I finally slept until my alarm went off this morning! Success! I think my exhaustion is helping me beat this jet lag finally! :) I went next door to the cafe and had eggs and bacon for breakfast (only $6, YES!!!) and then went to the next door for my tour! Yay.
Today was the Philip Island Tour. My tour director was pretty apathetic, which was a bummer, but luckily I was able to make friends with a couple of guys from DC! I asked them if they knew Lance, but they didn't. :( haha. Our first stop was the "Moonlit Sanctuary" which was a little wildlife park. We got to feed 'roos and wallabies again, still so fun.
I saw a Tasmanian Devil for the first time... UGLY!
Look! It's Kaley!!!! :) haha, no they are actually Dingos but they look just like Kaley! I think Kaley must have some Australian cousins or something!
Next stop was the Koala Conservation Center on Philip Island. They had about 10 koalas there. Seeing Koalas in the wild totally trumps seeing them in captivity. But still pretty exciting, nonetheless! This guy had an itch! :)
Next we went to Churchill Island, which is basically just one big farm. I kinda felt like I was back in Texas (well, the smell at least, it definitely didn't look the same as Texas farms!)! It was beautiful... here's another postcard for ya...
They had a lot of sheep at the farm so we got to watch a sheep shearing! It made me want some UGG boots! If I don't come home with a pair of UGG boots, I'll be shocked- they are probably in every single store I've been into.
Indiana Jones was giving lessons on how to crack a whip... No, I watched too many grown men whip themselves in the face for me to give it a whirl!
Check out the pretty peacock that was just hanging out with us...
No farm is complete without cattle, but check these out! Our driver said they were from Scotland. I think the Masseys should start breeding these in Texas and charging by the car to take a look.
The next stop was the Nobbies, the home of a colony of Australian Fur Seals. They are all on that rock out there in the middle. Sure wish they would have just moved that rock a little closer so we could have actually seen them!
Finally, we made it to the "Penguin Parade", by far the highlight of the day!!! At dusk all of these little blue penguins come to shore from their long day of fishing in the sea. They are absolutely the cutest things you've ever seen!!! They are no bigger than a foot tall, and there were "over 1200" tonight. I would hate to be the guy that has to count them every night! I was FREEEZING cold! The antarctic winds must have been blowing in strong. Once the penguins come on shore they waddle up the hills to find their burrows (they go to the same burrow everynight, its amazing they know exactly where they are going). We found an awesome spot on the boardwalk where we were able to get super close. If I would have stuck my hand down, I could have easily pet them. I'm sure they would have bitten me, but it would have been totally worth it when asked what happened, to reply "oh, that? just a penguin bite." haha. You weren't allowed to take pictures... don't report me, but I snuck a few shots from the pocket of my jacket... :) I just had to have pics for our first grade unit on penguins, it was totally for the kids!!! (I couldn't use a flash or else I would have gotten busted)
As we stood there watching for a while we noticed that one little penguin right in front of us had been standing outside of his burrow for a long time just squaking (what do you call a penguin noise?) extra loud. We were joking about how he was probably yelling for his wife to come home. Then up waddles another penguin and they start hugging each other! It was a reunion! Then, they both get in the horizontal position, and... well... start mating... AHHHH!!!! We all died laughing! It was one of those moments where you weren't really sure if you were supposed to watch or not. I guess you could say we got a first hand encounter with nature!
So much penguin excitement today!!! Off to bed, I'm going to be in a furious rush to go see as much of Melbourne as I can before I head to Brisbane then to Bundaberg tomorrow afternoon to see AMANDA!!! yayyy!!! :)
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