Keeping with our animal explorations, we're at the Taronga Zoo today (www.taronga.org.au). Big shout out to Jo Gilbert over at OgilyAction here in Sydney for hooking me up with some tickets for the day! They have a great set-up here, with many of the animals not really in cages, but sort of open. Not the dangerous animals of course, but many others. It's also a great location, across the way from Sydney and up on a hill. Some of the best views of Sydney are supposed to be from here.
We started in the Australian Wildlife area and got to see more kangaroos & wallabies. They were really in the open, so they could walk right up to you. They were busy eating so they weren't really all that interested in us, except for the ice cream that Sydney was eating!
They also have a good exhibit for kids that's set up to look like a house and a yard. Lots of good information for kids about the environment, recycling and taking care of the planet. They did it with a lot of fun exhibits that Sydney really wanted to explore, so I'd say it was a successful installation.
We saw a presentation about spiders that was pretty cool. I have arachnophobia, so I'm not always the best as these demos. Especially when they brought out the Sydney funnel spider, the deadliest spider in the world. It was much bigger then the spiders I'm used to seeing. Cocktail party fun -- turns out that spiders breath through their bottom. If they fall into a pool, they can't get out, however, the hair around it's butt captures air and they can actually stay under water for up to three days with their own air supply.
While we were looking at the snow leopard exhibit, Sydney was reading about how they've become endangered. She asked why people hunt them so much and I talked about how there were just too many people on the planet and we're using all of the resources. So she asked why we don't do something to limit the number of people on the planet. Surely brings up some interesting questions, that kid of mine.
Being an ex-theme park worker at Disney, I'm always amazed when I visit attractions like this and they close all of the gift shops down before the park closes. Don't they realize that people would spend more money if they were able to shop on their way out after they've seen everything? Guests hate to have to decide if they should see one more exhibit or go shopping. I bet they'd find the extra revenue would offset the additional costs and deliver a better guest experience.
After spending the day at the zoo, we relaxed a little before heading into the the area called the Rock to look for a place to eat. Food has been the one real challenge for me as Sydney's just a little picky. And after 5 days of eating McDonald's, Hungry Jack (their Burger King) and oatmeal we brought from home, I'm starting to lose my mind. So we stopped at a place called Zia Pina for pizza. We walked past it earlier in the week and there was a line out the door then too, so we figured it must be good. Or cheap. And it was both. And Sydney ate, so that was a bonus.
Heading home and we're both exhausted from a long day and lots of walking! Back tomorrow for lots more adventures! When I get home and back to having internet access, I'll get some pictures posted of our day.
Thanks again to the folks at Mindz (http://www.mindz.com/) for making it possible for me to bring Sydney with me on this great trip!
Sent wirelessly from Nokia 9500 & T-Mobile
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