VIVID Sydney #7 - Sealife - finale

 The last blog for Sydney, I promise!

Another glorious mid-winter day in Sydney, our last day.

  

Today we took the hop-on-off bus and hopped off at the Chinese Gardens.  We saw those last time we were in Sydney, but today we were going to Paddy Market.  

I forgot to take any photos there, but we both had a leather belt made while we waited  - beautiful and only $18 each!  You pick a plain leather strip, a design to put on it if you want, then pick a buckle and she makes in about 5 minutes.  She even had those big american style buckles with steer heads and motorbike emblems, but we were fairly sedate.  I chose wine and Ian chose black.

You could buy anything there I reckon.  It took up a whole city block, all undercover and included vegetables.  We also bought travel sunhats each that you can fold and pack that pop out again, and they do! We always have trouble getting hats that fit (Ian has a big head and I have a small one), but these have a clever adjustment inside - never seen any like that before.

The we went outside and across the street is chinatown with lots of ethnic asian restaurants - we chose vietnamese.   Here is the tab, what do you think we had?

Ian had bbq chicken with tomato rice while I had spicy prawn noodles; the red bowls are dipping sauces.

After lunch we took a taxi back to Darling Harbour (Barangaroo) and went to the sealife aquarium.  We have been here before but it is a fabulous place and worth seeing again.  These photos are just small taste of what it's like.  It is right on the harbour and underneath.

We never saw any of these mermaids, but they had signs up inside about the dugongs.

Here at the start are little blue penguins.  We see these a lot in the sea around NZ.  Did you know NZ has the most species of penguin in the world?

 Just one of the many starfish.  I thought this looked sort of gloopy, stuck to the glass and trundling along.

A sea anemone.  This was huge and such a gorgeous turquoise colour.

A tiny seahorse, about 80mm long.  They are on the endangered list.  SO cute, just hanging about, flapping his tiny wings.

I loved this display with various fish swimming in and out of an enormous whale spine and ribs.

Just looking when along came this weird fish, half walking, half swimming.   I think it was called a lungfish but don't quote me on that.

An old diver helmet.  Can you imagine wearing something that must have been so heavy?

A crayfish.  It must be really old as just it's body is about half a metre long.  It's buddy is a bit shy and is hiding under the rock.  It was about the same size too.

Isn't she lovely?  A ship figurehead.

Now we are topside again and above the big pool.  In it are sharks, rays, and other fish.

Here is a ray at the side of the pool.   You can see on the left part of the glass tunnel we will soon go in so we can see the fish better.  Up top there is too much reflection to see what is happening.  Soooo down we go....

Da dum, da dum

This is safest place to be with sharks.

A ray.  They are so pretty and swim like they are doing ballet.

another shark, and below, some of the other fish in with the sharks and rays.

Another ray.  You can see how big by the person's hand on the window.

Imagine cleaning those teeth every day.

Now off to the penguins...

This little girl had a little plushy toy penguin which she held up to the glass.  You can see the penguin is interested and recognises it even though it's a toy.  

So glad we caught this moment.

These penguins have the nicest suits.

... and here they are underwater.  They swim so fast you can't really capture them in photos.

Now, onto the jellyfish display.  This felt like being in outer space. 

This was a magic water floor.  It has a picture of the sea on the wall and the image washes onto the floor, and when you walk on it you leave puddles in the image.  Amazing.

and a selfie in the cavern.

more shark, I don't know what kind but it had a long nose!

This was a granddaddy fish.

Another ray.  They are so beautiful the way they move.

"Let's be mermaids"  

A neon sign on the way out.  

As a kid I wanted to be a  mermaid when I grew up.  Seeing those giant sharks, I'm glad I didn't!

After a lovely day, we went back to the hotel for a group dinner, which was super.  It started with about six tasting dishes entree, for mains I had swordfish steak and Ian had steak, finishing with a chocolate layered thingy. Delicious.

Goodbye Sydney.  We are off the bed and an early start again tomorrow - off to the airport in the dark at 6.15am - to fly home.  What a great time we've had.

Thanks for following us on our journey.