New Year's Day 2014

We had another very fun day in Sydney.  We spent the entire day on a trip to the Tangora Zoo and just getting there is worth the trip.  The ferry ride is only about 15 minutes but you get great views of Sydney, the High Bridge, and the Opera House.

The Lady Herron ferry that we rode on:

The High Bridge, from which they shot off the main fireworks show last night:

The famous Opera House:

Six lovely ladies on the ferry with the wind in their hair:

The Tangora Zoo is built on a hill over-looking the harbor and in addition to having a wonderful collection of animals in a top-rate facility it also has very nice views of the harbor as you're walking through the zoo.  When we landed on the other side of harbor we took a short bus ride to the upper level entrance so we could work our way downhill through the zoo.

They had a "Koala Encounter" that you had to pay extra for where you were able to get very close to a koala and its baby.  A photographer took pictures of us and we got to take close-up pictures of the koala.  Although the animal is iconic of Australia, its numbers are declining dramatically because of loss of habitat and disease.  One of the biggest disease problems they have is a sexually transmittable disease (which also occurs in humans) called chlamydia which renders the females infertile.  When we were in Noosa we were told that in Queensland they have a law that if a koala has been rendered infertile by chlamydia then they are required by law to euthanize the animal.  I asked a worker why that would make any sense and his response was, "That's Queensland; there are a lot of crazy things they do in Queensland."  Now there are only 3 koalas in all of Noosa National Park and a few years ago there used to be hundreds.  The zookeeper at Tangora said it costs them more to care for the koalas than it does any other animal because they only eat eucalyptus leaves and the zoo has to harvest leaves for them from trees on land the zoo maintains specifically for the koalas.

Here is a picture of a koala and her six month old infant laying on her lap.

Here are some pictures of Hannah and Kaylee at the zoo.

We went to a seal show that was pretty impressive.

Saw a tiger:

And mountain goats:

And giraffes with the Sydney skyline in the background across the harbor.

I'm not sure what we're going to do tomorrow.   Its supposed to be about 90 degrees, considerably hotter than its been up to now, and we may go to a beach or we may go to an aquarium.