PENGUIN PARADE

I took another tour to see some of the wildlife of Australia.  Our tour guide Adrian was not only an excellent driver/guide, he was also extremely knowledgeable about ecological issues in Australia, so we got quite an education along the way.  We were headed to Phillip Island, about a two-hour drive from Melbourne, and we stopped at a small zoo along the way to take a look at some of the local wildlife.  We saw koalas here, and some people paid $18 to have their picture taken with one, but I passed after learning from Adrian what a trauma it is for a koala to be held by a human.

It is a temptation because they're quite adorable!  We also saw wallabies and were allowed to interact with them.

Emus.

Dingoes.

Alpacas.

There were also sheep, goats, mules, and a few birds.  And there were a bizillion little flies, which seem to be everywhere in Australia, even in the cities.  You may think lots of people here are waving at you, but they're really just batting away these pesky little flies. They are a real nuisance.

We stopped a couple of times to enjoy the coastal scenery.  The haze here is not from natural causes. There were bush fires raging north of Melbourne, and this is the smoke from them that was blown by the north wind all the way to this coast.

When we arrived at the Phillip Island Nature Park, Adrian led us on a walk through the dunes and explained the nesting habits of the penguins, which are the smallest of all at about 12" fully grown.  The park gives their nests extra protection from predators by placing wooden boxes over them.  The penguins we saw in the nests at this time of day were chicks waitng for Mom and Dad to return from the sea and reguritate their dinner.  There were twins in this nest.

Occasionally, you would see a brave (or stupid) chick outside the nest exposing itself to natural predators (birds of prey, foxes, dogs).

There was also some pretty nice coastal scenery here.

On the way to the viewing area where you can watch the penguins emerge from the sea to return to their nests, we saw lots of wallabies.  

Adrian sent me this photo he had taken a couple of weeks ago on a sunny day.

He also sent me this one of penguins which was taken by one of his passengers.  Their blue back feathers provide camouflage from sky predators when they are floating on the sea, and their white chest feathers disguise them from their sea predators, sharks and seals.

You weren't allowed to take photos or videos of the penguins during their emergence from the sea or their walk to their nests, because the flashes can disorient the birds.  But it was allowed at one time and I found a few photographs on the Internet so that I can show you something similar to what I saw.  The observation area was rows of bleachers, or you could sit on the beach in a cordoned area.  You could see the glimmering under the water as the penguins approached the shore line where they emerged and waddled at a surprising speed to the dunes.

Then they walked up the dunes to their nests.

You can watch their journey to their nests from a boardwalk that runs from the beach up to the top of the dunes.  They don't seem to be much bothered by people being in such close proximity.

It's quite an experience to watch them waddling along to their homes and then going through their preening ritual to dry their feathers.  There's a lot that's done here to try to preserve and protect their nesting area, because there are very few colonies of these penguins left.

It was after midnight when we returned to Melbourne, and unfortunately, my last day there.  And from the country to the city, here are some of my photos from my final walk around the city.  This is a very colorful bank down the street from my apartment with a colorful dragon celebrating Chinese New Year.

The Yarra River runs through the city.

There are some beautiful parks here and a huge Royal Botanical Garden.

The gardeners seem to be wannabe sculptors.

There's some very interesting modern architecture here.  The design of the Arts Center might remind you of an anorexic ballerina.  The roof is meant to be her tutu.

But I loved the many old 19th century buildings that pepper this city.

Time to move on again....Sydney up next!

MELBOURNE AND MORE

It's hard to believe that there are only 23 million people living on an island continent almost as expansive as the USA, and even more surprising that there are more kangaroos here than people!  I arrived in a Melbourne heat wave.  It was 100 degrees over the weekend and I almost fainted on a city walking tour on Sunday.  I dropped out of the tour, but got some city photos before I was overcome with the heat.  

The tour started in front of the library, and the guide suggested a look at one of the reading rooms before the tour began.  I could read in this beautiful room any day of the week.

There was a lovely exhibition of art outside this room, mostly paintings of Melbourne and the surrounding area in earlier days.  The library itself was a beautiful building.

You could play a game of chess near the front entrance.

This very tall young man is Hugo, our tour guide (and a very good one) and the woman is Jeannie from Orange, California, who was my walking buddy.

One of the buildings we saw was the Royal Exhibition Building, which was built in the 1880's for the Melbourne International Exhibition, and then hosted Australia's first Parliament in 1901.

I loved the fountain in the front with the duck-billed platypuses peeking over the second tier,

This is the jail where the infamous Ned Kelly was imprisoned before he was hanged at this site at age 25.  This bold bank robber was thought by some to be Australia's Robin Hood.  Health Ledger starred in a film about this notorious fellow.

Graffiti art is apparently encouraged by some in Melbourne, and you can find some interesting art down little alleys in the downtown area.

I don't remember what this building was, but I just liked it.

This is one of the older theaters that is still in use, with Melbourne's more modern skyscrapers as background.

After I quit the tour, I cooled off in a shopping mall and then decided it was a good day for a museum visit.  I headed for the Melbourne Museum which I knew was behind the Royal Exhibition Building.  Their special exhibit would have delighted 007 fans.

Not being a Bond fan, I recognized only 3 ofthe 6 actors who have portrayed him.  I spent a couple of hours enjoying the excellent section on the First Peoples, the aborigines of Australia.  Theirs is as sad a story as that of the American Indian.  

I was very surprised when I left the museum that the temperature had dropped significantly.  All it took was a shift in the wind from a northern to southern breeze to cool the temperature by 20 degrees, exactly the opposite of home.  And there was no storm to announce this dramatic shift!

I left the city yesterday to take a tour of the Great Ocean Road, a 150 mile two-lane road that winds its way along the southeastern coast of Australia.  It's actually a war memorial, built by the returning solders of WWI who could not find work in Australia's then very depressed economy.  I had thought about renting a car and doing the drive myself, but I was glad to just sit back and enjoy the ocean views.

The Twelve Apostles are Australia's number 1 tourist attraction.  There were originally 15 of these limestone stacks off the shores of Port Campbell National Park, but six have fallen.  Originally called "Sow and Piglets", they were renamed the Twelve Apostles after 3 of them fell.  Three more have fallen since, so I think they should come up with a new name for them.  

Another famous rock formation along this shoreline is London Bridge.  This is what it orginially looked like.  You could walk from the shore out to the edge of the rock formation.

The arch closest to shore collapsed unexpectedly in1990, and this is what it looks like now.

 

Fortunately, no one was killed when it collapsed, but there were two people who had just crossed over to the second arch when it happened and became stranded on the now island.  Fortunately, someone saw the collapse, and a helicopter was sent from Melbourne to rescue them.  Everyone wondered why the two covered their faces to prevent the cameras from seeing their identity.  As it happens, it was a well-known Melbourne businessman and his mistress who were "caught in the act", so to speak.

Often, people on these tours see kangaroos and koalas on their all-day journey.  I did see one kangaroo, but no koalas.  Since they are both noctural animals, it's not a real surprise, but you'd think, since kangaroos outnumber people here, that we might have sighted more than one.

A SLICE OF PARADISE

Is there such a thing as overdosing on scenic wonders?  When it becomes a daily event, you begin to look for something that tops what you've already seen.  The East Coast of the South Island is very different from the West Coast and its rugged mountainous Alps.  Its mountains are gentle mounds and there was a stretch of road between Dunedin and Christchurch that was actually flat.  And along the road, where there was much more traffic than there was on the western side, there were several towns of greater size than I saw on the opposite side.  I was actually getting a little bored.  And then I turned east to the Banks Peninsula, where I was in search of Akaroa, a historic French and British settlement nestled in the heart of an ancient volcano.

These sheep provided a break from the monotony of the flats.  The farmer and his three dogs were moving them along the road from one pasture to another.  He was going to try to clear space on the road so I could pass, but I wasn't in a hurry, and it was fun to watch the dogs keeping them in formation.  I took a video, but I can't see how to post it.

The flats turned quickly into curvy roads that went up and down and all around the mountains you must cross to get to Akaroa.  In Maori, Akaroa means "long harbor", and this is the spectacular view you have when you reach the crest of the final mound and start heading downward to this town of 700 that swells significantly in the summer.

Yes, that's a cruise ship in the distance, and there were two that came in to "swell" the population.  I stayed at a lovely B&B that was the home of a gregarious older woman named Rosemary.  She has a beautiful garden in front of and all around her house.

This was the view from my bedroom.  It was late afternoon and not a very beautiful day when I arrived, but the next morning the sun cooperated to light up the scene.

The town itself is small, but there's everything you need--small supermarket, pharmacy, bank, and lots of restaurants.  I walked into town for dinner and took some photos along the way.  I don't know what kind of tree this is, but I don't think we have it in the U.S.

And there were more beautiful flowers along the way to town.  I don't know what these are either.

There are lots of gulls in the harbor, of course, and they can be quite aggressive, swooping down quite close to your head, but these guys were just chilling out.

The pier with its bright blue-roofed buildings brightened the gray day.

Rosemary told me about a celebration that was taking place the following day in a nearby bay, the commemoration of the signing of a treaty between the British and the Maori in 1840.  It is a national holiday.  She explained that Maoris would be arriving in their long boats to be greeted by British Naval Officers.  I decided this would be a great way to spend the morning before I drove to the Christchurch Airport to catch my plane to Melbourne.  The drive to the bay was along a very narrow road that went up and down and all around the hills, but provided some nice scenery.

Unfortunately, Rosemary wanted cash for my room payment and I had to find an ATM before I left, which made me late for the ceremonial arrival of chanting Maori.  All I got were photographs of their long boats.

The Maori do beautiful wood carving on everything, including the bow and stern of their boats.

There was a large crowd there of tourists and locals and after about 45 minutes, there was some kind of ceremony where a Maori spoke in Maori to the Naval Officers present for this part of the commemoration.

Again, I wished for more time to explore this amazing peninsula, but had to rush off to Christchurch.  I'm so happy I came to New Zealand, and now I understand why other travelers' faces lit up and smiled when remembering their time here.  It's an amazingly beautiful country with equally lovely people, and I could spend a lot of time here.  I also understand why Ruth Golden Gelman, the nomad who inspired my journey, lived here for a few years.  I reluctantly leave for my next adventure in Australia.