day three ~~Darling harbour ~~sea life aquarium.

Tuesday 26th February 2013

We found a lovely little cafe-restaurant in town that served a delicious breakfast, this is situated in Queen Victoria Mall in a little square that is in the heart of Sydney city commuter land. It was very interesting just sitting enjoying some very well prepared food watching the people rushing by on the way to work. It is absolutely true that faces mirror the mind as there were hardly any smiling faces among the passers-by, reflecting the mundane daily worries going on behind the facade. The weather is absolutely gorgeous here compared to what we have been used to in England, it is so nice to wander around covered in suntan lotion in shorts and sandals without socks.  

We had planned to visit the Sealife aquarium on Darling Harbour today and then finish  the afternoon in the quiet of the beautiful Chinese garden nearby. We started as planned and began exploring “Sea Life” which is huge and is spread out on three floors of tanks and aquariums. Margaret and I were overawed by the colours, shapes and sizes of the varieties of marine life on display, and we began to take many photographs as we leisurely walked around the exhibition. I think there is every conceivable example of sea life imaginable on display here from deep sea sharks, turtles and numerous examples of brightly coloured reef fish. These fish are all kept in conditions that resemble their natural environment as closely as possible, and they are fed a natural diet mingled with whatever else is available that is acceptable to the fish. The tanks are cleverly built so that they run both over your head and on each side of the walkway, and they even run underneath the walkway in some places. This added a wonderful richness to our visit as it seemed as if we were in the water with this incredible array of marine life.
 I could not help noticing how many varieties of fish and marine animals were all closely confined together and yet they all seemed to coexist without too much trouble. I think lessons could be learned from this coexistence by keeping a healthy distance without intruding on the space or the way of life of others. We spent all day just wandering around this wonderful aquarium and we both felt contentedly tired. We decided to postpone our visit to the Chinese Garden and we headed back to the hotel where we changed for our evening meal.

We were then faced with the decision of where to eat and as we were still quite tired from our fishy visit, we decided to dine in a restaurant called “The Hard Rock Cafe” which is quite close to the hotel. This proved to be an interesting decision, we did not know quite what we were letting ourselves in for. The music was very loud, the place was packed with diners which can be a good sign and we had to wait 20 minutes to get seated.
When we did get seated and served, we found the food was good and the portions were huge and we soon began to put up with the music volume and enjoy the food. After our dinner we made our way back to our hotel and went to bed.