The Rocks and The Sydney Aquarium

On Wednesday, we took it a little easy following the hike. We were scheduled for the Bridge Climb, but a thunderstorm that afternoon forced us to reschedule for later in our trip.

Before the weather moved in, we walked down to the shopping district in downtown Sydney, called "The Rocks". It's an old cobblestoned area with many neat shops and cafes. We stopped at one of the cafes for a late lunch and were provided the entertainment shown in the video below.


These birds are rainbow lorikeets. They are the prettiest birds that I have ever seen in person. We got to see these two up close (at the table next to us). They were taking the salt packets and opening them with their beak.

On Thursday, the weather was still bad. Luckily, we had saved the Aquarium for a rainy day. After lunch at "Lime" a wonderful cafe that Liz recommended, we set out for the Aquarium. The highlight of the aquarium is the enormous shark and fish tank that is shown in the videos below. Great whites, hammer heads, reef sharks and many smaller colorful fish inhabit this tank. It is quite impressive.

In the first video, I got a shot of the great white swimming directly towards us (showing his teeth). He was large!!!


The second video shows the many fish in the tank. We just sat and watched for about 15 minutes.


The Aquarium was well-arranged around 5 ecosystems. Each ecosystem had a "primary" attraction. The large fish tank was one of them. They also had ecosystems built around penguins, "salties" - crocodiles, seals and platypus (forgive me, but I am not sure what the proper plural is for "platypus" - Could it be platypuses, or platypi). The platypus exhibit was very disappointing. Apparently, they are shy animals, so we were not able to catch a glimpse of one. The signage around the display pointed out places to look where they might be hiding, so it must be a common occurrence that nobody sees one.

The final picture is of the coral reef tank. The Great Barrier Reef will be the subject of a later blog. I thought this picture was really pretty.


REFLECTIONS - Urban Legend?

In 7th grade, I was told by my Social Studies teacher, Mr. Cato, that toilets in the southern hemisphere flush counterclockwise, unlike here (northern hemisphere), where they flush in a clockwise motion.

I obtained proof of the northern hemisphere clockwise flush motion in one of the men's restrooms in Terminal B of the Philadelphia International Airport. Something about taking a camera into the bathroom made me feel like a U.S. Congressman.


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At any rate, this difference could be explained by the coreiolis effect. Rather than explain it here, I will allow you to do some independent research of what it is.

Unfortunately, Aussie and Kiwi toilets are designed in such a way as there is no spin. So there is no way to conclusively prove if this is true or untrue based off of the toilets I saw.

I now hand this task off to Becky Cassill, as she has and will continue to see toilets on several toilets on 3 continents in the southern hemisphere. Her blog is linked on mine, if you would like to read about her travels.

P.S. I know the answer as to whether this is true or not. Send me a comment or email me, and I can tell you