A holiday long overdue.  Didn't get to do much as we didn't have much time and winter isn't the best time to go running to the major places, so we did the touristy thing within the city of both Melbourne and Sydney with the knowledge that we will visit again, and in future, with more time dedicated to each place. 

In the meantime, we did the zoo and aquarium circuit.

These are my pics.  I'll sort out hers later.  They're not processed, just resized.  Sorry for the lousy photography.

I think I'll start with Melbourne Street Shots.

Flinders Street Station

... and again...

... and again...

and the street beside it.

Local Landmark beside Flinders, The Young & Jackson

 

Then we have other various street shots..

Along Swanston Street

Closed to Traffic, only trams and other public transport/repair vehicles can access it

The buildings are very Victorian

Corner of Flinders/Swanston Streets

Same church

 

Then we walked into a protest/demonstration going on at the City Library.

Aboriginal Rights Protest

It was peaceful and later the marched and held up traffic.

 

Walking around the city, we saw lots of things to take pictures of.... different views of the same building...

... and just outside this building, a touch of whimsical on the sidewalk with this cute sculpture

Giant Stone Purse

 

There were buskers too... this was the best of the lot.. The Megahorns!

Buskers - The Megahorns

 

We went to the Parliament House to have a look...

Even the streetlamps there look wonderful...

Dusk fell so we took a few more shots of Parliament House.  The lighting gave it a different mood...

Street in front of Parliament House

Parliament House lit up

The Street Lamps were nice...

 

Around Parliament House, were a few very nice buildings like the Princess Theater and the Windsor Hotel

As it started to rain, we went to get dinner and went back.. this was around.. 5pm and it was getting really dark.

 

Oh yes... we had lunch with mousy and mouse hubby at Stalactites...

Stalactites

Chicken and Lamb on spits!

Feeling lucky?

Souvlaki!

Smothered in Tzakziki!!

Dessert - unreasonably sweet and wonderful Baklava

 

More to come.. Melbourne Aquarium and Zoo.. when I can get the energy up to do it next...

Wow....the place looks so wonderful =) You must have enjoyed yourself a lot =)

we did

as with all holidays, it was way too short

Hahaha yeah!!! I don't know know....even though it could be a 2 weeks thing...you'd still feel that you've not covered / explored / experience the place well enough!!! =(

Melbourne Aquarium...

We have pics of ourselves but.. those i'd not show, so you guys gotta be content with critter shots 

These were some pics from the Melbourne Aquarium.. it was nice but the pics came out pretty crappy...

Port Jackson Shark

Sea Dragon doing a headstand

An unreasonably ugly Frogfish

Giant Deep Water Spider Crab

Pouting Fishes

Giant Grouper

Some kind of Sea Snake

A very cute cuttlefish

Fish imitating a Unicorn

Lobster

Albino Axolotl

Normal Axolotl

Some kind of starfish

Fish with bigass lips

We visited Melbourne Zoo on a cold day.  But the animals seemed to be acclimatised to the cold winds in Melbourne and we took quite a bunch of pics.

What was nice about the zoo there was that there were lots of free-range animals.. they were allowed to walk wherever the heck they wanted to.

like ducks

Duck

Moorhen

Peahens

Peacocks

Emu, although in a large enclosure, if it wanted to, it could walk right up to us

Close-up of Emu

Keepers feeding them

The local wildlife:

Kangaroo

Lazing 'roo

A hungry wombat

2 sleeping hairy-nosed wombats

Kung-fu 'Roo!

A Tree Kangaroo

A closer look

And the other one with a joey slightly showing in her pouch

I don't know what this sign was about..

Rickety sign

Local Flora

A closeup of the flower

We had a look in their aviary which was pretty cool..

Interspecies love between parrots

In the animal kingdom also got 小白臉

A Pink Parrot!

We went to the other enclosures to see the other critters... this was so cute!

and more critters..

This one lay its head on its paws and went to sleep

I think this was called a Quokka

Who doesn't love the little Meerkats?

Then we went to the Reptile House a while for warmth...

A Basilisk

A Chameleon

Then we went to check out the Koalas

And the Little or Fairy Penguins.. they're cute little fellas

Wheee!! Feeding Time!!

They shared the enclosure with a gannet who was injured so badly, he cannot fly again.  Trained, he was pretty obedient.

 

We decided to go off after the penguins were fed, but on the way out, we chanced upon some peccaries coming out of their enclosures

.. and that was the day out at the Melbourne Zoo

no bunnies? =(

Originally posted by thehappybunny:

no bunnies? =(

bunnies are a pest in Australia... they are shot on sight

p.s. they have also let loose a virus which kills a lot of rabbits in the most painful way there...

Originally posted by the Bear:

bunnies are a pest in Australia... they are shot at sight

my poor lil counterparts

After a few days in Melbourne, it was to Sydney we went...

a shot from the plane

 

absolutely gorgeous!

what airline u all took to melbourne?

melbourne doesn't look like it has changed much, hahaha

We visited the Sydney Wildlife World and Aquarium (they are beside each other).  But first some Sydney street pictures.. we were mostly along Darling Harbour.

We will go again, maybe next time with a tour group or something.

Hmmm.. what's this?

Holeeeecraponastick!! A chocolate cafe train!!

Australian Ibis everywhere!

Seagulls too!

Dusk falls early on Darling Harbour.. this is about 5pm

The temperature was slightly higher than in Melbourne and the wind is less biting.  A great place to visit

Sydney Wildlife World was loads of fun!

Granted it was in the city, it was all enclosed, but it's like bringing the animals to the people instead of the other way around

First thing we walked into was this:

GIANT ANT!! AIEEEE!!!

but it was just a setting for those giant Bull Ants which were about an inch long!

more unsavory was the Giant Cockroach

EWWWWWW!!!!

The obligatory spider shot

and some insect pr0n for av

...okay okay... no more creepy crawlie bugs...

Skink

Bearded Dragon

An obese-looking tree frog

Sugar Glider

Parrot

Koala stoned on gum leaves

Obligatory Koala shot

'Roo

'Roo massaging its aching tail

... and this one is cool as heck..

A Cassowary!

listed as the most dangerous bird on the planet!

 

Sydney Aquarium was very nice too.. it had three "annexes" housing seals, sharks and reef.. due to the curvature of the tanks and the darkness, we took only a few pictures...

the seals were naturals... on land.. under water, they moved really really fast

Long-necked Turtle (for pinkybear)

Freshwater Crayfish

Port Jackson Shark

.... but this sign took the prize

... and there.. snapshots of places and critters we saw..

the rest of the pics, are for our memories...

thanks for looking

i'll sort her picture out later

Nice pictures. Looks like you had an enjoyable time over there.

Wow lots of really nice pics!

I bet you guys enjoyed yr holiday

well, i'll be brandishing my PSP to show you some pics of us if you wanna see

there's also one of me holding a blue tongued skink showing off its blue tongue

Great pictures!

The main thing is you have fun and able to relax.

Cheers.

Very nicely-composed pics, Bear! Glad to hear you had a good time

Did you stay in one of the hotels overlooking the Darling Harbour? It’s a beautiful place to stroll around & watch the world go by, isn’t it?

very near Darling Harbour.. it was at the Holiday Inn...

it's a wonderful place to watch the world go by...

heck! anywhere is good to watch the world go by as long as you're on leave and don't have to work.. even in Singapore..

we always take our own country for granted because we have to work.. and never take the time to stop and smell the roses...

i've taken time off to do nothing but hang out in the city in Singapore before.. it's also pretty nice

we always take our own country for granted because we have to work.. and never take the time to stop and smell the roses...

 

That's so true... what you just said! Singapore has some very beautiful places to hang out in.  Adding to that, the security, ease of getting around (plus cheaper transportation costs!), and more efficient customer service.... Hmm... why did I leave Singapore again? lol!

Hi Bear

Wonderful pics of the architecture in Melbourne. Have forgotten how beautiful they are till I saw your photos. Goin around our daily life, we actually forgotten to stop and admire the beautiful buildings and scenes around Melbourne. Will definitely miss this place when I leave. Glad you post up the pics, esp of Melbourne.

nice pics of the animals...some shots are good :)