The long journey home began with a flight back to Sydney where we would spend one full day. The weather had gotten quite a bit cooler during the two weeks we had spent traveling around the country, and rain was threatening, but we decided to chance it and visit the widely acclaimed Taronga Zoo.
We boarded a ferry at Circular Quay along with about 200 other zoo-goers. Since the zoo is built on a steep hill, the recommended plan is to board a ropeway across from the ferry dock, ride it to the top of the hill, and wander down past the exhibits. We were at the end of the queue, and after waiting for about 15 minutes, there was an announcement that the ropeway would have to suspend operations because lightening had been sighted. Confusion ensued. Some people began walking off on various paths, and others were herded towards a bus that promised to take them to another zoo entrance further up the hill. We briefly thought about taking the bus, but there seemed to be a lot of little kids amping up to throw tantrums (or tantis, as they are called down under), so we joined the walkers and finally entered the zoo at an entrance near a maze of pools that are home to the seals and other marine creatures.
Then we wandered on to the Sumatran Tiger exhibit. The zoo controls the number of people entering the exhibit by admiting them periodically into a room which is decorated to resemble a plane. An image of a man portraying an Indonesian park ranger is projected on the wall, and as he delivers a spiel about protecting tigers and the environment videos of the Sumatran countryside are projected on the "plane windows".
Four tigers live here - a male, a female, and two adorable cubs. We happened to arrive at feeding time. The tigers were all placed in various enclosures so the keepers could enter their cage and place huge hunks of meat around. During this process, the male tiger was placed in an elevated cage designed to look like an old hanger.
I ended up squashed against the glass so I had a great view of the mother and two cubs enjoying their meal when they were returned to their enclosure. One of the cubs was trying to take some meat from the other, who was not into sharing.
We also saw an entertaining and informative bird show.
A ramp led up and around the koala enclosure so that people can easily view the animals as they sit in the trees. Once again, it happened to be feeding time, so they were surprisingly active.
After watching the lemurs for awhile, we boarded the ropeway for a trip down to the ferry dock.
After we returned to Circular Quay, we had a couple of hours to kill while we waited for the lights of Vivid Sydney to illuminate the night. As the sky darkened, the temperature dropped rapidly so we popped into a bar to enjoy our last Australian happy hour.
When the lights finally came on, we were not disappointed.
The ever-changing projections on the opera house were particularly impressive.
Vivid Sydney was a delightful way to end our Australian adventure.
