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Published: November 16th 2010
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November 12, 2010
Since we were moving over to a hotel in Surry Hills the next day, we decided to spend our last day at the Four Points Sheraton in our “backyard,” at Darling Harbour. The area specifically referred to as Darling Harbour was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1988. It’s kind of like a South Street Seaport or Navy Pier area where festivals and cultural events are held - lost of restaurants, bars, and fun things to do. We bought a three way pass (good for three months) to the Sydney Aquarium, Wildlife Adventures, and the Sydney Tower. Intrigued by the sign outside of Wildlife Adventures, “See One of the World’s Largest Crocodiles,” we headed there first. When we walked in we were immediately greeted by a Walking Stick. Pregnant Sara is a lot braver than Young Sara, and the animal trainer let the Walking Stick crawl up my arm. They are very fuzzy and soft to the touch.
Wildlife Adventures was full of interesting creatures from Yellow-Footed Rock Wallabies, to Hairy-Nosed Wombats to the world's most dangerous bird, the Cassowary.. . . but my top three faves were the crocodile, kangaroos, and koala
bears. The crocodile was proceeded by a window of baby crocs hatching. I could have watched this window for hours as I was convinced that these babies were fake. It seemed like their actions were on a timer - one baby would open and close it’s mouth every ten seconds, another would peek in and out of it’s shell, others would look around - all of it seemed very mechanical. I was only convinced otherwise due to a few who you could actually see breathing.
The crocodile was indeed as huge as they advertised. I’m telling you the teeth on this thing were ridiculous (ridiculously scary!). As I watched him, I was more convinced that the babies were real because even his movements were very mechanical. Of course, all I could think of was, “No wonder Captain Hook was so terrified of the crocodile!” (Thanks Mom and Dad - I will forever be relating experiences in my life to childhood stories and characters.)
After the crocodile we were off to the Koala Sanctuary . . . which is where I fell in love! They alone are worth a trip to Australia. I remember having a stuffed Koala growing
up. I didn’t give it much love due to my obsession with the Panda Bear. Clearly, I had never seen either animal up close before - the Koalas are so much more lovable in person. There were about six of them hanging out on the trees sleeping. They sleep most of the day due to their low energy diet. All of them were males; the trainer explained that when the females are mixed with them they become violent.
Some of the most interesting facts I learned about Koalas:
They aren’t really bears. They are marsupials, which means they give birth to premature babies who then continue to develop in their mother’s pouch (just like possums and kangaroos).
When they are born they eat their mother’s feces because they can’t digest regular food. They need the bacteria in their moms’ feces in order to properly digest. Yum.
When we arrived there was a couple in with the animal trainer taking pictures and petting the Koalas. Of course, I insisted on doing this too - for $16.95 we could get pics and one-on-one time with the Koalas. This was the highlight of the trip for me (so far).
Their fur is so incredibly thick and soft. I only wish we could have had more time with them.
And we were off . . . to see the Red Kangaroos. These animals, on the other hand, are not adorable. To be honest, they don’t seem a whole lot different than deer . . . or maybe zebras (in the zoo) are a better comparison. They just kind of sit around (with their balls hanging out). Once again, all of them were males. Wildlife Adventures actually have female Koalas, but just don’t let them out at the same time as the males. With the kangaroos, they won’t even keep females on the premises because if the males simply smell them they will start fighting one another. I was hoping to see some hopping around, but the trainer informed us that you have to be there in the early morning to see that. As it gets hotter during the day, they lie around more and more to conserve their energy.
Interesting note: A male kangaroo is called a buck, or sometimes even "boomer" or an "old man". A female kangaroo is called a doe or a flyer. A baby
kangaroo is called a joey.
We finished the day with a taxi ride over to the Northern side of Sydney. The taxi driver questioned us - “Why do you want to go over there? There’s nothing over there.” We insisted, so he dropped us off in Kirribilli, where we grabbed some Thai food, our most affordable lunch yet! In case I haven’t mentioned it, Australia is extremely expensive right now due to the dollar being equal. Everything over here is priced at least $2.00-$5.00 higher. For instance, a bottle of water is minimum $3.00. Where lunch in NYC would normally cost us $25-$30, it’s been almost doubled here. Ridiculous.
From Kirribilli we ferried home (we are kind of obsessed with taking ferries) and called it a night . . .
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