Day 4 - Featherdale Zoo and North Sydney Beach

We started out today at Featherdale Wildlife Park. I will have to admit that when we were in the States and Julia suggested this over Taronga Zoo I was a little worried. Taronga is in EVERY book about Sydney in the Top 10 places to see. Julia suggested Featherdale b/c it is only Aussie animals as opposed to Taronga which is like a normal zoo – zebras, giraffes, elephants, etc. Also, she said Taronga Zoo is great if you have a whole day, but when time is limited Featherdale is great! HERE IS MY POINT (yes I have one) if you are going to Sydney and are on a time schedule Featherdale was amazing! The animals weren’t really in cages so you could walk right up to them (except for the dangerous ones like tazmanian devils, wombats, and crocs – of course). We got to feed kangaroos, pet koalas, and see the most beautiful birds. The park attendants were very friendly and one even climbed into a cage for us to get a blue tongued lizard so we could see it up close (that picture is for you Ellen!)

In the afternoon, we met up with the rest of the family (Julia took Mitchell out of school and Peter knocked off early) to drive down to the Northern Beaches from Mona Vale to Palm Beach. I can’t even name all the beaches and lookouts we went too – Peter and Julia really went out of their way to show us these amazing views. I know we wouldn’t have been able to see all this without their hospitality – and it was such a beautiful drive. The one cool think that Australia does that I think other places should do are the pools –they have built “pools” on the side of the beach that fill up with ocean water during high tide (there is a drain as well so the water is always being recycled). This is cool b/c you can swim “in the ocean” and not have to worry about being taken out to sea – the water is pretty rough and they told us there are a lot of rip tides. You also don’t have to worry about the sharks! After some time at Palm Beach, we went back to Mona Vale and got fish n chips at their favorite place and took it to a park near Pat’s place (Peter’s mum). We had a relaxing dinner then the boys played some ball and we had a last walk on the beach. What a fantastic day!