Come A-Waltzing Matilda with Cubbies to Melbourne! - PART 3

Grrrowl!!!

Oh yes, i'm baaack with our new post on Melbourne the Great Victorian City! :) This time with accompanying animals.

DAY 3 - Sleep-In Day and My God, Aren't Those Tiny Penguins Bloody Exhibitionists?!!

Well well... So the Penguin Parade gig starts only from midday, so after the GOC (and all the walking and climbing and my little pink paws hurting), we were thankful that we get a little more rest before our next tour. Though we usually do not follow schedules and tour timings very well (we're really, travellers who prefer our own self-made itinerary...) we were thankful that we get a little more rest before our next tour. We slept like there was no tomorrow and woke up only at 11am. Talk about getting knocked out! :)

The REAL Penguin Parade tour starts only at 7pm, so the day time was spent visiting Phillip Island itself. But before that, we created a ruckus in the kitchen at Urban Central. No actually, we just made lunch! :) Some unidentifiable wrap that has some salad and whole fried breaded fish thing. Meebops refused to eat it. "The problem isn't in the wrap or the fish... It was the lack of ingredients!!!" Cubbies said.

Anyway, driving out of the city centre at midday is less than desirable for me especially when the sun is at its peak and even if you "blasted" the air full - the sun will still give you its shining glory. Meebops is better at such things because she's more "heat" tolerant. Too much heat will cause me to develop red little patches (Meebops said its "nappy rash") and my furs won't glow. You know, we're really starting to think that we're probably from different species of bears? Like i'm very much white fluffy Polar ones or light fluffy Panda ones... and Meebops is more the grizzly or black brown-zoon type? Mwahahaha!! :P

Anyway, Melbourne has the strangest weather changes in the history of us travelling from country to country - see, it will get very very cold early in the morning, fog and all; then by about 11ish or so, it starts to get really shiny, still cold but the sun shines... It can change from hot to cold anytime during the day, but by evening, it gets even less cooler (yes! its the warmest at night!) but of course it can also change from warm to cold to warm again at any time. So as they say, Melbournians always dress prepared! :)

Moving along, the tour on Day 3 was very interesting i must say, cos we visited the nature park, the conservation centre, saw rocky sections of the ocean with a cute name - all to build up the anticipation of the main attraction, which was the little penguins.

So enough talking - more sightseeing. Here goes:

What did i tell you about the sun? Me don't likey.

First stop was the Phillip Island Nature Park, which is really down at Churchill Island.
Well this is what Churchill / Penguin Island looks like - stunning scenery isn't it? Oh... I can live here and watch this forever :)

These are some of the baby animals down at the Nature Park - they're actually really friendly and tame, so you can touch them - which Cubbies did at a moment's notice!

Ummm... that's Mr. Kangoo right there... I'm just saying, maybe its a "Mr", cos he looks kind of... masculine... you know... like... Gggrrr!!

Believe it or not, this was my first time touching a baby sheep!!! (ummm... so?) Ooooooooo it was fluffy, definitely very fluffy woolly... erm.. fluff. I wanted to take one home but Meebops, as usual, wouldn't allow me to. This was the sheep i stroked and played with (i literally did!). Oh very fluffy!

And here's another with the wool sweater, probably taken from his cousin.

And here are even more photos of the Koala (you'll see a lot of these in the blog...) - the iconic world famous Australian Ambassador. These were taken at the Koala's Conservation Centre and what you do is take a stroll on the boardwalk and see them closer in their natural habitat - which is atop the Eucalyptus Tree, either eating, sleeping or painfully bored. Haha! Here's one dozing off:

There's one busy eating... "Nyum Nyum Nyum... These leaves are Da Bom' i'm telling ya... " So said the Koala... Taken from atop a tree at the Koala Conservation Centre - Phillip Island, Victoria (can't seem to upload it to Vimeo, so i'd have to use the Flickr! one..)

And the one looking painfully bored, "Sigh... Pathetic fools. They must think i'm Ooooo so cute! Bleargh... What am i to do with these bozos..." :)

After the Koalas and the Kangoos and baby Sheep - we went off to lunch at the local winery (which Cubbies drank and

Believe it or not we have no pictures of the tiny penguin parade!!! Why?! because were were not allowed to! No cameras no nothing... just eyes to witness. That is so that the penguins won't get so freaked out by the flash from those cameras and they will not want to swim back to shore. See the penguins do that on a daily basis - early morning, swim out to sea. At dusk, swim on back home to shores where homes are nestled in between the rockies and shrubs.

TIP! I gotta tell you though - do put on some seriously warm outfit and long pants if you're there at any season other than maybe, summer. While it is a really fascinating experience - what with watching untamed waves crashing in front of you and the sound of hungry seagulls searching for that last catch before heading home, and you, waiting patiently for the tiny wild creatures to return back to shore - it is still an open, unrestricted ocean - and it is COLD. Victoria has one of the coldest water temperature in all of Australia, possibly because it is within close proximity to chilly chilly Tasmania down South / South-West.

All i can say is that those penguins are a real charmer. They are not exotic or glamourous, rich and charismatic like the Emperors, and they're not exactly as small or tiny as you'd think (even though they are the World's Smallest "Little Penguins") - but they are one helluva exhibitionists! They waddle home out from the open ocean, to the rockies and mate (ooh yeah, mate) all night long (at least that's what cheeky Cubbies saw!!!). Who cares who's watching??!! They will mate their way back to their nests as you stroll along the boardwalk back to bus :) And in case you have no idea how these blubber pack mate, i've got a sample below ;)

Somebuddy's gettin' some lovin' tonight... heh!

Picture of mating blubber was taken from mgsbird

This is how the Phillip Island Little Penguins looked like... these shameless buggers :)

Picture borrowed from here

And just before you drive off - duck under your car, JUST IN CASE you find one for the record!

Guess i'll have to cover Day 4 & 5: Touring The City And Off To The Beach Town St. Kilda! next.

Sorry folks... it'll probably be at least, another 2 posts on Melbourne before i can move off to some other destinations. Don't get bored yet - because we aren't! And we still couldn't get enough of the charming city and Cubbies can't see why you should get bored with it! ;)

Cheers, mate!