Australia: Taronga zoo

This was our first day in Sydney.  We arrived at night in Manly, a sea side suburb, and had a little look around the area before heading to Taronga Zoo for the afternoon.

This is how pretty much every day start in Manly: a walk along the promenade (3 of us) and promenade wall (1 of us).  It's a mile or sofrom the apartment to the centre, and anything to help keep Marisca moving is a good thing!  Manly is nice, definitely a good spot for exploring Sydney while staying out of the city.

So, we went to the zoo.  There were a couple of koalas!

Round the corner were the crocodiles.  We spent a good minute or two trying to point out to Marisca the crocodile hiding at the back of the enclosure amongst the greenery.  At which point she said "but Daddy, there's one just here".  And there was, right in front of us.  Silly us.

Chameleon.  Love a chameleon.

Marisca and Tom had both been looking forward to seeing the giraffes/raffs, and I was looking forward to the well-planned photo opportunity of the tall animals in front of the tall skyscrapers across the harbour.  I'm sure that with more patience and/or fewer children I'd have managed a slightly better one but here's some Giraffe's + opera house:

And a giraffe + harbour bridge:

And just a baby giraffe.

The monkeys and chimps and such were good, sure, but we are spoiled by visits to Twycross.  Here are some younger chimpanzees in classic sleeping cuddle poses.  Tom in particular should recognise these from his sleeping on the plane home!

Marisca on a baby hippo.

Elephants - another Marisca photo and one she loved going back to. I think because it portrays an elephant's bottom.  

Tiger.

Mountain goat!  We enjoyed watching these, with a good rocky mountain set up.  Two had a good fight with the whole jumping-down-a-mountain-on-top-of-you thing, which was pretty impressive watching.

All in all, it was a good place to go and both children really enjoyed watching the animals.  A cable car back up to the top rounded off the day before driving back to Manly and enjoying fish and chips for tea.