Although we had arrived back in Sydney the day before, it was somehow already our last full day in the city. We left the house that morning at 8:30am, then slowly made our way to Taronga Zoo, which was nearly two hours away. We took the train out, then transferred onto a bus at Wynyard, before finally arriving at the zoo entrance around 10:30am.

The zoo was bigger than I expected, but we made good time getting to all the major exhibits inside and seeing animals native to the continent, like the kangaroo, wallaby, Tasmanian devil, quokka, platypus and of course the koala. I booked a koala encounter for 12:25pm, which required me to download the zoo app and log in five days prior to secure my ticket. It was a bit tedious, but at least it guaranteed our reservation and I didn’t need to arrive right at opening time for a chance to buy same day tickets. 

The koala encounter was super cute, although she was asleep on her branch the entire time. We were lucky we had a private session, so we got to take as many photos as we wanted with her. 

As the encounter ran late, we stopped for lunch right after at their cafeteria. We got an order of their fish and chips and stir fry noodles to share. After lunch we continued seeing the rest of the exhibits including the pygmy hippos and penguins. I loved how some of the areas were quite interactive, especially the farm playground and the forest adventure, where you can even go tree-trekking like a lemur. 

By the time we got through the majority of the zoo, we were already on the other side, so we opted to take the ferry back into the city. It was a short ride to Circular Quay, then we spent the afternoon browsing on George St and Chinatown before we headed back. Dinner was at Rangsit Noodles for Thai food in Cabramatta, then I stopped by the Woolworth Supermarket to stock up on last minute souvenirs before heading back home to pack. My highlight of the day was the koala encounter, so it was great being able to check off one of my top to-do items for my trip down under.