The Sydney Aquarium

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The news out of Thailand is still not good, but there is nothing we can do today about things as we can't contact anyone here(the weekend) or home (American Thanksgiving) so we our going to continue with the tourist thing.

The trains are still not running directly from our closest station, but this time we take a short bus ride to another station and are able to take the train directly from there. We are still figuring out their ticket system where you buy a ticket for a particular destination and then feed it through a scanner at your entry and exit points. They also sell us a family pass which means that there is just one ticket for Joshua and Benjamin. As a result, they seem to have to feed the ticket through and then both go through the turnstile at the same time - a quick feat to accomplish.

We walk from the station down to the aquarium, stopping for lunch en route. From the outside, the aquarium doesn't look like much as it is under some renovations. Having been to the Seattle aquarium, this one is going to have a lot to live up to but it is world renowned so we have high hopes.

One of the first exhibits that we see has a duck billed platypus. It is very active and quite fascinating to watch. One of the rivers that we had been close to in Texas has them in it, but Sonia said that they were very rarely seen (she had only seen it twice in ten years) so getting a close view is great though it is hard to get good photos due to the low light in the exhibit.

We move on to various tanks of blue penguins (in the day light this time, unlike our last New Zealand experience !), octapus, sea snakes, and coral fish. I was fascinated by the seahorses and leafy sea dragons which were huge compared to the few small ones I have seen in other aquariums. It was a bit like being introduced to the cast from the movie “Finding Nimo”. Next we on to the main attraction, the underwater tunnels.

The underwater tunnels are amazing. You are right near the surface inside giant tanks with sharks, rays, and sea turtles. The creatures glide past you inches away and right over head. Despite the fact that these tunnels go on through several rooms, there is congestion at the entrance as people come in and just stop, spellbound by what they are seeing. I have never been able to see a sharks teeth so clearly or the face of a ray as they glide effortlessly overhead. They pipe in a sort of slow eairy music into the tunnels making the whole show seem like some choreographed underwater ballet.

We moved though several more in the series of tunnels and you got to appreciate the huge variety in the types of sharks and rays, but I think some of the ancient sea turtles where the most amazing, especially knowing how long these creatures live.

I wasn't sure how good the aquarium would be after seeing the Seattle one, but it certainly lived up to its reputation and I feel the two compliment each other well, one with the creatures of the North Pacific, the other with the underwater world of the South Pacific and especially the great barrier reef.

We took the train and bus back to Chester Hill station and walked the few kilometers back to Bass Hill, tired but having had a great day.

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