Tauranga Zoo and Sydney Aquarium

A couple of days of wildlife in Sydney. Yesterday we went to the Tauranga Zoo on the north shore of Sydney Harbour. We walked down to the harbour and took the zoo ferry across to the zoo, taking in the beautiful sights of the city along the way. We float past the Harbour Bridge on the left and the Sydney Opera House on the right. What a view for the ride!
The zoo is set up on a large hill, so you take a bus or a gondola to the top, then work your way down.  We started by going through the Australian section; kangaroos, emus and tons of birds all around you on the path.  These animals are not behind bars, they are just a few feet away from you as you walk by.  The nocturnal area has bats, possums, kangaroo rats and other night time critters in specially lite glassed in areas.  Of course the more dangerous animals are properly set behind glass or in cages.  This included cassuary, a creature we missed seeing on our driving tour of the north, its home area. What a piece of strange and exotic work! This thing is crazy weird! (See large bird with blue head below).  The rest of the zoo included Tasmanion devils, lions, snow leapord, seal show, crocodiles and, of course, penguins.  You name it, they had it!  What a great day!
Today we went to the Aquarium, another amazing animal adventure.  There were a lot of tanks containing smaller fish, starfish, sea horses, jellyfish, platypus (very cool) and even some shark eggs lite from behind so you could see the tiny embryos moving around.  Then you go down ramps into the various large aquariums located in the harbour.  You walk through glass tubes at the bottom so the fish swim by and over top.  The first one stars rays and the dugongs (or sea cow) - very cool!  Then on to the shark aquarium with sand sharks, reef sharks, nurse sharks and huge rays!  The whole thing was mesmerizing and, in a strange way, peaceful.