Bryan’s Australian Birthday

This morning we woke at 5AM. Not too bad for the first morning waking up in a new time zone. We took it easy for a bit and then went down as soon as the kitchen opened at 7:30 for breakfast.  

It was buffet style, and some of the items, like the chia pudding, were helpfully labeled as “DF” (dairy free). I decided to give the pudding a try. I’ve read recipes for it online and wondered what it would be like. I gave it the “three bite rule” but it was certainly not to my liking. I can’t describe the flavors, except to say they were mild without being pleasing. The texture was gelatinous in a disconcerting way. Fortunately, we each found other things to fill our tummies. 

Bryan had decided we should go to the zoo as his birthday excursion. So right after breakfast we headed down to catch a water taxi across the bay to Taronga Zoo. 

It was a beautiful morning and it felt wonderful to be moving along the water at such a clip after hoofing it all day yesterday. 

We enjoyed the trip over, and noticed what an active waterway it was, with lots of boats out on the water already just after 9AM. 

Next we got on a little cable car to ride up the hill to the zoo entrance. With views over the bay as well as into exhibits, this was a really fun way to start our visit to the zoo. We had already seen the elephants and giraffes before ever buying our tickets! 

After getting out of the cable car we went in search of a coffee shop because I had decided that hot chocolate would be just the thing. It was. 

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for flowers, though there haven’t been many with it being the winter season here. This little flower caught my eye because of the blue tips on the petals. It didn’t even look real, but it was. 

Pretty much everything here has been completely cashless. Not only that, but contactless pay has been the preference at most places. I can do Apple Pay this way on my phone, but don’t have a card yet that I can tap to pay, so we might get me one before the next time we travel. 

I got Bryan an “It’s my Birthday!” button and he was a good sport and wore it the whole time we were at the zoo. 

Before we knew it, we were watching koalas dozing. Throughout the zoo we were impressed with the number of animals they had in each exhibit. The koala habitat had four koalas, for example. The spider monkeys had nearly twenty. And there were plenty of kangaroos later on. 

The reptile room was far larger than I expected and had many snakes, lizards, and so forth. 

The weather was pleasant and we had a lovely morning roaming the zoo, spotting the animals in the various exhibits. 

We took the customary selfie with the giraffes as we would at our zoo at home. They had this section built so that it was very open and you were on the same level with the animals. Very cool. 

We got to see lots of Australian animals. For one thing, there were many kangaroos, in two different areas. 

I snapped pictures as they lounged in the Saturday morning sun. 

Occasional birthday wishes were shared with Bryan from family members savvy to the time/date difference. 

We also saw echidna, Tanzanian devil, capybaras, rock wallaby and all manner of birds in the various aviaries. 

We chose to split a burrito for lunch, and it was delicious. Flavored rice, chicken and a few beans. 

Just what we needed to fuel the rest of our zoological trek. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the zoo’s design, built in tiers on the slope up from the bay. There were plenty of animals to look at and enjoy, and then suddenly you would emerge from an exhibit and look out and see the bay with the opera house in the distance, reminding you where you were. 

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. 
When we had seen all of the zoo, and were feeling like we could use a rest, we got back on a water taxi and headed across the water. On our walk back to the hotel we found some tasty gelato to enjoy. Mine was almond/coconut flavor and tasted like almond roca.  

The treat having perked us up a good deal, we decided to go in search of some board game stores and see if they had anything we hadn’t seen yet in our game stores at home. We found two game stores and browsed their board and card games, but didn’t find anything we needed. 
So we headed back to the hotel where I gratefully took a nap.