On Sunday we took the ferry down the Parramatta river (the "eel river", natively speaking) to Sydney. We had a nice breakfast down at the wharf, and then a refreshing 45-minute ride into the main harbor.
The city itself wraps around the harbor, much like San Francisco and its surrounding boroughs. It's quite a sight to see filled with sailboats, and for the best views of its iconic skyline I would suggest one of its relatively inexpensive ferry trips from Circular Quay (which, as Erin reflexively remindes me, is pronounced "key") to pretty much anywhere.
We were headed towards the Taronga Zoo, which was a second short ferry ride from Circular Quay. It was definitely the most impressive zoo I've been to, and reminds me of the quality of Binder Park Zoo with about four times as many exhibits. The zoo is arranged on a hill; we took the skyway car to the top, from where we could wind our way downwards past each of the park's enclosures.
They had a number of native Australian animals in a very satisfying un-fenced walk: kangaroos, wallabies (a smaller species of kangaroo), and emus. I am very proud to say that I got to pet a kangaroo! They are quite softer than I imagined, and born in captivity these were gentle creatures. I think the closest animal to match them to in the US is the deer: They're vegetarians, common everywhere, quite docile (though skittish in the wild), hunted for meat, and frequently run over by autos on the highway (as the many signs and the one corpse we passed the previous day warned us).
Koalas for some reason cost money to pet, so instead we only took pictures. They are cute animals, though if I had that sort of ear hair I might consider a trim. Also angling my buttocks away from the crotch of the tree when I have to poo, but that's just me.
We saw dingos, and took some pictures in case Nina wanted to see her very near cousins. The main difference seemed to be that her relatives were a bit less unruly. Sadly the promise of big daddy bones did not tempt them nearer to the fence.
The aviaries were full of interesting birds, and they had a very impressive lizard, amphibian, and snake exhibit. We saw gorillas (they doody where they sleep), lions (noble yet boring), and a hungry tiger that paced around the feeding doors of its pen much like our cat Mona does when she can't get to her food bag.
The tasmanian devils and red pandas were adorable! The meerkats seemed eager to meet us, and the sea lions were quite attentive and responsive when called to as they surfaced.
My personal favorite animal was the mountain goat. They had a tiny "mountain" (maybe 15 meters tall) that the animals could climb, and the ones on the ground were gentle enough to come and greet us at the fence (they have black tounges!).
We took the ferry back to Circular Quay- I mean "Key"- and had a nice dinner at a close-by pub. Towards the beginning of the day at the zoo we saw Ram and his family, and at the end met them again (Laura and Connie as well) on the 5pm ferry back to Paramatta, which we snagged as I was dragged away from the remnants of my fish and chips [Note: I ended up back here on my second sojourn around Sydney on a Sunday, because I couldn't find a single open sit-down restaurant in the shopping district]. I did not find a chance to visit the milk bar.
I'm eager to get back [Note: Hah!] to the city in June (Oracle willing) to do a bit more exploration, but this weekend has been well worth the whole trip.
The Voigtlander was the big star today for me, and sat on my camera for everything except for a couple of panorama photos and the shots with the Traveling Kangaroo. It performed adimrably, and 90mm was plenty long enough for zoo photos. The DA 21 came in handy for some city shots in Circular Quay- I don't normally use autofocus, but I set it in "snapshot mode" for some candid street shots (f8 in AV, AF-S).
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