Taronga Zoo

Taronga Zoo, Australia's most famous zoo, was amazing! The kids and I ventured to the zoo on Friday while Ben was in conference meetings. We left Manly Wharf about 12:45pm and then hopped on the zoo ferry and started our tour of this awesome facility. It sits on the hillside on the north end of the harbor, overlooking the entire city. A bus or cable car (we took the bus - couldn't imagine taking 3 kids and a stroller on a cable car!) takes you to the top of the hill upon exiting the ferry and at the top of the hill you begin your journey. As you walk through the zoo you catch amazing views of the city peeking through the trees or through fantastic open areas. It's truly a site to behold, seeing all these beautiful wild animals while soaking in spectacular views of the harbor and city.

On our way to the ferry...

Cute koalas! There were 2 asleep high in the trees. (tilt your head to the right:)

Beauty peeking through the trees.

The komodo dragon was HUGE!

Say "cheese" with the big, scary python! MaeMae didn't want to get close to it, can you tell?

One of the many scary lizards.

This is one of the first views of the city we saw as we began the zoo tour.

The giraffes were up close and personal and had an amazing view of the city themselves. :)

We were able to catch the tail-end of the sea lion show. The sea lions did a few cute tricks and the kids enjoyed watching them. Until...

Yes, that's right! We witnessed the sea lion attacking the boy. We had just sat down and saw the boy at the front with the sea lion. He was invited up to pet and feed the sea lion and after he was done, the paper states he tried to follow the animal off the stage but what I saw (and another couple) was a little different. The boy pet the animal on the head when the animal instructor told him to pet him on the stomach. He did this a couple times and that's when the animal got upset and lunged at him. The sea lion reportedly bit the boy in the stomach. We saw this whole thing unravel and it was like a scene out of a movie. The sea lion fell off the stand he was on as he was lunging for the boy. The sea lion then started running back and forth, trying to get back into the tank. Meanwhile, the crowd on the front rows was clearing out as fast as they could. Oddly enough the rest of the audience seemed quite calm, I guess we were all shocked that this was even happening. The instructor finally got the animal calm and into the holding area. It was such a freak accident and I still can't believe we witnessed this whole thing. Thankfully, the boy is reported to be doing well.

These mountain goats have the best seat in the house!

The pygmy hippo...so cute!

Taking a break.

"Which animals do I like the best?", thinks Caroline...

Mary Katherine in front of the elephants.

Australian pelicans, like in Finding Nemo. :)

My what big ears you have, Calvin!

My what big ears you have too, Mary Katherine!

Yes we took every advantage of the photo ops.

Sheep...they sure make warm boots!

Of course, we saw kangaroos...although we did miss the "Wild Australia" exhibit. We were at the zoo at least 3 1/2 hours and still didn't get to see everything.