Taronga Zoo - Sydney, Australia

We kicked off our last full day in Sydney with a visit to Taronga.  By now, we had seen lots of kangaroos, koalas (who can have enough?), emus, etc... However, Taronga gave us a glimpse at some of the creatures we weren't lucky enough to see in the wild such as the wombat.  The wombat at Taronga was quite the poser.  Even the volunteers at the zoo were enjoying watching him put on a bit of a show for us. We also were able to catch a view of the echidna (no pictures) and some other unique creatures.

Taronga is a beautiful zoo.  My husband said it wasn't his favorite, but I liked that it was so spread out and there were some beautiful views of the city.  The one part of the zoo that I gladly skipped was the reptile area.  My husband wasn't going to go in because he has a fear of snakes as much if not more than I do, but he went.  I wouldn't even look at the pictures he took in there and it seemed like he was in the exhibit forever.  Apparently, it is quite large which is understandable considering the size and popularity of the reptile population in Australia.

To get to Taronga, we took the direct ferry from Circular Quay and then the bus up to the zoo.  We purchased a combination ticket for the ferry and zoo which saved a few dollars.  Entrance into the zoo is pretty expensive,  but it is worth it.  It does include a ride on the sky rail as well.  The sky ride had just been refurbished that week which is why we waited until our last day, but it still wasn't open that morning.  However, we did get to ride the sky rail back down to the pier and it was worth it for the views.

The zoo does tend to get busier throughout the day, so, starting our morning off there was a smart choice for us.  However, we did have to backtrack a bit because some of the exhibits didn't open at the same time as the zoo.  Getting there early did allow us to miss some of the large school groups we saw as we finished up our visit.  

Overall, I think we spent about four hours exploring Taronga and having lunch.  There were good options for a quick bite to eat with a food court of sorts that had three or four different options for lunch.  We opted for the rotisserie chicken place.  It was quite reasonable for the amount of food we received and it was pretty tasty. The sandwich bar looked quite good as well.  We saw plenty of people with packed lunches too as I have a feeling a lot of locals have memberships to the zoo which would be the smart thing to do.  We could have easily spent more time here if we watched some of the shows, but there was still much to see and do around Sydney.