TL;DR – Arrival, Opera House, Taronga Zoo via ferry, Sealife Aquarium, and fried chicken to end a long first day in Sydney.

Disclosure – I paid for my entry and everything you see purchased in this article.

Exploring Sydney  –

Well, it has been a while since I jumped into the world of an Explore-It, and now is as good a time as any to explore a trip I took a bit ago to the most populous city in Australia [for the time being] Sydney

While I know people get used to it, I still can’t help but get a kick out of watching the scenery pass by the window as we fly above the clouds. When you look around the world, things are not great on the whole, but I am still kind of glad I live during an era where I can peer upon the landscape.

The first thing you do once you arrive in the CBD is, of course, make a pilgrimage to the sails on the harbour. Look, there is a reason the Sydney Opera House is one of the wonders of the world; it is stunning from a distance, and even better up close. From a distance, it is the grand silhouette on the foreshore, but when you get close, you can see all the different tiles that go together like a modern architectural mosaic. It didn’t hurt that it was an absolutely beautiful day for it.   

However, my trip to Circular Quay was not just to visit the Opera, for the first time, I was taking the jaunt across the bay to visit the Taronga Park Zoo. I have to admit, the trip across the harbour was a real delight, because even the captain of the boat who takes the route every day was surprised to see a submarine in full pomp and circumstance popping out onto the harbour.

I have visited Taronga Park Zoo once before at the turn of the millennium, so it was interesting to see what had changed and what was still the same. But the one thing I forgot was that it might have the best view of the harbour as well.

I did spend hours walking through the many enclosures and watching the animals. I especially liked the aviary that you could walk into, watching all the colourful birds flutter around.

Though I will say that the big sealion at the end absolutely knew what he was doing when they posed on the rock and waited for everyone to pull out their cameras before taking the foulest dump in the water I have seen, I don’t know how the filters got all that out.

The trip back took us up close and personal with the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and it was a kick to see all its structure underneath.

While I didn’t plan this, the return boat dropped us out in front of the Sydney Sealife Aquarium, and I thought I might as well put it into my zoo day. Come to think about it, I think they planned it that way. I will say that the first entry into the aquarium is a bit rough, but once you get deeper into the sprawling complex, it is a real delight. I was here, where I discovered that I had met Australia’s only dugong in captivity before, back when it was a pup. Also, watching penguins slip down an ice flow was a delight.    

After a long day of walking around, I hit up K-Town for some fried chicken and then immediately crashed for the night.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

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Credits – All images and content have been created by the author unless stated otherwise