The last tour I had booked in Melbourne was for a day trip to Brighton Beach, Moonlit Sanctuary, and Phillip Island. My friend Cayla from Contiki had been on this tour and she had recommended it to see a koala up close and the penguin parade. Melbourne is home to little penguins as they are called due to its location in the Southern Hemisphere. Polar bears inhabit the Arctic and penguins inhabit Antarctica and Melbourne.
One of the first things the guide pointed out as we drove through Melbourne was how each of the trees in the central business district has an email. In an effort to provide shade especially in the summer months, the city has embarked on a mission to plant more trees. There is a person who’s full time job is responding to the emails people send to each tree. It is quite a popular thing to do and people will send in funny stories and even romance stories of their first kiss under a tree. The funniest stories are then posted up on Facebook.
It took a full hour to pick everyone up after which we headed towards Brighton Beach through the St. Kila neighborhood. St. Kilda is most known for its beach today and yesterday they had the annual St. Kilda music festival on the beach. St. Kilda used to be the stomping grounds for the wealthy and real estate in the area costs a bomb. Most of the houses are now historic homes fringed with a distinct Edwardian style of decor on the patio. The Edwardian style followed the Victorian style.
Brighton Beach is also known as a very upscale neighborhood. It has become known for its brightly colored bathing boxes that line the beach. The bathing boxes are the main attraction of the beach and have been there since the 1860s. Owning one now has become a status symbol as the boxes cost upwards of half a million dollars and you have to be a Brighton resident to own one. The bathing houses have been well painted and maintained to become an icon of the city. Most of the boxes are striped but some of them have kangaroos painted on them and one even has the iconic Japanese painted on it.
There are only about 90 bathing boxes on the beach and there are strict rules about the use of the boxes. You cannot sleep in them and they have no running water or electricity. They are essentially bougie sheds. One of the boxes was open and a man was lounging in his beach chair. His bathing boxes had a tiny seating area and cooler and that was about. It was well decorated though with cute beach portraits on the wall. It really was just to hang out on the beach.
Our next stop along the way was the most anticipated Moonlit Sanctuary. A sanctuary differs from a zoo in that animals are placed there for rescue and rehabilitation efforts. I had signed up for the Koala encounter so that I would be able to pet a koala and be able to see it up close.
The koala encounter was the highlight of my day! Being able to pet the koala was so amazing. The koala I pet was named Cyclops and she was the cutest thing ever! Her ears were so fluffy and since she was only awake for a few hours, she was eating away. Every few seconds she would reach out to the ranger for another branch of eucalyptus leaves. Most of the eucalyptus leaves were discarded as koalas are very picky eaters and only like the young leaves. She really wasn’t interested in me but she let me pet her and that was all I could ask for.
Cyclops was so fluffy! She was like a stuffed animal in real life! I stroked her from behind her ears down to her bum. My friend was recording a video of me and at one point you can hear me say “she feels just like a rug”. I was referring to the extremely fluffy alpaca rugs if you were wondering. Her fur was so fluffy though and soft. It was incredible to be so close to her and pet her as I had only seen the koalas in the wild from a distance so far. I was definitely obsessed with koalas after that encounter!
Petting Cyclops was the dopamine I needed for my day as we admired all the other animals present. The area we had entered had a gate where all of the kangaroos and wallabies were free to roam. The kangaroos we saw were massive and mainly lying in the shade. You could purchase food for the animals and feed them. I had a great time watching as the wallabies came right up to humans to stick their little snout in the cup of food. The kangaroos and wallabies were another animal I had not been able to see up close. Now I could see just how big their paws were and how they use their tail to counterbalance when hopping on their two feet. The wallabies came right up to us. It was amazing!
Another animal the sanctuary had plenty of were birds! Australia is home to so many colorful birds it was so cool to be able to spot all of them. The birds were in cages sadly so we were not able to walk amongst them as we did with the wallabies. My favorite bird was a salmon-colored parrot. I recognized the infamous cockatoo who is most known for stealing food off of restaurant tables. I could have spent all at the sanctuary spotting all of the native Australian wildlife including wombats, koalas, kangaroos, dingoes, and more species of birds than I could count.
After the animal sanctuary we finally made our way down to Phillip island. There is exactly one bridge that connects to Phillip Island and it is heavily patrolled as the rangers are looking for feral cats and foxes. Feral cats and foxes are the penguins biggest predator. Phillip Island has the largest colony of little penguins with around 40,000 penguins. The number was much lower when foxes and feral cats roamed the island but since, the government has made many efforts to keep them out.
Our first stop in Phillip Island was at a beach called Cape Woolamai. The Cape had a little boardwalk that we walked around. From it there were awesome views of the land below and waves breaking on the rocks. Sometimes I have to remind myself that this is indeed real life and not some fantasy. Along the boardwalk were several holes in the foliage. These holes were filled with sleeping penguins! While most of the penguins had gone out to sea to fish for the day, many stayed home because they were either too old or young. They stayed on the shore in the safety of their little underground homes waiting for the others to return home. The penguins' homes were marked with the holes in the foliage but also the white poo that surrounded their homes since they would not poop inside of their homes. The penguins create burrows to protect themselves from the heat during the day as well as birds of prey.
Penguins always build their houses facing the water as that is their food source. In recent years the rangers have also built little dollhouses for the penguins to nest in. This has helped increase the population of little penguins and provided them a safe space from birds of prey. Since feral cats and foxes have been removed from the island, the biggest predators for the penguins are birds of prey such as eagles. Penguins typically waddle down to the water before the sunrises and then only return after the sunsets to avoid becoming a bird's dinner.
Phillip Island was a very scenic drive and we stopped at many different viewpoints until we came to the area where the penguin parade would occur. The penguin parade occurs every night and attracts 2,000 visitors to come and view it. It occurs just after the sunsets and is the time the penguins are returning to their homes. The rangers have been able to mark out the routes the penguins take everyday and created little paths so the penguins can make their way home after a long day.
The guide had told us the best spot to sit to see the penguins was on the beach so the group sat together on the sand as we waited for the penguins to come up on the beach. Shortly after the sunset at around 8:45 pm, the first penguins showed up. The beach was covered with seagulls so it was initially hard to see the penguins but eventually it became very clear. The penguins were so tiny and looked so silly! They would come out of the water only to be swept up back out into the current. I think some of them were having a bit of fun as they kept going back to catch some waves. When penguins stick together in the ocean it is known as a raft. Once the whole raft had made it to the shore, the penguins began the waddle up the slope to get to their homes. Their homes were located along the boardwalk that had been built and as they all moved up there, we also followed them.
The penguins were the funniest and cutest things ever! The penguins had spent the day out at sea swallowing their prey whole so they could bring it back to feed their young. Some of the penguins looked so bloated and struggled to make it back to their homes. The raft of penguins would be moving and then all of a sudden one penguin trailing the rest would just plop over and not move for several seconds. The penguins that were especially bloated kept doing that over and over. It was very amusing to watch. Poor little guys had such a busy day and now had to make the steep uphill journey to get home. I sympathized with them.
The penguins were so tiny and I just wanted to take one home with me! I think I could have easily wrapped one up in my jacket until it started squawking “haka haka haka”. I really loved seeing the penguin parades and it will definitely remain as a very memorable experience for me.
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