Taronga Zoo-- Visit #2

The sun shone for the first time in over a week today. It was so refreshing!  I had a quick appointment this morning and then we decided to go to the zoo to celebrate the sun.  We headed for the ferry dock at Circular Quay and bought our tickets for the zoo and ferry.  While we were waiting for our boat, we saw this boat coming into the harbor. It was quite a sight!  Not sure if it is a fishing vessel or what, but it was really cool and Coop was amazed.

Once on the ferry, we settled into our seats for the short 10-15 minute ride to the zoo.  From the window of the ferry we were able to see our apartment building.  The tall, black building below is ours!

We arrived at the zoo and took the bus up the hill to the entrance.  We headed in a different direction this time. Last time we saw all the usual animals- elephants, giraffes, birds, reptiles etc. This time we went through the Australian Wildlife section. It was wonderful! We spent about 3 hours in this area alone.  We saw kangaroos, wallabies, wombats (my favorite), tasmanian devils and this time, we even saw a platypus.  One of the funniest looking creatures there is! Apparently when the first specimen was sent to England to be studied, the scientist there thought that it was a practical joke and someone had sewn together 3 different animals and sent it along. They are pretty shy so we didn't get a very good look at it, but we did get a glimpse or two.  We also discovered the kid's zoo and farm. 

kangaroos basking in the sun- they were happy to see sun too!

a tree kangaroo

Victoria Crown Pigeon

Wombat- they sleep on their backs!

 In the children's area there was a zookeeper giving a talk. Coop got to pet a snake and a ring-tailed possum that was rescued from it's mother's pouch after she died and hand-raised by one of the keepers.  The speaker told the kids to hold up two fingers for petting. Coop took that direction very seriously and held up his two fingers waiting patiently for his turn.

Coop and a pelican

Coop with the penguins of the world display

As I said before it was a gorgeous day. Here are a few photos of the view.

After a long day at the zoo, Tucker fell asleep on the bus hugging his new wombat friend and Cooper held his new dingo tightly and showed him the sights on the way home.