Our rainy morning started with breakfast at a nearby cafe, Philosophy Cafe. We hoped the day wouldn’t be a total washout as we had the zip coaster planned for later that afternoon. But thankfully, the sun started to poke out a little bit just as we were headed up to western Sydney for Treetops Adventure.

We weren’t exactly sure what to expect when driving into the location as the business was in the back of a community park. Walking up to the reception area, I was a little worried that it would be a waste of money as the ropes course looked small and kiddish. However, after putting into our harnesses, we were joined by our guide, who walked us over to the zip coaster area (which also had an adults ropes course). The zip coaster is supposedly one of the world’s fastest rollercoaster zip lines and wounds its way in circles around the trees.

The hike up to the start was a little steep (especially when you’re making the trip several times), but it was well worth trying to get as many rides as possible. The two guides said we probably set a record of how many times a group went in one hour! By the time someone finished, another person was ready to send off down the line.

We let Brittany go first since this was the first time she had ever done a zip line-like activity. And she loved it! The guides were lovely and enjoyed chatting with us (even if we were a little breathless coming back up the hill). We’ve noticed through our travels that people working in that “adventure activities” industry seem to move around a lot to different locations/cities or even countries. But Grant probably has the right idea that doing the same thing multiple times a day would get boring after a while, even though you would get to meet many people.

Although we had the option to add on the ropes course, we decided to skip and head onto the Australian Botanical Gardens as we (mainly Grant at this point) were determined to find a kangaroo in the wild. The guides at the zip coaster had even mentioned they saw a family of kangaroos hop under the track the other day, but we didn’t get to see any. We decided to stop for a smoothie en route to the Botanical Gardens and saw a shop on the map in Liverpool. The shop owner was very talkative as he made our smoothies and eventually asked us why we decided to stop in Liverpool. He told us it was the “Compton” of Sydney, trying to think of something relatable to us after he learned we lived in LA… but we did not feel unsafe whatsoever there so we got a laugh in as we walked to the car.

The walk through the Australian Botanical Gardens was less of a garden and more of an arboretum. They had a small garden at the front of the property, but other than that, it seemed like the main focus was the native trees. As we walked around, Brittany pointed out what she thought was a kangaroo lying down in the shade. It looked so convincing! Even to the point we were calling Grant to run down the hill quickly! It turned out…it was just a log. But from a distance, it definitely looked like a kangaroo… we called it a “log-a-roo.”

We continued our hike around the gardens with little hope of seeing one in Australia. We headed to the visitors center to see if they could help point out where to find them on the property, but it ended up being a few minutes past closing time. We decided to drive around slowly to see if we could get lucky on the off chance. And….WE DID!! I saw what looked like two heads popping out of the grass on the hillside to the right and yelled at Grant to stop. He grabbed out his long Zoom, and sure enough, two kangaroos were hanging out on top of the hill. It looked like they had just woken up.

We drove around the curve to park and tried to walk nearby to see if we could get a closer look at them. However, we couldn’t find them once we were on top of the hillside. The grass was too tall, and they were probably lying out of view. With the mission accomplished, it was time to head back to Sydney to grab dinner and enjoy a relaxing night watching Netflix.