I’m a big sucker for a zoo. I always loved the Wellington Zoo as a kid. It’s a small zoo, but I loved it. There are photos from when we went back in 2004. Like many of my holidays, I made sure we went to the nearest zoo.

When my family moved over to Australia in 1986, we stopped over in Sydney. We were only in Sydney for a couple of days at most (it was a long time ago, I can’t really remember) but my Dad managed to take my older brother and myself to Taronga Zoo. I can still remember that trip pretty well, and as a zoo fan, I was impressed.

Living in Darwin doesn’t give you many opportunities to visit Sydney, so I didn’t go back to Taronga Zoo until a family trip down the east coast in 1993. And I remember that visit as well.

But, through all our eight years of living in Canberra, just three hours drive away, I never visited Taronga Zoo. This wasn’t through a want of trying, but there was always something that came up. Back in 2000, we had a trip planned. We bought a Sydney road atlas, worked out a route through the city, and then as we were going to bed early for the drive, we discovered the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras was on the next day and the entire city would be closed.

And so it went for the next seven years. No matter what we planned, or how we tried, something always stopped us from visiting Taronga Zoo. Right up until last November when we spent four days in The Rocks, to see Pearl Jam. It rained, constantly, for all four days. Not zoo visiting weather.

In the end we managed to move to Sydney, without ever visiting Taronga Zoo.

And who knew that’s all it took? Should have done it years ago! On the 4th of February we finally managed to visit Taronga Zoo. And there are even photos to prove it!