Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens

The Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens have become one of my favorite places to hang out in the city. It's so beautiful here! It's a great place to picnic, read, or just relax and people watch. There are a lot of great views of the harbour from here. The gardens were established in 1816 and contain flowers and trees from all over the world. The colony's first vegetable patch is located here. Some of the trees are estimated to have been there since Sydney was established. There are a ton of birds here, and a lot of the trees are completely filled with grey-headed flying foxes (aka fruit bats) hanging from the branches. There are thousands of them living in the gardens. No worries though, they eat figs and nectar, and rabies doesn't exist in Australia. They are a bit of a nuisance, and are killing a lot of the trees in the gardens. They are attempting to lure them out of the gardens and relocate the colony to preserve the trees. They are listed as a threatened species, so this is causing all sorts of problems with animal activists, scientists, etc. Click here for more information on Sydney's bats.

Somehow I can't see you walking under this tree, Mom:

The rose gardens are beautiful:

There was a great orchid exhibit going on in one of the greenhouses:

The palace gardens:

I absolutely love these flowers. I'm not sure what they are called, but they grow on a tree/bush (I have a feeling a certain someone already knows the answer or will quickly find out if he doesn't!). Can you tell how hot it was this day?!

Enjoying the gardens and the Opera House. Don't worry Dad, I didn't pick this flower, it had fallen off the tree :)