Sydney, Australia Day 3

I have no sense of directions so I relied heavily on Papa on where to go and how to get there. We decided today we should go to the Taronga Zoo when the weather was still nice and sunny. We headed out early in hope to catch the free shuttle bus to Circular Quay for the ferry that would take us to the zoo. However, we were 15 minutes early so we walked there instead. It was a long walk but we rewarded ourselves with donuts and hot chocolate at the café while waiting for the ferry.

It was a short ride and we reached the zoo in 20 minutes or so. We are edgy about boat rides because of the kids so we stayed inside, well protected, throughout the ride. When we reached the Taronga Zoo, we had to take a upslope walk to the cable car station. It was hard to walk that much even before we got to see any animals! Fortunately, we got distracted by huge spider webs along the way and a baby python on the pavement.

Near the entrance were two zookeepers with their animals, providing visitors a close encounter with their relatively benign creatures. Sophie was quite b rave to ask if she could touch the blue tongue lizard (I think so) and the python. I have seen this sort of thing on TV so many times, especially programmes like Hi-5, so I really wanted Sophie to have a feel of touching and learning about animals in the zoo. I did not want her just to touch and go, I wanted her to have the opportunity to ask questions and get the zookeepers to talk about their animals. And she did. I was happy.

We made a stop at the Parents' Room and we were so delighted! The room was gigantic with at least 3 nursing rooms, diaper changing areas that could accomodate at least 6 babies, washing area with hot water and microwave oven. I love the nursing room because they provide a toy feature for toddlers in case mothers need to bring both toddler and baby into the nursing room. Instead of coming out to change diapers after a feed, you can use the changing table inside the nursing room as well. it was very clean and no unbearable smell whatsover. There was another play cum waiting area for kids with TV and toys. We thought we could spend the entire day in there.

To be honest, we did not really see many animals in the zoo. We missed the shows and we walked very slowly. Then Sophie was tired, Alfee fell asleep so we covered only a small part of the zoo. It did not help that the sun set early and the ferry left by evening. However, we did have great fun. I was not sure why. Maybe it was cooling and nice to walk around in the zoo without the crowd.

I think the Singapore Zoo is comparable in terms of size and variety of animals, but somehow our child friendly facilities are not always friendly to children and we have never met any zookeepers who candidly share about their animals. To me, educating kids and people on animals is far more important than showing off the standard of the place. I am sorry but I do not see the benefit of water play features in a zoo. The funds should be used on public education and animal welfare.

Sophie was quite fixated to a sculpture and other kids as well apparently. I took the opportunity to explain to her how alike we were to animals. But I doubt she bothered. She just wanted to ride on it and run around with the other kids. I guess it was alright since everyone there was quite nice and they did not play rough.

We could not bypass the gift shop but fortunately, Sophie was not in her "Please can I buy this?" mood. In fact, we were able to walk through with minimal fuss. However, we did have some fun with the Koala just before we left. I was amazed at how silly Papa and Sophie could be... if they wanted to. The rest of the journey back was peaceful and forgetable. We were tired from the walking and pretty hungry for dinner as well.

We headed back just time for to cook porridge. The kids were still tired but they would never rest. They watched TV and played around for a while before going to bed finally.

Here are some pictures from Sophie's camera...