Day 5 - Zoo

Today we started off with a lovely breakfast including the fabled Australian bacon - which is in fact very much like sliced ham. It's delicious. Then we caught a tram to the Melbourne Zoo, which is north of the city. We got there about 10am and stayed until after 3... it was by far the nicest, most wonderful zoo either of us has ever been to. The animals were all in great shape and clearly healthy and happy, which often isn't the case at zoos (the inhabitants of which we frequently find to be just depressing). The design of the place was also wonderful. It was full of vegetation, and the walkways were determined by lush, forest-y plantings that directed your course, rather than concrete barriers or walls. The whole thing was just great. Particular highlights included a walk-in kangaroo enclosure where you could go right up to the 'roos, and an incredible aviary that went on and on and contained tons of incredible birds. We spent about 45 minutes just in there and found it really difficult to leave.

Here are just a few photos, but I put a big album up on Facebook, which has better photo management capacity than this blog. Here's the link to the album.

A meerkat:

Jon and I each acquired a hop-on in the butterfly house. Here's his:

The amazing aviary:

A lovely tree fern:

Us and kangaroos:

Very nice giraffe/zebra enclosure:

Black-lipped cobra (behind very thick glass. The Taipan was next door):