Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo was nice; its location is quite magnificent. It has to be one of the best locations for a zoo in the world. Located on the north shore of the harbour, it’s only a short 15 minute ferry ride from Circular Quay. Too bad the zoo’s inhabitants can’t appreciate the great views of the city, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Once one disembarks from the ferry, there are two ways to get to the entrance of the zoo (which is at the top of a hill); catch a bus to the top or take the sky safari cable car (we chose the latter). Given the zoo’s hillside location, its layout has many twists and turns, we wound our way through most of the animal exhibits but were most interested in the indigenous animals (wallabies, kangaroos, koalas, emus, platypus, and crocodiles). Taronga Zoo offers what they call “Animal Encounters”; we opted for a koala encounter. Our koala encounter meant we could have our photo taken near a Koala. Much to Liz’s dismay, we were not allowed to pat the cute creatures (they’re very shy & nervous).