We took the kids to Sydney Wildlife World at Darling Harbour. Before Susanne did the research and told me about it, I had no idea it existed. It's next door to the aquarium, which I imagine most people, like myself, have heard of. It's a small-ish (when compared to your typical zoo) collection of exhibits showcasing a variety of animals, generally in glassed cabinets, which allows you to get quite close to a lot of the animals.
They have a climate controlled habitat for butterflies, which is what Elissa was most excited about seeing. Fortunately, this was one of the first exhibits we went past. Taking pictures through the thick glass in what was generally quite dim lighting was a little tricky, although a handful of the shots aren't entirely horrible. Manual focus is one of the things you really miss using a compact camera instead of an SLR.
This is everyone looking at what is nominally the deadliest snake on the planet. I'm led to believe it's actually pretty tricky to measure these things accurately, nevertheless, I'm pretty glad the glass there was doing it's job.We (as in Australia) have got (again, depending on how it's measured) the most venomous snake, most venomous spider (the funnel web, which was also on display) and one of few venemous mammals, the humble platypus. Of course, the honey bee (a European import) kills far more people annually than all of those combined..
I took this picture of Isaac as I thought it looked like he was taking a picture himself. Of course, the reality is he was just having a drink while the goannas wrestled. While he enjoyed it, I think his favorite thing was just running flat out through all the corridors and doorways.Later that night we asked Elissa what her favourite thing was, her response was "Going through the plastic doors!". The plastic doors were just the standard large plastic crash doors you get in all sorts of industrial and medical environments..
We had lunch upstairs in an area where there were koalas sleeping in the trees. Neither of the kids were particularly interested in the koalas. Of the half dozen or so that were easily visible, only one could be properly described as conscious, and even then was only glancing around once in a while.
At this point, Isaac wanted to hide in the foliage, and Elissa was more interested in lunch. This area also overlooked a kangaroo and wallaby enclosure, which we walked through later, and which was a little more engaging for the both of them.
All in all, we spent the best part of a couple of hours looking at the various exhibits. Elissa got more out of the displays than Isaac, but on the whole it was still a worthwhile trip. Not quite as hands-on as Featherdale, but then, that was just the nature of a lot of the animals. We'll have to head back to Featherdale sometime soon. The last time we visited there was when Elissa was about the age Isaac is now, and she enjoyed it a lot.
Just before we left, Elissa wanted to play on the touch screens, with which she was right at home. Susanne chased Isaac around for 5 minutes while I tried to convince Elissa that the 10 or so terminals all had the same movies and games on them, and that she didn't have to try every one of them. Any TV sets in the vicinity of our kids, and within arms reach, are bound to have a plentiful supply of fingerprints. And quite possibly mouth/tongue prints, depending on Isaac's mood.
