Taronga Zoo

 

The girls in the Kangaroo Walkabout 

(note the large marsupial in the background)

an echidna

Wallabies are cuter than Kangaroos (in my opinion!)

A buck (male) kangaroo aka a "boomer" or "old man"

A lady roo is called a doe or flyer

The babies, of course are joeys!

a super sleepy koala 

(they sleep 20 hours a day!)

A superior view of the Asian elephants

On Christmas Eve day we accessed Taronga Zoo by ferry, and upon arrival we zoomed over the top of the zoo in a cable car to arrive at the main entrance (waving as we went over to the giant Asian elephants and the orang utans perched high in the tree tops.)

The zoo was amazing, especially since it featured many Aussie animals: dingoes, wombats, Tasmanian devils, the curious platypus, spiny echidnas and of course koalas, kangaroos and wallabies. Since many of these animals are nocturnal, we only caught glimpses of them snoozing in their grottos. The bouncy kangaroos and wallabies, though, were wide-awake and were free to roam the same walkabout we roamed (think of the goat enclosure at the Children's Zoo @ Brookfield, where one might find one's self scouting the ground to avoid stepping Nubian dropping, only in this case we were on the lookout for roo poo!)

 Another highlight of the Taronga Zoo is it's fabulous position along the Harbor. Its incredibly green and with the opportunity to peek out and see not only the blue harbor water, but also the not-so-distant Circular Cay with it famous landmarks--the Opera House, Sydney Harbor Bridge and the turn-of-the century Rocks area, it was easy to remember where we were: Australia, Luv!