Day 3: Phillip Island

On Friday, we picked up our cute little red Toyota Corolla rental car (not yet named but we will)and met up with my friend Cat and headed out to Phillip Island. I met Cat in a rock climbing class when I was living in London. She was my first non-work friend and I took great pride in introducing her to my peeps with a, "Why yes, I do know people in London that I don't work with everyday" air.

Unfortunately, she took off shortly thereafter to move to Australia and spend a year working and traveling (was it something I said?) and my pride and interest in branching out to meet new people was quickly squashed.

Anyhoo. I digress.

Thanks to modern technology (Facebook) and a bit of advanced planning, Cat was able to meet up with Kjersti and I in Melbourne and we have spent the last 2 days touring around together. First order of business, we made Cat drive. Wrong side of the road & wrong side of the car was too much thinking too early in the morning.

Phillip Island is about 2 hours south of Melbourne and known for it's "Penguin Parade." Every night at sunset, the "Little Penguins" come to shore in the thousands and return home for the night after feeding at sea all day. It's an amazing spectacle. The penguins are super tiny - only about 10 inches high - and they come on to the shore in groups of anywhere from 4-20 penguins at a time. The beach is apparently the scariest part of the journey so once the group decision is made to make a dash for the bushes (so funny in the water, out of the water, in the water, out of the water and no penguin is left behind) the waddle race is hillarious!

When you are done watching them come in to shore, you wander back to the visitor's center on fenced boardwalks that go right through their nesting areas. The boardwalks are pretty open and the penguins are everywhere around you (literally you can touch them if you reach through the fence - although no one did) and you can hear them calling to each other and see the hugs when they finally get home. It's the cutest damn thing. There were even baby penguins! When you get back to your car you even have to check underneath to make sure there are no little penguins underneath since some of them do nest as far away as the car park. Kjersti was in charge of checking for penguins. She did an excellent job.

We also went to the Koala Conservatory on Phillip Island and learned to spot Koala's in the eucalyptus trees. It's trickier than you think! There were several baby Koalas and thanks to the fact it was a conservancy and not a zoo, I got some amazing photos. I have to say, between the koalas and the penguins, I am a big fan of putting the humans on specific paths/contained areas and letting the animals wander free around you (instead of the reverse at the zoo). Kjersti checked for koalas under the car there as well and I am happy to report, we are animal free.

Our other stop on Phillip Island was at The Nobbies (love the names of things here) where you could supposedly see fur seals out on the rocks. While the walking on the cliff sides offered impressive views, unfortunately all we saw was a bunch of horny sea gulls...and a snake. I spotted it on our way back to the parking lot. We screamed and jumped, as girls do, and it got scared and slithered back to the grass.

Phillip Island: penguins and koalas and snakes. Oh my!