Jess woke up before the alarm, showered and started getting ready. Jer got up with the alarm and got breakfast ready - tea and yogurt for both of us, with OJ and orange-poppyseed muffins for Jess and kimchee ramen cup (which was okay but not great) for Jer. We had a busy day planned, so we had to get up and get going.
On our way to Circular Quay, we stopped in a food court for a supplemental breakfast. We split a big brekky (fried eggs, English bacon, fried mushrooms, fried tomatoes, toast and tea), then continued on to Wharf 6 to meet our walking tour group. Our guide, Adrian, told us about Australia's history and the building of Sydney as we walked along. We saw Circular Quay, the part of Sydney Harbour where the Europeans came ashore (and still a transit hub). This was the birthplace of Sydney, which (incidentally) was supposed to be called Albion, but which ended up as Sydney as a result of some 18th c. brown-nosing (Lord Sydney being the patron of the city's first governor). We then walked through the Rocks, the city's old town. While it is now beautiful and historic, it was originally pretty rough and tumble. The houses were small and built into the cliffs that gave the area its name. Conditions were primitive; sewage ran through the houses from top to bottom, making the penthouse particularly desirable. Also, the colony had too few women - at one point, a boatload was brought over, the "floating brothel". After leaving the Rocks, we walked through the beautiful Royal Botanic Gardens - there were hundreds of roses in bloom, not to mention between 5,000 and 20,000 grey-headed flying foxes (the largest of the fruit bats) in the trees. Just past the north end of the gardens lies the iconic Sydney Opera House. Adrian told us about the delays and missteps of its construction, which left it far more impressive outside than in (since it doesn't have world-class acoustics and ballerinas would smack into the curved walls without someone in the wings to catch them).
We had planned to climb the Harbour Bridge pylon to see the city views, but we decided that would leave us too little time at Taronga Zoo. We took the ferry across since the zoo is on the north side of the harbor. Along the way, we got great views of the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and Fort Fort Denison. (Adrian had told us about the fort, a tiny island in the middle of the harbor where unruly convicts were once sent as punishment, it was later fortified and was fired on only once, by American warships that mistook it for a Japanese submarine during WWII. Oops.) We turned the ferry into a lunch cruise, having bought a tuna sandwich and a greek salad from a shop on the pier, though with it being only a 12 minute ride, it wasn't a leisurely meal.
Taronga Zoo is said to be among the most beautiful in the world, terraced into a hillside above the harbor with views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Additionally, it has a very comprehensive display of Australian animals, and pretty good representation for Asian and African ones as well. We started in the Great Southern Ocean area, with leopard seals, fur seals, sea lions, and both Fiordland and fairy penguins. We then made our way to the zoo's highlight, Wild Australia, which had a great variety of native fauna. We saw several echidnas, which undulate when they walk; we even got to pet one, Rudy, as he ate his lunch. In one walk-through area, we got to pet an emu before watching red kangaroos and various types of wallabies (including agiles and swampies). In another walk-through area, we looked for a platypus (but didn't see it, they're hard to spot) but saw a cute little rock wallaby perched above our heads instead. In the Nocturnal House, we watched Jer's bilby snuffled around, and we also saw a bunch of different kinds of gliders (Jer liked the tiny feathertail best), a sleeping Tasmanian devil and swooping ghost bats. Back outside, we visited the wombats (both common and hairy-nosed), Jer saw his much-loved ducks (particularly Australian shelducks and plumed-whistling ducks). In one of the aviaries, Jess was buzzed by a cheeky scaly-breasted lorikeet! We also saw a tree kangaroo munching some tasty branches, a prowling fishing cat checking a stream for fish, short-clawed otters swimming around and then having their dinner, and a red panda climbing around its enclosure (which is a bit rare - they sleep a lot). We also made a brief stop in the zoo's shop to purchase a stuffed bilby, which Jer named Priscilla.
The zoo closed at 5pm, and we made our way to the wharf for the 5:30 ferry back to downtown sydney. After alighting, we walked back to the Opera House for our 6pm dinner at Guillaume at Bennelong. The food was very good (especially Jess's scallops with cauliflower puree, mushrooms and sauteed greens, and Jer's creme brulee trio - the vanilla and coffee were quite good, but the pistachio was even better), and definitely enhanced by the views of Harbour Bridge and Circular Quay. It was quite funny to see the images of sports players projected onto the bridge's stone pylons.
It started to rain at the end of dinner, so we walked back to the hotel through the drizzle. We stopped to get more yogurts, then dropped them off in our room and went next door to the Sydney Tower. We were too late for the last OzTrek (a video tour of Australian history in a theater with moving chairs), but we went up to the top of the tower to get a look at Sydney by night. The security guards were very amused when Jess opened her bag as requested, only to find Priscilla and Cardiff. From the glass-walled Observation Deck, saw the Opera House's sails peeking out between the skyscrapers, the exuberant Star City casino flashing in Darling Harbour, and got a sense of the huge size of the city's gardens, dark spaces amid the twinkling lights. The storm also gave us quite a show, with lightning flashing and thunder booming.
Eventually, we headed back to our room for some warming chamomile tea. Jer looked at pictures while Jess wrote in this journal. Soon, though, it was time for bed, as we had a big day planned for tomorrow.