Penguin Parade

11.1.10

Well,

This past week was the last week of classes for the semester. It was really nice not having tutorials and only having lectures. Since wind symphony already had a concert, the Thursday rehearsal was a party. It really wasn’t that exciting but it was nice to say bye to some people I may never see again. And after the last week of class, there is a week break before finals. I only have one final exam and so I am taking that week to travel. The first stop is Melbourne.

Kirsten and I left Brisbane around 6pm Saturday night and arrived in Melbourne about 10pm and checked in at the Nomads All Nations hostel. We are in a four person room, meaning we are sharing with two strangers. The beds are horrible; I can feel every spring in the mattress. The pillows are basically cases filled with lumps of fluff and extremely difficult to sleep on. The two other guys that are in the room I am pretty sure live out of it and left very little room for Kirsten and me to put our stuff. Thankfully, we really never see them except at night. The room is on the fourth floor of the building. Unfortunately, there are train tracks and trolley tracks right out or window and are extremely loud when either pass. Kirsten and I are both very glad we are only spending one more night here.

On Sunday, we got to sleep in a little bit and grabbed breakfast at a café right next door. We both had a cup of coffee and a muffin. Then we headed to the Holiday Inn entrance to go on our day trip to Phillips Island. The tour was with a company called Go West. There were 20 people total on the trip and after picking everyone up, we were off. Since, we arrived in Melbourne it had been raining and we were all hoping it would stop before we started any of the activities. And it did. Our first stop was in Kooweerup, aka the asparagus capitol of the world. We did not stop for the asparagus but we stopped for a bathroom break and to grab some kind of food. After that we headed to the Bass River Winery for a wine tasting, my first wine tasting ever! We had two white wines, two red wines, a rosé, a sweet Riesling, and a cherry wine. The cherry wine and the sweet wine were my favorites. They also had concentrated grape juice which was a bit thicker than honey and was also very good. Along with the wines they had some cheeses. We had brie, mozzarella, and blue cheese and they were fantastic. After the winery we headed to the Philip Island Chocolate Factory. I got to create my own chocolate bar with strawberry and cola flavoring. I also could have put in wasabi or vegemite but did not.

The next stop on our adventure was to Woolamai Beach. The parking lot was at the top of the dunes and due to high winds, sand was being blown everywhere. We were hoping that the high winds would equal surfers but there was no one in the water. Then we headed to the Koala conservatory. This was basically a gated off area of eucalyptus trees and nothing like the Lone Pine Sanctuary. We only saw 5 koalas and one wallaby. Then it was time for dinner. Kirsten and I went to an Italian place called Isola Di Capri and it was delicious.

From there we headed to the Nobbies. This was an area where penguins had burrows and we could see seal rock. The place was covered with seagulls and one of the windiest places I have been to in a long time. Since the wind was so strong, all of the penguins stayed in their homes and I couldn’t get any good pictures of them. Then it was time for the Penguin Parade. They had a café, two gift shops, and a museum area. For the parade, we sat three rows from the sand. The penguins arrived at 8:17pm. There were hundreds of them. The actually species we saw was the Little Penguin. They came up in groups called ‘rafts’ and every raft had more and more penguins. After sitting and watching them come out of the water, we worked our way back up the path that ran next to the parade. We were there for over an hour before returning to the shuttle to get back into Melbourne. We got back to the hostel just after midnight.

On Sunday, Kirsten and I slept in until about 10:30am. We had nothing planned for the day and just wandered around the city taking pictures and getting to know Melbourne. When we arrived at the hostel, we were given drink vouchers for the bar next door and I got a free beer before heading to bed. So far, this is my second favorite city next to Brisbane. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Sydney.