Saturday.
We got up early again and went down to the ferry wharves. Today was our harbour cruise day! We bought a combo ticket for the harbour cruise and Taronga Zoo, and had breakfast at Rossini right on the wharf. Two jam doughnuts as big as our heads, half a pig’s worth of bacon, enough eggs to make a cardiologist faint, and copious amounts of toast.
The ferry headed out just as the morning mist was clearing and we got some interesting photos of the city and harbour (stay tuned for the flickr galleries to follow when we get home). First stop was Fort Denison, a little outpost in the middle of the harbour. Then on to Taronga Zoo, where we alighted and took a cable car up to the top.
Taronga Zoo was great: we saw all the Australian animals of course (plenty of pictures of roos, wombats, etc), and we also saw the wild bird show which was cool. A bird of prey (I can’t remember which one) flew right at my head as part of the show – I hadn’t noticed that one of the trainers was standing right behind me at the back. We had our photos taken with a koala (not holding it, just close; it was up a small tree – apparently handling koalas is illegal in NSW and Queensland) and we also saw a seal show. I also took what turned out to be a great picture of a wild rainbow lorikeet that was sitting in a tree above me.
I must also mention Taronga Zoo’s icon which I think is excellent: it looks quite like an Xbox controller actually (although it is really a stylised platypus)!
Of course the zoo also afforded great views over the harbour to the south.
But more of that was to come as we left the zoo and caught the ferry again to Watson’s Bay, out at the edge of Sydney harbour. I could have stayed there all day at The Gap watching the Pacific Ocean crash against the rocks. We caught the last ferry of the day back to the city centre and enjoyed the sunset behind the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the ferry.
After wandering around The Rocks a bit, we ate at City Extra back on the wharves, and caught a train back to the hotel.