Thursday 6th May 2004, Day 236/366 - Melbourne, Australia.

Penguin Parade

Took a drive down to Phillips Island. Man Melbourne sprawls for miles and has a very confusing road system and signs. It seemed to take ages to get out of the city, but eventually we made it after about 2.5 hours.

Phillips Island is a little island at the bottom of the peninsula that is accesible by bridge. It shares a lot of it's place names with the IOW.

We called in a the Koala Conservation Centre ($8.50). It was very pleasant, with a eucalyptus wood with a boardwalk around the branches and 35 koalas in it. It's nice to see Koalas doing what comes naturally, which is sleeping and they do that for 20 hours a day. They do eat occassionally as well. There was also a Kookaburra there too.

Afterwards we went into Cowes. Phillip Island is very setup for tourists and as it's out of season was very quiet and most places were shut. So instead of treating Glennis to a slap up lunch we had a pie and a punt in the TAB (betting shop). I like Macca's style.

We headed to the nobbies which is a couple of islands just off the bottom of Phillips Island. The seals were miles away and the blowhole wasn't blowing. It was however very reminiscent of the NZ Coastline.

The highlight of the day was to be the Penguin Parade ($16). The Penguins on show are Fairy Penguins, the smallest penguin in the world. They naturally come home every night, just after dark, to there man made homes, with up to 4000 spectators every night. It's cool, coz they just appear on the beach. All you can see is the reflection from there white breasts. They have a wee rest, pluck up the courage and then waddle up the beach to there homes.

It's intensely frustrating watching nature takes it's course. Mainly coz it cold, wet and windy. I did miss out on the penguins in Oamaru so I'm glad I did it. I didn't expect there to be a big brass band, but I did think they'd come up in one big group as opposed to small groups. They are tiny. About a foot tall.

It's impressive how they know that's it's an hour after dark before they come in and an hour before light before they go back out. It protects them against predators you see.