Taronga Park Zoo Visit May 2010

Well it has been a while since the last post and I have been a bit slack on this front. This could be attributed to some busy times we've had.

One of the best parts of Sydney with magnificent views is home too many animals. Many people would be envious of their residence. Yes, we're talking about Taronga Park Zoo the first public zoo in New South Wales. We wanted to go there to check out Pathi Han aka "Mr Shuffles".

Getting to the zoo you have many options but this all depends on the circumstances and where you live. If you are close by a ferry wharf, you can get there by ferry via Circular Quay. By train also you alight at Circular Quay to catch the ferry over. Buses are available in the CBD from Wynyard on Carrington St. But on this day, we traveled by car.

It was a lovely day as we packed a picnic lunch and the kids and off we went over to Mosman. The zoo has upgraded its car park since I was last there and it looks the mint. No fuss getting in and we're off to the first enclosure to look at the sleeping koalas followed by the reptiles.

The kids raced off down the path to the giraffe pen to see the tall magnificent animals. We were conscious of the time as we wanted the kids to see the seal show featuring "Mitchy" the seal. The kids love him especial Mitch himself. We made our way over to the seal enclosure and were greeted by staff saying that the seal auditorium is being renovated and that we needed to go down and around to another spot for the seal show. After maneuvering the pram and the kids through the crowds who also wanted to see the seal show we managed to find the place and set ourselves up near the seal podium to check them out. It wasn't much of a show more like an information session.



The one thing I haven't see at Taronga Park Zoo before was the flight show featuring the birds of the zoo. We headed over to the bird auditorium and we got a really good spot. The kids we getting hungry so we cracked out some fruit and snacks for them to munch on before lunch. The birds on display were awesome from the egg cracking eagle, the insect finding owl, black cockatoos, to this massive Andean Condor.

After the brilliant bird show we set up camp for a picnic at a top spot that had magnificent views of Sydney Harbour featuring the iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Lots of young families had the same idea as well. Sandwiches all round with nice icy cold poppers soaking up the rays, it was enough to send some to sleep on this beautiful day.

The kids had been barking on that they wanted to see Mr Shuffles the newest elephant that was born at the zoo. So we packed up and made our way over to the elephant enclosure. There we saw a majority of the elephants out playing. The kids thought they saw Mr Shuffles first off however, I pointed out to them that it was Luk Chai, he was the first elephant to be born at the zoo. However, it wasn't until we spotted the mischievous Pathi Han "Mr Shuffles" bashing away at a red plastic tub. The kids loved it, all you can hear were ooo's and aaaa's....

As the kids were fabulous all day they were treated with a calipso each. One of the last stops of the day was the gorilla enclosure before we made our way back to the car park. It was the right call as Mitch fell asleep in the pram on the walk back to the main entrance. A fun day had by all.