstore.

The flight was uneventful. We had purchased tickets that were “The Works” so we got breakfast. Dad tried their hot breakfast of scrambled eggs, a rasher of bacon, and potatoes. I decided to play it safe and stuck with museli and a muffin. I discovered I actually like museli. It was like granola in really really light yogurt with raisins, fresh peach and maybe orange bits in it. It was actually pretty tasty.

I watched Super 8 after we took off. Dad and I had contemplated going to see this film earlier this summer, but we never ended up going. We should have! It was directed by J.J. Abrahms and I should have had more faith in him, given that I love his previous work. I would really like to see Super 8 again someplace where I can actually understand all the dialogue. The kids in the movie all gave great performances. Especially Elle Fanning!

I dozed for the last hour of the flight. It was weird how empty immigrations and customs were... there were no lines anywhere and I think once we’d gotten our bags we were out of there in a minute and a half.

We took a cab to our hotel in Coogee, which is where Pamela grew up! She’s already departed on her grand tour of Australia cruise so she can’t be here to show us around, but after Dad and I checked in to the hotel, we slathered on the sunscreen and went to take a walk along the beach.

It turned out to be a really scenic walk. There were huge waves coming in at the beach, and we climbed up to one of the coastal cliffs and clambered over rock formations. We returned to the waterfront for lunch. After a bit of wandering we ended up the Coogee Hotel’s brasserie/beer garden. Dad and I shared a Caesar salad and a cheese burger. One of the normal ingredients on burgers here is tomato relish. It was okay, but not as good as Fergburger!

After lunch we got brave and went over to the beach, despite all the things that can kill you. We took our socks and shoes off and (avoiding anything that looked remotely like a shell - stinging shells, look it up) went and stuck our toes in the water, or in my case since a wave twice as strong as all the others snuck up on me, up to my calves, splashing all over. It was cold (Dad hammed for the camera)!

We stayed for a little while, watching some boys trying to body surf on the large waves. Dad saw one really stupid person narrowly avoid getting smashed on the rocks, but since we saw his head bobbing after a few minutes, we figured he hadn’t actually managed to drown himself.

After about twenty minutes we decided to quit while we were ahead and nothing had bitten/stung/or poisoned us. We went back to the hotel for the afternoon and chilled.

For dinner we went to a restaurant called Ceviche that was diagonally across the intersection from the hotel. There was a private function going on inside the restaurant but they sat us on the balcony. The evening was quite mild and with the heater taking off the chill it was lovely.

I had gnocchi that was edible, tasty even! It was unusual, it was very large, about as long as my hand and had been stuffed with ricotta, spinach, and walnuts, and was served with a pesto sauce. Dad had tuna tartar. For our mains we both had fish, his was barimundi and mine was ocean trout served with wasabi mashed potatoes. It was a lovely evening and a great way to end the trip.

Australia 2011: Day 9

Today there was no alarm, which was extremely nice. We had a nice leisurely morning in the room. We used the hot water heater to make tea and coffee. We elected to skip breakfast and instead snacked on some tasty vanilla almond granola in the room.

We had three goals today: get our laundry done, visit the University of Sydney, and have a farewell dinner with Pamela at Tetsuya’s.

We started with the laundry. Dad found a place in the Rocks that would do a load of normal wash (socks and anything that didn’t need pressing) for $14. And pressed pants were only $3. We walked our laundry over there and dropped it off. They assured us it would be returned to the hotel by that afternoon. I hopped so or I was down to one pair of pants for the rest of the trip!

After that was accomplished we charted a course down to the University of Sydney. It was a bit of a walk, about twice as far from the hotel to the aquarium, plus the walk from the laundry back past the hotel. It took about an hour, but the weather was very pleasant.

We got to walk through China Town on our way, which was quite interesting. The smells from the restaurants were incredible! It was a shame we were having an Asian influenced dinner or we would have stopped and sampled some.

We actually ended up eating at a crepe place in the student union at the University. Since the crepe place at Northwestern is the best food you can get on campus I figured it was a fair test. Sadly (for me) Northwestern lost. The crepe I had was delicious! It was quite similar to Northwestern’s egg/ham/cheese crepe, but the ingredients were better and they added two mysterious sauces (one white and one red) that were delicious. Unfortunately I have no idea what they were, but they were exactly what the crepe needed.

After that we wandered through the student union on the Darlington campus (which is on the north side of Paramatta road). The Darlington campus isn’t very geographically separated from the main campus, but it is the Engineering and International student hang out. I would guess that 90% of the students I saw on that side were Asian! And the building had a bit of a high school vibe to it, with lockers in all the hallways and a large cafeteria space.

After lunch we went up to the International Office to see if I could get some study abroad brochures and/or chat with someone about their program. The girl behind the counter was very helpful (after my number was called -- it was a busy place!). She gave me some brochures and a map. She checked to see if one of their program coordinators was available to chat. He was out to lunch, so she suggested we go take a walk on the main campus and come back later in the afternoon.

After she asked what programs I was interested in she marked out a route for us on the map.

We crossed a bridge over the road and suddenly it felt like we were on a real college campus! There was a main pedestrian road through the middle of campus. They were getting ready for some sort of festival. I never figured out if it was a music festival or what, but there were huge boxcars placed along the path and people were busy decorating them with spray paint. It looked like it was going to be a good time.

We wandered to the quadrangle, one of the oldest and prettiest buildings on campus. I was startled to discover a little museum in one wing. It was a bit of an eclectic collection, with some Egyptian mummies and artifacts from Pompeii. There was also a display about the doctor whose name was in the title of the museum.

We cut through a lawn full of people playing in a tennis tournament. Their fans were very enthusiastic. We went past the medical building and I picked up a flier about their medical program. I was startled to discover that it is much more specific than American medical schools. From day one you choose your program (surgery, public health, general practice, research, etc.). American medical schools just teach general medicine and you specialize after you graduate, sometime during your internship and residency.

I’m not actually sure after graduating from Northwestern I’d be qualified for an Australian medical school because I won’t know anything practical, like basic anatomy!

After that we went back to the International Office and Danny Shepherd was kind enough to chat with me for about half an hour. He told me about the University of Sydney’s study abroad program, the campus, what life was like depending on whether you came over independently or as part of a third party program. The only fly in the ointment for me is that the Health Sciences campus is about an hour away from the main campus, which wouldn’t be terribly practical.

Danny happened to be from Auckland, and when he found out we’re flying to New Zealand tomorrow he was excited and gave us a few insider tips about things to do in Auckland. On the QT he also told me I should check out the University of Auckland for studying abroad...

Our feet were kind of tired and we wanted a chance to relax at the hotel before dinner so we caught a cab back to the Four Seasons.

Pamela met us in the lobby at 5:30 and we caught another cab to Tetsuya’s for dinner. The meal was wonderful! This is the place the concierge recommended in addition to our original list, and she was right! This is the best restaurant in Sydney. It was the home-run meal we’ve been waiting for all week. And it was lovely that Pamela was able to join us.

We gave Pamela a copy of Bill Bryson’s In A Sunburned Country (but in Australia it has been repackaged as Down Under) for her imminent cruise around Australia. I can’t wait to hear all about her trip!

I also experienced a landmark experience at dinner, although I didn’t realize it was one until long after I’d done it. Tonight was the first time I have ever ordered an alcoholic beverage for myself in any country. It was a 2009 albarino from Spain in case anyone is interested.

Dinner was just wonderful, and the company certainly couldn’t be beat. It has been a truly wonderful week in Sydney. Our excursions and activities were all wonderful, but I can honestly say that the highlights were meeting Pamela’s lovely family.

Speaking as someone from a very small family I have never understood the appeal of a large one until now. When we sat with Pamela’s family chatting and sharing a wonderful meal it felt like we’d known them forever because they were so warm and welcoming. We are so blessed to have met such a wonderful person as Pamela!

The only problem with the evening was that it was over too soon however and we had to wish Pamela good night and safe travels on her cruise.

Thankfully when we got back to our room our clean laundry was folded and waiting for us. We decided to pack in the morning and called it a night.

Tomorrow we head to New Zealand. I’m excited to see it, but I’m sad to leave Sydney!

Australia 2011: Day 8

Today dawned before the chickens. My alarm went off at 6:15am. The sun was up, but barely. In fact, it was so early that neither of us wanted to go downstairs for breakfast. We finally found the hot water heater in our room (it took us long enough) and made tea and coffee in the room.

We met Trevor down in the lobby at 7:00 and slid back into his Landrover to start our drive up to the Blue Mountains. There was a nasty accident on the high way, but it was in the lane coming into Sydney, so we were fine. Trevor had on a radio station so he could listen to the traffic updates, but as they were playing solely 80s music, I quite liked it.

The drive up to the Blue Mountains is fairly long, about 100 kilometers (2ish hours). We were going farther than that (about 170 kilometers) because our first stop was Jenolan Caves.

Trevor kept us very entertained on the drive up. We talked about different car brands/markets, wine, and several other tidbits here and there. Once we got into the foothills he had lots of neat history to share with us.

The forecast was for rain today. We were afraid even though the main purpose of our trip was not the actual Blue Mountains that we wouldn’t be able to see anything on the drive. But fortunately it never really started raining.

Trevor turned off the main road and took a few little back streets (very back street) to what he told us was the best view in the whole mountain range. The lookout point (off an utterly invisible turn out if you don’t know it’s there) was called “Flat Rock.” As expected the main feature of the lookout point was an incredibly large flat rock followed by an 800 foot plunge down to the valley floor. Did I mention there was no safety railing?

It was a little bit foggy and cloudy, but we stuck it out for a few minutes and the clouds rolled through, briefly opening up a very scenic vista. As we looked out at all the greenery on the forest floor Trevor told us that everything we could see was Eucalyptus trees. There are apparently over 180 different species of Eucalyptus trees within a 100 mile radius of Sydney. After some careful study I could differentiate at least four of them.

There are the ribbon bark variety, the string bark kind, the reallyreallyreally tall kind (Eucalyptus trees are also the second tallest tree species in the world, growing up to 200 feet), and another kind with more oak-like bark.

Trevor pointed out a pretty flowering tree, called Waratah, which is the state flower of New South Wales. The one we saw as only about to my knees and looked more like a bush, but they actually do grow to tree size.

Trevor also cavalierly grabbed a handful of a bush with thin green stalks (I’ve learned grabbing anything in Australia is a no-no). Since it didn’t appear to have bitten or stung him I accepted a handful when he held it out. It was called “Tea Tree,” and when crushed up it smelled a little like the best rosemary you’ve ever had. It’s often used in women’s facial creams.

And the sounds! There were so many distinct bird calls! I recognized a few of them from the Zoo yesterday, including a Whip (think whippoorwill but only one ‘whip’ comes out). And there were two king parrots with a nest underneath the overhang. If you closed your eyes (which I was to chicken to do that close to the edge) you could tell the valley was so alive.

After our scenic stop, we hopped back in the car, and raced the cloud through Leura (Pamela’s old stomping ground), toward the iconic feature of the Blue Mountains, the Three Sisters. We lost. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll be able to find a picture of them somewhere, and I’m sure they look just like that in person.

After our failed attempt to see the sisters we continued on to Jenolan Caves. Timing is fairly important when visiting the caves because there is a long access road that is only one lane. During different parts of the day it runs different directions, so you do not want to miss your window of opportunity.

Fortunately we were very early. Driving into the caves is very spectacular because you actually drive through an enormous natural arch. Dad observed that there were more interesting features in the parking lot here than at Mammoth Cave in the States...

We picked up our tickets at the little guide center and saw a 3D model of the cave (did I mention the model was built in 1923?). We had about half an hour to wander  around the access road and the charming little stream. A sign saying “Caution: Watch for Snakes” put a damper on our exploratory urges (I’ll remind readers Australia is home to 9 of the 10 most venomous snakes on the planet).

Our tour was through Orient Cave. They offer a wide variety of tours, through several different caves, and with varying levels of athleticism required. For the most extreme tour you’re issued overalls, protective gear, a headlamp, and you crawl your way through muddy parts of the cave, using just the light from your headlamp. Ours was a little bit easier than that...

To get to the cave they vet their patrons by making you walk up and down an outside path with lots of stairs. It was very cool though because about halfway up the path there was a rock wallaby chilling by the side of the path. Now I’ve seen really Australian wildlife on the hoof.

After the walk you arrive at a locked metal door. The entrance to Orient Cave had to be dynamited in, because the natural way in involves crawling though the bottom. However, when they dynamited the entrance in 1956 they blew it. Caves “breathe” in and out, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to explore them because they would be full of carbon dioxide from the crystal formation. Blowing a hole in the side of the cave changed the way the cave breathed. That in itself wasn’t exactly a problem, but there was a boiler room just beyond the opening, which belched black soot all day. The soot got sucked into the cave and quickly coated everything.

They had no choice but to close they cave and clean every inch of it. It took them ten years! They built an elaborate steam cleaning machine to do the job. Now there are a series of three airlock doors that you must pass through to get from the outside world into the cave. As it is, with all the dust and fibers brought in by visitors they still have to clean the cave fairly regularly, but they’ve figured out that you can just use a normal hose.

In the cave you are of course not allowed to touch anything because the oils from your fingers stop the crystal formation, and this cave was ALL about crystals.

Crystals form when limestone is dissolved by slightly acidic water. The water carries the dissolved minerals through it until it finds a small crack to drip through. When the water droplet falls a small number of mineral are left behind, which harden, and then the next drip follows, and so on and so forth. White crystals are very pure. Any colored crystals (in this cave they ranged from cream to orange to red) contain impurities (like iron).

To satisfy your curiosity about what the walls feel like the guide had a fist sized sample of crystal you could touch. It was very smooth. The cave is about 52 degrees Fahrenheit  all year, and today, the weather outside was also about 50 degrees, but because there’s no wind in the cave, it felt much warmer than outside! When we were at the caves in Tennessee earlier this summer the guide observed that the constant temperature equals air-conditioning in summer and heating in winter!

This cave walk seemed like it had done an excellent job of making it tourist friendly without destroying the cave. They had added walkways (with handrails) everywhere, which on first glance made you wonder how much crystal had to be removed. But when you stop to think about it the handrails confine you, and in many places there was chicken wire to keep you from touching anything, so I’m sure that by confining you they save more crystal than other caves.

This cave was spectacular. It was the Great Barrier Reef of caves. The formations were just beautiful. The reason the cave is called the Orient Cave is that it reminded its discoverer of the oriental lands. The chamber we entered first is known as Persia, the next deepest is Egypt, and the final chamber is India. There are formations in each chamber that (with an imagination) you can see being reminiscent of those places.

Persia was the larges cavern, with a stunning domed ceiling. There was an optional walk down into the bottom of the cavern, 33 meters below the high point in the domed ceiling. Down at the bottom is a formation (actual a cluster of formations) known as the Cabinet of Curiosities.

Everyone is familiar with stalactites (the ones hanging from the ceiling) and stalagmites (the ones on the ground). But in the Cabinet of Curiosities there were hundreds of helictites. These formations are squiggly little pieces of crystal that seem to defy gravity. They aren’t formed in the traditional manner of water dripping off of or onto a surface, but rather by the humidity of the cave causing water to be pulled into the rock, leaving crystal deposits at odd angles (microscopic crystals are rhomboid - rectangles that you leaned on - in stalactites and stalagmites they line up geometrically, in helictites they align randomly).

It was a really cool cave walk. It lasted about an hour and a half and there were 358 steps, not including the down and back trip to the cabinet of curiosities. I think Dad and I have now been spoiled for all other caves...

Once we resurfaced into daylight (let me assure you the sunglasses were the first thing to go back on when we got outside) we had a little more than half an hour to wait before the one way road changed direction and we could leave.

We grabbed a sandwich at the bistro at the hotel (you can come and stay at a hotel right on top of the caves and spend several days seeing all there is to see under the ground). It was pretty tasty. We quickly attracted a pair of very pretty king parrots. There are signs all over the place telling you not to feed the birds, but he was just so brave and inquisitive, hopping right up to us on the table... between you and me, he managed to wring a few crumbs from us. He gently took one right out of Dad’s hand!

Trevor collected us and we wound our way back up the snaky little access road, headed   back towards Featherdale Wildlife Park. We were here ten years ago, and it was definitely a hit. I was a little worried it wouldn’t be as good as I remembered, but it managed to one-up itself in the parking lot, because there was a greeter holding a joey in his arms! The little baby kangaroo was so soft! And adorable, did I mention adorable?

I am a sucker for anything small, cute, and furry, and Featherdale is an animal lover’s paradise. You are allowed to touch anything you can reach (and doesn’t look like it bites). But best of all there are kangaroos and wallabies hopping around everywhere! You can buy an ice-cream cone full of food for them and have at it.

The park wasn’t too crowded so it wasn’t hard to find a group of kangaroos not being monopolized (okay, only the big grey one is a kangaroo, the two smaller ones are wallabies). I offered a handful of food to the kangaroo and he very gently took my hand in his two paws to hold it still and nibbled at the offering.

I didn’t get a good count, but it seemed like they had a large number of fingers on each paw. I’m not 100% sure but I think he had six fingers on each paw, as it seemed many of the others did. I was surprised how agile his fingers were actually. They seemed almost opposable as he held on to my hand. Kangaroos also have pads on their paws, they’re small like a cat’s, but feel more rough like a dog’s.

When the kangaroo ate out of my hand it was more like a horse shnuffling grain in your palm. The wallabies, while still gentle, pecked at the grain more like a bird, and you could feel their teeth.

However, the grain was not the highlight as far as either the wallabies or the kangaroos were concerned. The desirable item was definitely the ice-cream cone. Isn’t it amazing how animals of all species seem to always prefer the least healthy offering?

There are designated areas for the animals to retreat to if they don’t want to deal with humans any more. There were a significant number of kangaroos in this area, but they didn’t exactly look stressed, in fact, given the amount of food available, I think that area should be labeled “Full Kangaroos” instead of “Animal Retreat.”

Dad and I saw something we’d never seen before. One of the kangaroos was lying on its side and there was a joey in its pouch!

The other really cool thing you can do at Featherdale is pet a Koala and have your picture taken with it. The Koala was much softer than I remember from our visit ten years ago. He (his name was Clive) also seemed more awake and interested in what was going on. I’ve heard Koalas have a bit of a mean streak, but this one seemed quite friendly and his handler told me I could put my head right next to him.

All the animals at Featherdale are Australian and we got to see lots of them! The giant furry-faced wombats were a highlight. I decided I’d rather have a wombat than a dog.

Dad also got to touch an echidna (there is only one correct direction to pet an echidna in!). We saw dingos, several species of wallabies, crocodiles, and several other marsupials, including an albino kangaroo.

Trevor picked us up for the last time and we managed to make it back to Sydney in a little less than 45 minutes. Trevor gave us the names of a few of his favorite Australian wineries to look out for. I’m not sure how many of them Dad will be able to find in the states, but you never know.

Trevor’s parting gift to us was a dinner recommendation. He said we should check out Fish at the Rocks, a 10 minute walk from our hotel. It was delicious! We had the sampler meal for two, so we got to try a little bit of everything.

My personal favorites, from the appetizers: the tempura rock shrimp with sweet chili dipping sauce and the vegetable salad it was sitting on. From the entrees: the beer battered whiting fillet and the home-made chips dipped in the curry sauce.

Today was an awesome day.

Australia 2011: Day 7

Today we went to the Taronga Zoo with Pamela. The best way to get there is to take a ferry so we met her on the wharf at 10:05 when she came in from Cabarita. Unfortunately we missed the 10:15 ferry and had to wait until 10:45, but it was a pleasant morning so it was no hardship to sit outside enjoying it.

The zoo is only about fifteen minutes away by ferry and is located on the side of a rather large hill. Pamela (who is afraid of heights) was very brave and bought us tickets to go to the top of the hill on the skyrail. The line to buy tickets was quite long, but that was okay because there was a window into the tank of a very inquisitive seal (located in a gift shop, funnily enough).

The seal was very interested in what everyone was doing (especially the little people right next to the glass). He was doing more people watching than we were doing seal watching!

I also took the opportunity to purchase a hat (because I left mine in Florida). How times have changed, this hat was the first thing I’ve purchased on this trip! Ten years ago I would already have acquired four or five animals. (I admit I did have to work rather hard to resist a stuffed Red Panda...)

The zoo has a beautiful view of Sydney. Dad couldn’t resist taking a photograph.

The skyrail was quite fun because you were above many of the animal enclosures and we got a sneak peak at some of the habitats and animals. Pamela was very brave about the whole thing and only flinched once!

Once we got to the top of the zoo Pamela let me chart our course. Since Dad and I don’t get to see Australian animals very often we started with the marsupials. There was a neat indoor exhibit where they’d turned all the lights off so you could see nocturnal marsupials like ring-tailed possums. Once your eyes got used to the dark some of them were quite easy to spot. There were a bunch of little tiny gliders running around one habitat, but their feet were stuck to the glass! I didn’t know anything other than a gecko could do that!

The coolest thing about Taronga Zoo are all of the walk-through habitats. There were lots of them scattered throughout the zoo, some had lots of birds, some had a mix of marsupials, birds, and lizards.

One of them had a Rock Wallaby in it. We didn’t see it right away, but as we were about to give up it moved, and it turned out it was only about two feet from my head! It was very unconcerned about the humans wandering through its exhibit and posed for pictures.

We also got to see a Grey Kangaroo and Emu (classic Australian animals). After that we saw the Tasmanian Devils, which I think are actually quite cute (when they’re not snarling). Pamela didn’t seem to agree.

Sadly, scientists fear Tasmanian Devils might become extinct in the next 25 years. For once this isn’t due to human involvement. There is a type of cancer which is very contagious between Tasmanian Devils (because they fight over food so often and bite one another). If scientists can’t come up with a cure for this cancer the wild population of Tasmanian Devils might disappear.

The one we saw in captivity didn’t seem worried about imminent extinction however. It was doing its best roadkill impersonation.

For lunch we stopped at Cafe Harbour View. Unsurprisingly it had a beautiful view of the harbour and city. Pamela was less than thrilled with her sandwich, but Dad and I actually quite liked our chicken caesar salads. The dressing was unusual, almost sweet. But mostly the view was nice.

After lunch we saw lemurs (Dad’s favorite), gorillas (there were 8 in the exhibit!), and the Asian elephants. Last year (and the year before that) a baby elephant was born. This year’s elephant was named the Malaysian word for “Watermelon.” While we were there the two little elephants were playing with each other. And then zoo keepers came in with lunch! They strung up large hay bales and the elephants started to munch contentedly.

We wandered through the Rainforest section of the park. We saw a member of the largest bear species on earth (Dad pictured with the real one, me with the mock version). We also saw some playful otters and a tapir going on a scavenger hunt to find all the treats left by staff in its enclosure.

By that point we were all getting tired so we decided to call it a day. Pamela’s only regret was that we didn’t get to see the monkeys. We saw a few white cheeked gibbons (fun fact: all white cheeked gibbons are born blond, after six months they all turn black, but six years later all the females turn blond again. Isn’t that wild?!). I think Pamela will just have to bring Karina to the zoo so she can work on her photography skills and Pamela can see the monkeys.

We waved goodbye to the seal at the gift shop (exit through retail!) and caught the ferry home.

Dad and I have a very early morning tomorrow so we’re canceling our dinner reservations at Est and are seriously considering going back to Chat Thai for dinner...