Oh, Nothing Much: Boxing Day at the Zoo

This was my first Boxing Day. I’ve never been in a country that celebrates it for the Holidays. Not that any of us really knew what one does to celebrate Boxing Day, so we figured we’d use it to address the biggest gaping hole in our experience as tourists in Australia– we visited the Taronga Zoo. Luckily, while it was still a little rainy, this time we did not get rained out.

It is much touted, and for good reason. It’s located on the other side of the harbor from Sydney and the principle way to get there is via ferry; so it already feels like you’re being whisked away to a special place.

The set-up is also kind of cool. The zoo is built on a hill and they've used that hill in the zoo's design. Once you disembark from your ferry ride at the base of the hill, you queue up for a Sky Safari that takes you to the top. Right away you get a great view of Sydney and an overview of the entire zoo to get you excited. When you land again, you’re psyched to start your journey back down while wandering through the beautiful animal habitats.

Here are glimpses of the rest of the zoo:

There was one rather comical moment caught on video. By this point, I had become pretty big fan of wombats. They’re just sooo cute! And they had a very cute little guy here at the zoo. I found him particularly adorable because he was scratching an itch and cuddling or playing with a log. Or so I thought. Greg pointed out too late that our little wombat friend might have been scratching a different kind of itch.

Hmmm. Still not sure.

It really is a beautiful zoo. The kangaroo and wallaby habitat is cool in that visitors can walk through it and be near the animals. However, we did see one idiotic visitor taunt a kangaroo to the point that it stood up on its haunches to its full height. For a second, he looked like he was contemplating punching that offending visitor. Luckily, nothing bad happened, but I once little part of my brain thins it would have been kind of satisfying to see that kangaroo get a kick in -- like in a cartoon. Lesson: don’t be a douche bag when dealing with animals.

A little Wallaby, exhausted by a day of performing to the crowds.

The koalas were ridiculously cute of course. The red panda and giraffes were also really adorable, and the bird show is really very cool.

Red Panda

Not sure who is cuter

Awkward, perhaps, but definitely endearing

At 5 we found ourselves deserted in the zoo. We hadn’t heard any announcements regarding closing time, we just looked up at one point and found ourselves alone in the place, as if everyone else had received a memo but us. It was VERY eerie. We hightailed it back to the ferry. Luckily, there was still one there.

At the end, it was just us and the peacocks walking around. Kind of surreal.

We could not let our day end on this creepy note. Plus, after walking around all day, we were pretty hungry, so once we got back to Sydney, Mark treated us to a Peking Duck dinner in
Chinatown.

As it turned out, the girls were going out dancing out that evening. If we’d gone home first, we’d never have made it back out again, so the three of us joined them in our gross state and all. Vanity shouldn’t get in the way of a good time . . . but maybe, it should get a little more consideration next time.