Penguins on Parade - Melbourne

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Today was a great day. It started out with us riding the tram into downtown Melbourne and grabbing breakfast at a local bagel place. We then walked over to the aquarium where we saw lots of fish, including the only giant squid to have ever been caught. It was from Antartica and was encased in a large block of ice, the thing was massive. We got to see lots of fish and sting rays as well being fed.

After the aquarium we walked into town to grab some lunch at Pepperoni's, much different than our Pepperoni's. We then caught the tram back to our hotel to get ready for our shuttle to pick us up. Once the shuttle picked us up we were on our way, our first stop was Warrook Farm where we had scones and tea. We then walked around and fed kangaroos, wallabies, a very rude and pushy goat and tried to feed a sheep that only wanted to eat fingers or watches, it will never eat that way.

We then left Warrook Farm and continued on down the road, our next stop was the Koala Sanctary on Phillips Island, here they housed several Victoria koalas, they are more brown and larger than the gray ones that you are used to. They were very cute. Here we also ran into lots of flies, oh well.

Next we stopped in Cowes for a bite to eat at a local italian restaurant, went shopping, walked to the pier to watch fishermen, and then got back on the bus. We made our way to our final destination, the Penguin Parade. We got to see thousands of burrows before going to our seats, we paid for the upgrade seats and it was well worth it. Around 9 pm the fun began. Thousands of penguins stormed onto shore and then walked up through the hills into their homes to meet their babies. It was spectacular to watch. This was defintely the best thing in Australia that we have done and second best to the dolphin swim on the entire trip.

After the penguins we got back on the bus for a long 2 hour ride home where we pretty much slept, we made it back around midnight or so.

Tami