penguin priorities

I may have had a presentation for my Rock Climbing class on Monday followed by my end of year "exams" in my Team Sports, Social Foundations of Sport and Exercise and Adapted Coaching classes all on Wednesday, along with another Social Dimensions test and an Adapted Coaching assignment due on Thursday...

...but with my time in this amazing city running short I decided I need to prioritize. Site seeing comes first. Obvi.

A late lazy hungover wake-up on Saturday which was supposed to turn into a productive work day instead turned into a trip to the Melbourne Museum with my friends Bree and Nina. Free for students? I'll take it!

We didn't see anything super spectacular, it was really just your average museum. Being someone who pretty much grew up with the ROM as my second home, I always down to appreciate some good old dinosaur bones, stuffed sharks, pressed butterflies and things with buttons I can push! We saw some stuffed Australian animals and I got a little living preview of some of the creepy crawlies I can expect to encounter once I get into the Outback in a few weeks. Ants. Spiders. Scorpians. Yikes. There was also a really neat Mind and Body section that pretty much summed up everything I've learned in the last three years of uni in a more fun and interactive way. We stepped into an optical illusion, saw artwork created by schizophrenics and relaxed on comfy beds while watching dream-like images above our heads and all that cool kind of stuff. A good experience worth putting my homework off for! The walk back to the train station was also quite lovely as we got to walk through Carlton Gardens and take in the crisp autumn atmosphere!

Then to further neglect my homework a parade of penguins took priority. A group of ten rented two cars and took a day trip to Phillip Island!

First of all, throughout the two hour car ride we got a real taste of typical constantly changing Melbourne weather. Black skies and pouring rain one second, beautiful and sunny the next. Just when we thought we were doomed with rain for the day the most MAGNIFICENT rainbow appeared just before we crossed the bridge to the island. How many people can say that they found the end of the rainbow!? Because I can...! We were so excited over it we almost pulled over and considered chasing it. Although it was probably one of the coolest things I've seen, I was a little disappointed to notice the lack of leprechauns and pot of gold.

Anyhow, our first stop was Churchill Island Heritage Farm. A cute little farm with a Pioneer Village feel to it. We mosied around, taking in the nice scenery and wandering through little old houses.

Next stop was the Koala Conservation Centre. We got to see some cute koalas in their natural habitat and find out some fun facts about them. The life of a Koala is pretty sweet I'd have to say; not a worry in the world. They don't hang out together so they don't have to worry about anyone else's business, all they eat are eucalyptus leaves which provide minimal energy, take a lot of energy to digest and release toxins that make them drowsy resulting in them sleeping for about 20 hours each day, their babies are the size of a jellybean when they're born, and they're just suuuper cute!

After that I got a chance to drive!! Backwards. That's all I have to say about that. Then we grabbed some lunch and ice cream before we headed to the penguin parade. Every night hundreds of little penguins (which is the smallest species of penguins in the world) swim up to the shore and scurry across the beach and into the fields where their burrows are to go to sleep. They have to wait until sundown to do this because if they're exposed on the land during the day the birds of prey will snatch them up and eat them! We weren't allowed to take pictures of them because the flash is bad for their eyes... and one lady tried to tell us that the flash frightens them causing them to vomit and then starve and die... but I think I'll stick with reason number one. They were adorable though.

It was a great day with some great mates!

Sincerely,
AUS