Taronga Zoo

I have been having hot chocolate, porridge and banana bread every morning. I think the hot chocolate looks really pretty.

Mike had his first day of the Openstack convention today. I headed out on my own. I was planning on going to the aquarium, but when I went outside it wasn't raining. I changed my mind and went to the zoo. I wanted to take a picture of the cool Australian money, so I slyly took it out on the bus. I'll have to get a picture of the $5 one later, cause that one is pretty cool.

I took a train and a ferry to get to the zoo. I decided to sign up for the koala encounter. They wouldn't let me tough the koala though.

Koala in a tree & Stephanie

I walked around this cool little area where the animals were just roaming around. I liked that a lot.

I've always liked flower clocks.

It started raining hard while I was in the platypus area. I found shelter near a closed restaurant. I talked with a couple from Washington. It reminded me of Georgia rain. Super hard and fast, but doesn't last long.

 I had to take a picture of this! Oh no Skye! Watch out for scorpions!

 How cool to go on a camping field trip to the zoo?

 You can see Sydney Harbor from the zoo.

I tried to take a still picture while the video was going, it didn't work out. I'm annoyed with myself about that.

Porge would be happy.

 They had a whole bunch of little tanks filled with frogs.

 Stuffed kangaroo

 Stephanie trying to take a selfie.

I did the Wild Ropes course they had at the zoo. It is similar to the ones we did at Stone Mountain and Great Wolf Lodge, except a ton scarier. There are four courses and I could go on two of them. The lady said people usually go on the lower on, then the higher one. I asked if I could go on the higher one on both. She shrugged and said, "Why not?" I was the only one on the ropes course at the moment. Thunder probably scared everyone away. It had stopped raining and thundering when I went though. Holy cow, this rope course was crazy! I was high above the animals, which was super cool. It was really hard to keep my balance. One time I had to hold a rope and jump to the different round wood ladder things. Jump the entire way across. There was a section that was like stepping on swings. They had these bird cutouts on a rope for you to step on, but then keeping your balance on them was super hard. I can't remember all the different things. I know there was a tunnel to crawl through. So fun! There is a spot where you can step on a button and it will take your picture. I found the camera, let go, held my hands in the air and pressed the button. I wasn't sure if the picture took, so I did it about five more times. With my toe, with my heal, etc. I really wanted that picture to work out because I was so high and you could see Sydney Harbor behind me. Turns out neither of my pictures were taken. I must have done the button wrong. The last thing on the course is a zip line. The high course was scary, but a lot of fun. Mike would have hated it. There was a guy at the bottom to help me get on the next course. He wouldn't let me go on the other high one, he said it was one low and one high. Boo. The low one wasn't nearly as scary, still scarier than the other rope courses I have done though. On the plus side, it was easier to see the animals on this course.

I took the tram down the hill, the ferry to Circular Quay, then the train back to our hotel. I was able to rest for about ten minutes before it was time to meet Mike at his work. They were having an opening mixer that I was able to go to. Mostly it was alcohol. We did find a flimsy foosball table. It was weird. Everything felt backwards. I don't know if they assembled it wrong, or if foosball is backwards in Australia. They drive on the wrong side of the road, and they walk on the wrong side of the path. I was running up the stairs hoping to catch the train when I about ran into someone. I was on the wrong side of the stairs. It is easy to tell when there are a lot of people, but when no one is around I can't remember which way it should be. Anyway, we didn't stay long at the social, but I did see these two kangaroo costumed men that would jump around.

That's about it for today. Mike is working on his presentation and I am blogging. Hopefully I can sleep tonight. I was up at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep. Luckily I had a book to read. As a result, I'm pretty tired right now.