14th February 2009 - Valentines Day @ Sydney Aquarium

Ok... So this Valentines day marked the 6 year anniversary I've had with Ee Laine... and we thought we would do something a bit different this year. Previously we've done the fancy restaurants, the romantic getaways and I guess this year... nope we're not having dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown (first pic certainly looks like we were!)... We decided to see some mermaids - aka Dugongs.

So here's what we saw... This was the first fishy fishy fishy that greeted us that day:

Walked in a little further and I didn't expect to see these lil buggers... I didn't know what I was looking at until I looked closer:

They say you should never smile at a crocodile, it's hard not to when it's grinning like this:

These seahorses were pretty cool... the tank looked almost magical due to all the little floating bits in there (I think they were baby seahorses or stuff that has come out of their crapper.. it was hard to tell)

This little cuttlefish was pretty cute... It followed my finger around the tank... I was pretty damn sure it was doing what it could to interact with me. This lasted for about 3 mins before it decided to float away. Definitely was one of my highlights at the aquarium.

Another creature participating in the aquatic smiling contest

Finally, we reached the part of the aquarium that hosted the special guest... The Dugong! We were lucky enough to catch them during feeding time (they were fed lettuce in this wierd contraption) - If you've ever seen Zoidberg from Futurama munch on things... that's exactly what the Dugongs look like when they eat.

It's hard to picture how the sailors back in the day mistook these things as mermaids.. I'll let you decide:

And finally... We can't leave the aquarium without a snap of this monster...

Their mates in the wilderness have been munching on beachgoers the past summer... Something to do with Sydney Harbour having cleaner water which has encouraged greater fish population on the shore (I don't imagine this is the case if you've paid a recent visit to Circular Quay... that place reeks like an open sewer).

So there you have it.. a brief tour of Sydney Aquarium... I'll probably go back there if they manage to bring in a pink dolphin or even a whale shark (apparently there is one in Osaka - Japan)