Sydney, Australia and the Taronga Zoo

Sydney Opera House!
(photo by Yansa)

Riçk and I took the ferry from the City over to the Taronga Zoo on the north shore of Sydney Harbour... we got some great views of Sydney and the Opera House. 

Sydney Opera House!
(photo by Yansa)

The front of the Opera House is simply amazing. This picture really doesn't do justice to it.

Sydney City, and the Opera House.
(photo by Yansa)

Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. :)
(photo by Yansa)

Black swan, at the Taronga Zoo north of Sydney.
(photo by Yansa)

This is one of the aforementioned black swans... true, it is a grainy picture of a black swan, but it's the only picture I had (at least until I visit Ashland).  

Wattle!
(photo by Yansa)

Wattle is the Australian national plant. It is protected by law.

From the road, it looks similar to Oregon's scotchbroom... but it's different. For one thing, its flowers are 100% pollen (gesundheit!)

Kangaroo!
(photo by Yansa)

This was the first kangaroo I saw in Australia. (OK, that's not true -- two seconds before this, I saw two kangaroos having sex, but I decided not to capture that on film. :b ) 

Kangaroo!
(photo by Yansa)

Echidna.
(photo by Yansa)

This is an echidna -- it's facing us, but we can't see its face. It has a pointy little nose/mouth thing, with which it eats ants. 

Quokka... on a sign.
(photo by Yansa)

I made three attempts to get a picture of the quokka, but in the end I gave up and took a picture of the quokka sign ;)  

Emu!
(photo by Yansa)

Emu is pronounced "EE-myoo" in Australia.

A non-smiley wombat.
(photo by Yansa)

The wombat crossing sign was lying! ;) 

Tasmanian devil.
(photo by Yansa)

This little guy was zipping all over his space in the zoo. When I pressed the button, he was facing me, but he'd already decided to take off running.

Imagine a small dog with red ears and a weasel-like face. Now imagine that it has a pouch. You're imagining the Tasmanian Devil, which is a marsupial dog. The pouch was a big thing in Australian evolution. A few hundred thousand years ago, there was even a marsupial lion (!) in Australia.

Real Tasmanian Devils look about as much like the cartoon as Bugs Bunny looks like a real duck. ;)

Yansa, and a view of Sydney from the Taronga Zoo.
(photo by Riçk)

There are some great views of Sydney from the Taronga Zoo. 

Another view of Sydney from the Taronga Zoo.
(photo by Yansa)

Note the Sydney Harbour Bridge on the right side.