23rd February 2011 - Sydney Harbour, Queen Mary & Queen Elizabeth

Today I traveled with Don on the train from Gordon to Circular Quay.
In fact, this was my first trip on a train in many years.

We had to change trains at Wynyard and go downstairs to
another platform to travel to Circular Quay.

We caught the Manly Ferry and traveled to Manly. Sydney Harbour
sparkled even though the sky looked a little bit threatening,
with its gray clouds. Fortunately, it didn't rain though.

We were lucky this day to travel as both the Queen Elizabeth and the

Queen Mary ships were in Sydney Harbour at the same time.

As we pulled out of Circular Quay, we passed the Queen Elizabeth

docked at Circular Quay. She looked stunning against the background

of the City and the Harbour Bridge.

As we moved out into the harbour we passed the beautiful Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Queen Mary had been docked in Garden Island and as wee headed towards Manly,

looking over to Garden Island we could make out the Queen Mary Funnel sticking

above the headland.

Moving forward we finally got to see this great ship in all it's glory.

As it was about to leave the harbour a tug was getting ready beside her.

Further along we passed Fort Denison

Looking back up the harbour we could see the splendor of the city and
the bridge behind us.

As we traveled up the harbour we noticed fishing vessels coming back

in from a nights fishing and yachts heading out for a sail.

When we arrived at Manly we took a walk to the beach on the ocean and relaxed,
sitting on the steps sharing the view with the seagulls.

We watched the surfers for a while and headed off to a pub to have a
beautiful counter lunch. After lunch we headed back to the wharf
to catch the ferry back to Sydney.

Unfortunately we had to wait as the Big ships were leaving the harbour.

Even the seagulls decided to wait with us.

She looked really imposing as she passed through the harbour...ferries

trailing behind order to stay back!

Finally we were able to get underway and could see the Queen Mary
making her way beyond Sydney Heads.

As we approached Sydney, it was a spectacular sight as the gray clouds
had been replaced by fluffy white ones.

As we passed the Opera House on our left and entered Circular Quay,
we noticed that another ship had already docked at the International
Passenger Terminal. It was the Alaskan ship Amazon.

The Opera House looked stunning as usual...built so long ago but never
looking old or out of date.

We traveled up the escalators, onto the platform and caught a train
back to Gordon.

All in all it was a most pleasant day with lots of great memories.
I know this is an activity I want to do often.

I enjoyed the ferry rides as much as the rest of the days activities.

9th February 2011 - A Trip to Taronga Zoo

Today I caught a train and ferry to the Sydney Taronga Zoo. It was a bit windy on the ferry but a nice trip.

As we left the city behind

We had a great view of the Opera House as we passed

and the Sydney Harbour Bridge as well.

There were a lot of tourist on the Ferry and I guess they had the same

idea as we did...going to the zoo.

Looking back, I caught sight of another ferry coming in to Circular Quay

We traveled from the ferry terminal to the zoo entrance in a chair lift.

In the same car was a Russian airline hostess who was in Sydney for the day.

The very first exhibit we saw was the elephants.

This is Tukta, the first female Asian elephant calf to be born at Taronga Zoo.

She was born 2^nd November 2010 so was only 3 months old here.

Tukta raced around putting on a display for us, playing with different

objects in her enclosure

After the elephants we saw the brown bear. He looked bored or lonely.

We decided to watch the bird show and this is the view sitting in the stands.

The first bird to come down was a Crane

Next was a Wedge Tail Eagle who waited up in the tree until the handler came.

Then she flew down and showed how she cracked Emu eggs with a rock.

Of course this wasn't a real Emu egg but there was still a treat inside for her.

The keepers hid a device that had recorded sounds of frogs. This owl flew in and

found it straight away, devouring the food that had been placed there for her.

Next to arrive was a giant Condor who flew in silently and gracefully.

On our way out we passed the Pelicans

and the seals, some swimming...

and some just basking in the sun

The Leopard Seals would not get out of the water but just kept bobbing up

every now and again.

All in all it was a pretty good day at one of the Worlds greatest zoos.