Philip Island is just south of Melbourne
and is famous for its small penguins. The idea of penguins in their natural
habitat obviously meant that my Mum and I did a day trip out there to see them,
among other things.
I was in a shit mood the day we were headed
out to Philip Island—who knew how bloody difficult it would be to find an
apartment in Melbourne?!?! The cheapest places are $250/week to SHARE a bedroom
with someone. UGH. (Although now, after spending another week in Melbourne and
viewing some rather interesting places, I think I’ve found a place to live—and
the place has 2 cats!) But there is nothing in this world that will turn my
mood around quicker and make me boundlessly happy than the site of animals, so
it was a very good day for me to be in the company of koalas, wallabies,
kangaroos, and little penguins.
First off though, there were these 2
totally mental (and somewhat terrifying) nuns on our tour. Wearing their
habits, in 40-degree weather. They were originally from Beirut, but now live in
Sydney. They both had iPhones and took pictures through the front of the bus of
the highway the whole trip. Their ring tone was church bells. CHURCH BELLS. I
still can’t get over this. The first time we heard the ringtone bells, we were
out at a winery and weren’t sure where the sound was coming from, and my Mum
made a joke that it was the nun’s ringtone—and sure enough, it was! One of the
nuns (the scarier older one) pushed me out of the bathroom at a gas station to
use it first. They yelled things the entire tour. It was actually insane. And
so weird (Note: even my very nice and much more patient mother hated these
nuns. They were straight up bat-shit crazy).
Anyway, the Nuns (oh and a group of French
Canadians, clearly) made the bus ride and the day interesting to say the least.
But Philip Island was amazing! Definitely a huge highlight of the trip thus
far, and considering how expensive everything in Aus is, totally worth the
money. We first hit up a hilarious chocolate factory, and being from Ottawa,
and having visited the Smith Falls Hersey factory multiple times, I didn’t
think I’d really care about seeing another chocolate factory, but I have to
say, this place was worth the visit. First off, they had a life size chocolate
recreation of Michelangelo’s David, which my Mum and I loved (especially b/c it
really offended the old nun, who whizzed right by it in a huff).
It also had
these weird psychedelic chocolate displays, complete with acid trip inducing
strobe lights, and an entire chocolate railway system with Canadian (CN)
miniature trains.
My favourite though was this chocolate waterfall/fountain
type thing where liquid chocolate just rains down into a huge chocolate trough.
I honestly wanted to just get into the chocolate trough and float away like the
chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
They also had chocolate
covered frozen bananas a la Arrested Development, and yes, there is always
money in the banana stand (sorry, couldn’t resist the bad joke!)
Next up we went to this small winery for a
wine tasting (complete with glorious local cheeses which me and my Mum ate our
weight in). I clearly sampled all the wines (the nuns were drinking it down as
well!) and they were really good. They had this red wine that was the almost
the colour of blood oranges, very bright and more see-through than a regular
red wine. That one was my favourite, and so we picked up a bottle to give to my
Canadian friends Sarah and Pete, who live in Melbourne, and who are very kindly
storing my huge orange monster of a wheelie suitcase in their garage while I
schlep around Aus and try to sort everything out!
Then we went to a Koala Conservation Park. And
OMG, I just can’t even begin to explain how incredible it was to see real live
koalas sleeping the hot day away in trees, doing an absolute balancing act. I
have no clue how they wedge themselves in the crooks of trees and fully sleep
without falling out. They hardly move either. They are just full on fluffy
enjoyers, sleeping 20 hours a day (sounds a lot like 2 cats I know back home!)
b/c apparently eucalyptus is really hard to digest, so they just sleep it off
everyday. Koalas are seriously some of the cutest most ridiculous animals
ever-their little hands and feet, and the way they curl up into a ball in a
damn tree is just so absurd.
Clearly the park ranger dude in the
conservation park could tell how excited and mental I was about seeing the
koalas (good observation on his part), and so he came up to me and said that
once all the other people had moved on, I could go under the barrier and look
at one of the koalas (Harriet) more closely. I practically burst into tears
when I saw her up close (happy, state of wonderment, loving tears). She looked
so unreal to me, having only ever seen pictures and stuffed animals of koalas my
whole life, and her being so still just sleeping away the hot day, she was
incredible. I asked the dude who his favourite koala was in the area, and he
said it was her, Harriet, b/c despite sleeping 20 hours a day, she gets real
feisty and is kind of a badass. That’s my kind of koala.
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| This is Harriet! |
On our way to the Nobbies (a pretty lookout
on the ocean) we saw some kangaroos, which are the weirdest looking animals
ever. Seeing them move and hop on their huge hind legs is really something. It
looks like it shouldn’t be possible, and the hops are quite slow and
deliberate, almost like they are moving in slow motion. Their tales are huge
too, especially compared to their very skinny limbs, and when they sit upright
they balance on their tales, kind of like sitting on a camp chair.
We made our way out to the southwestern tip
of Philip Island to the Nobbies (I’m not sure if the rocks are called the
Nobbies or the lookout point) and Seal Rocks, which is where Australia’s
largest colony of fur seals are (though I didn’t see any during the short time
we were there as I was more fixated on the beautiful sky and the baby penguins
in their burrows).
The view was spectacular, and we saw a few wallabies on our
way there and back.
They built a sort of boardwalk that zig-zags across the
mount and when you’re on it you can just see some of the baby penguins in their
burrows (some penguin made, and some human made that penguins willingly
adopted) waiting anxiously for their parents to return from sea and feed them
(the penguin parents won’t come until after the sun sets though, so as to be
safe from predators)
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| Penguin made burrow |
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| Human made burrow |
Then it was on to the “Penguin Parade”
itself, which was the whole reason we decided to do this day trip and obviously
we upgraded to the Premium package so that we could have a front row seat on
the beach to see the penguins emerge from the ocean. Going to the “Penguin
Parade” enables you to go into this protected penguin colony and watch as
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of little penguins (that is the type of penguin,
little, they are only about a foot high) come out of the sea after sunset and
trek up over the rocks and often up large hills and over roads, in order to
feed their young. Sometimes the little penguins will have been out to sea for
24-48 hours and they’ve travelled huge distances. The chicks are starving b/c
they haven’t been fed in a day or 2, and so when they see any adult penguin
approach they will just straight up attack them wanting food b/c they can’t
tell whom their parents are. Parents identify their young, not only by
returning to the same burrow, on the same route from the ocean (and it’s
amazing b/c you can see little penguin tracks that go through the tall grass
etc.) but mostly through sound, as each penguin has a distinct call. They only
leave the water to approach the rocks in groups; they won’t do it alone (again,
safety in numbers). They are so small and must be so tired (though they are
able to take really quick naps in the water like dolphins, and sometimes you
saw them stop on their trail to their burrow and put their head down for some
quick shut-eye), but they trek up these huge rocks that you wouldn’t think
they’d be able to get up, and then on to their burrows. Watching this was one
of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. These kinds of penguins don’t necessarily mate
for life like other breeds do. My favourite thing about them is that if a male
penguin isn’t a good parent, or isn’t good at keeping the burrow neat and tidy
and well taken care of, his female mate will kick him to the curb and find
someone better!
You aren’t allowed to take pictures when
you’re there b/c penguins have very sensitive eyes that make them able to see
really well in the water and in both dark and light, but I bought 2 postcards
that show (sort of) what it is like.
I was tempted to buy a little stuffed
animal penguin in a knitted sweater, but my Mum vetoed that decision (probably
for the best but look at how damn cute they are!)
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