Koala Land
Trip Start
May 22, 2005
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91
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Trip End
Jan 22, 2006
Sydney,
Australia
Wednesday, December 7, 2005
Sydney is a harbour city much like Vancouver. However, in our humble opinion, our beautiful corner of the world has Sydney down for the count. Still the Australian capital is very picturesque in its own right.
We spent a few days visiting the sights in and around Sydney. We walked down to Darling Harbour which is a very touristy area with a promenade, Imax theatre, convention centre and museums. Having been away from traditional "western" tourist attractions for so long it was kind of disappointing to be among so many plump sneaker-wearing western tourists again. On the way back from Darling Harbour we happened upon a market that sold kangaroo skins. Of course Paul couldn't resist putting the skin over his head to pretend to be a kangaroo. The shop keeper flashed him a stern glance. Paul thought, "How could you buy without trying it on?"
We also made it out to Bondi Beach famous for its surfing. We enjoyed our afternoon in the sun. One of the creepier sights we saw was the tour we took of the windowless Freemasons' headquarters which was near our hotel in downtown Sydney. The displays we saw and the information booklets we were given were all purposefully vague-they all danced around the purpose of the secret society. At the end we were convinced and signed up. Just kidding. Of course we took in the famous Sydney Harbour. We visited the Sydney Opera House, walked across the Syndey Harbour Bridge, and took the requisite night harbour cruise.
On our last day in Sydney we wanted to make sure we were able to see a koala. We found an ad for Koala Park which had scheduled koala petting times. However, the park was far out in the suburbs. We couldn't miss this opportunity so we woke up early and rushed out to the 'burbs to pet some koalas. We got there just in time for the last petting session of the day. Koalas spend 19 hours of the day sleeping and the other hours eating eucalyptus leaves. We had the privilege of petting some very drowsy looking koalas. Watching these gentle marsupials sleeping gives you a whole new appreciation for sleep! They drape themselves in every such manner on the branches of eucalyptus trees in order to catch their zzzzs. They are the picture of contentment. At Koala Park we also got a chance to get close to the other indigenous animals of Australia. We saw fairy penguins, red kangaroos, grey kangaroos, wombats, dingos, echidnas (spiky anteaters), a strange white furry chicken creature, kookaburras, which are unfairly referred to as the laughing jackass, emus and cassowaries. We even got a chance to pet the red and grey kangaroos, though Paul was a little nervous about getting kicked in the head like in the cartoons. With our mission accomplished we rushed back to our hotel to catch our flight to Cairns on the Gold Coast.
