The Penguin Parade Tour

Our first full day in Melbourne, Josephine, Terry, and I took a tour to see the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. The tour began with a stop at a chocolate museum! They had a statue of David made entirely of chocolate, a chocolate waterfall, and a two ton block of chocolate. Most of our tour group piled onto a scale to try to outweigh the block of chocolate.

  

Then we went to a Koala Conservation Center. It was so cool! You just walk around this boardwalk and look up into the trees and suddenly you see a koala. Most of them just sit there, not minding all the silly humans taking pictures of them, but we actually saw one get up, scratch himself, and climb around the tree. I was reminded that koalas are actually not bears, they are marsupials, but they are pretty fierce. Our guide warned us not to touch them unless we wanted stitches. I also learned that koalas can get chlamydia, and sadly, most of the Australian koala population is infected.

Josephine, egged on by Terry, yelled at the koalas, despite the sign.

We also saw some wallabies.

Then we had a wine tasting. I didn’t get any pictures, but the wine tasted good!

After that was the penguin parade. Every night, as soon as it gets dark, penguins come out of the ocean to go to their burrows. People used to drive down to the shore, crushing the burrows with their cars, so the government took over the site and built viewing platforms and boardwalks. At first they allowed people to take pictures, but too many people “forgot” to take the flash off their camera, and the penguins were scared. So now no pictures are allowed. The penguins can swim all over the world, but when it’s time to breed they return to within 50 meters of the place where they were born. Humans can’t even remember to turn the flash off on their cameras. It makes humans sound pretty stupid, doesn’t it?

The penguins at Phillip Island are the smallest penguins in the world. Unlike other penguins, they’re not actually black and white, they’re blue and white. Their blue backs allow them to blend in with the ocean so predators from above can’t see them. The white bellies allow them to blend with the sky, so predators from below can’t see them. Pretty smart, right? 

Watching them come out of the ocean was one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my whole life. You watch these huge waves crashing on the shore, and you start to see tiny heads popping through the waves. The penguins wash up, back, up, and then they stand up and waddle up the shore. They run across the open sand, well aware that they are vulnerable to airborne predators. Then they waddle up the hills to their burrows. They make really strange noises as they meet their mates or fight with other penguins. Though they are the smallest penguins in the world, they're the loudest. They are so ADORABLE! 

Since I couldn't take any pictures, I copied these from wikipedia so you can see the penguins:

It was SO COOL! I've only been in Australia for a little over a day, but it's really awesome! My only disappointment so far is that Terry hasn't picked up an Australian accent. I'm doing my best to imitate the accent, but so far I just sound silly.