OFF TO THE ZOO

Another beautiful day – we decided to head off to Tauranga Zoo which we accessed by a 15 minute ferry from Circular Quay. Nice to see Sydney from the water – since it was Saturday the bay was full of beautiful sail boats . Once you arrive at the island you take a tram to the top of the zoo – built on a large hill and start walking. It was fun to see the native animals. The koala bear looks exactly like the teddy bears we have at home. They look so cuddly you just want to pick them up. The kangaroos  were  exactly as we expected – but it was hot and they weren’t too active. We also saw Tasmanian devils, meekrats, emus, penquins and all the usual zoo animals we would see at home. I got brave and went into the reptile part which for Australia involved many kinds of huge snakes. I’m glad it wasn’t feeding time!!!!We later moved from the B&B in The Rocks to our first hostel in  central Sydney. We were glad to see an elderly couple on the elevator with us – we didn’t want to be the only old fogies in the hostel!! I took a walk around the area – we are actually in Chinatown and I went to a huge market – part of it was Asian vegetables – very interesting.Tomorrow – Sunday the Mc Caigs arrive and we have 2 days together before we leave on our big adventure.One of the attached pics is taken in the oldest pub in Sydney – Hero of Waterloo. The story is that during the early 1800’s sailors would come off their ships to drink. Once  they started to get drunk the bar owner fed them more FREE booze to get them really loaded. When they passed out a shute opened and they were dumped into the basement where they were put in a wheelbarrow and carried through a tunnel to a waiting slave ship. They woke up to find themselves captive at sea. Fun story!! On to more adventures tomorrow.