Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

Del and I, together with Don and the kids headed to the Aquarium. We took a multiple pass which covered four tourist spots: Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, Wildlife Sydney Zoo, Madame Tussauds Sydney and Sydney Tower.

The Anzac Bridge

We travelled by the family car which wasn’t the wisest of things to do because we spent nearly forty five minutes looking for an empty parking slot! On reaching the aquarium, it was a long queue to get the hard copy of the tickets to the four points (bookings of which we did online). Another hour was spent waiting for the tickets! The kids and I spent that time on gorging on some fries from their café. Finally, after receiving our tickets and a well presented pamphlet on the Aquarium, we were allowed entry into the Aquarium.

Being a Sunday, the place was crowded with lots of kids yelling, accompanied by a lot of WOAH’s and AAH’s! In competition with these kids were the Asian tourists, being as loud as one could get! But these were not the only sounds! Added on to this was the background music that was playing within the Aquarium, the kind of music depended on the section of Sea Life that one was observing then! For example, the sharks, the coral reef, the glass tunnel aquarium; all of these had their own set of music. Having poor tolerance to loud noises, this indeed did pose a problem for me. It was total cacophony and madness! So my first impression of the place was not just distasteful, but it was bad enough to make want to leave! But I wanted to see my sea buddies, I came for them and I persisted!

Having said that, as hard as it was for me, the real joy was in losing myself in those living exhibits! Fishes are said to have a calming effect on the mind and these wonderful creatures too had the same on mine despite the surrounding crowds and noise!

The Aquarium housed many varieties of fish; big, small, tiny, colourful, plain; sea horses, sharks, platypus, fairy penguins and the list goes on. A lot of information was contained on the touch screen displays kept next to these exhibits. Besides, various interactive boards with questions were put up all through the Aquarium.

Jelly fish, with psychedelic colours

The highlight of our visit to this place was the glass tunnel. We truly enjoyed standing there as the sharks swam over our heads at such close quarters! It made me realise how big these fish were! 

Aari was totally taken into another world at the underwater glass tunnels

There was the Dugong (a mammal which lives in water) whom I fell in love with and who seemed to enjoy human company. It swam in areas which had the most number of people. 

The much loved Dugong

The most hilarious sight was the two big sized sucker fish that were involved in a tiff, where each was trying to bite onto the other’s tail until one of the bigger fish intervened! 

How I wish I could remain with the Dugong a tad bit longer, but it would be very unfair to the other tourists, as well as, the locals, all of whom were here for the very experience!

Our visit did end on a thrilling note considering it was my first experience in a glass tunneled Aquarium! We exited through the souvenir store where we picked up an item or two for ourselves as part of the memories that we hope to create.