Taronga Zoo : Animal Encounters with Family & Friends

In early February one of my best friends from high school arrived in Sydney from Denmark after spending most of January travelling the southern parts of Western Australia, Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. (You can check out their adventures on Dyrvings rejseblog).

We decided that our reunion would take place at Taronga Zoo as it has a spectacular view over the harbour, lots of animals and would be fun for the kids. A and her family arrived by ferry and took the Sky Safari up to the gates to meet us. A rush of emotion swept over me as I hugged her. At least 15 years have passed since we’ve been together and I can honestly say it felt like mere days as soon as we were together.

Our Taronga Zoo map outlined the path we should take around the zoo. We headed for the Koalas first and were excited to see one actually move (on all our other trips they have remained asleep). Our trek was slow. Our children have never met before and they were busy becoming familiar with each other.

Next up, the reptile house. Taronga Zoo has one very large Komodo Dragon that we were all mesmerised before. He was quite active and we stopped and watched him flicking his tongue for quite some time before moving through the exhibit. On exiting we found we were just in time to listen to the keepers reptile talk. This included a meet and greet with both a python and a blue tongue. What do they feel like? With out stretched fingers we were able to feel for ourselves.

With growling tummies we headed for lunch at the Taronga Food Market which had quite an assortment of options. This was perfect as it catered for all of our tastes (but was heavy on the wallet). You may like to think about packing a picnic to reduce the overall cost of the day. We sat inside to avoid the heat, finishing in time to watch the elephants before we walked up to my surprise.

When I first arrived at the zoo I booked both my own and A’s family a Giraffe encounter. Arriving at the enclosure at 1.45 pm each family had the opportunity to feed the giraffe’s carrots while the keeper answered our questions. Did you know the giraffe has no top teeth? This makes feeding them easy peasy with their extra long tongue wrapping around the carrot and pulling it from your hand before you even realise what they’re doing. Their head is also much bigger than you expect it to be when you get up and close.

By this time it was past 2.00 pm so we headed to the farm and Australian Wildlife area. The kids were very happy to explore the farm area especially the playground with water. We bought ice-creams and let them eat then play for over and hour before walking through the Australian Animal enclosures.

We had arrived at 10.30 am and spent a lot of time catching up rather than focusing on the map and plotting our trek around the zoo. Oh my gosh! We had skipped most of the western side of the zoo! With closing time looming there was no way we would fit it in. I think we will need to visit again later this year!

Want to visit? I highly recommend catching the ferry over from Circular Quay. Taronga Zoo has wonderful parking facilities which are reasonably priced if you would prefer. A family ticket for 4 costs $124.20. An annual pass $270.00. Taronga is open everyday of the year including Christmas Day from 9.30 am. Closing time varies from 4.30 – 5.00 pm depending on the time of year.