Have I left the gas on? No I'm a penguin...

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Somebody stole 2 hours because we woke at 9.30 realised we could have a lie in then woke at 11.30 when we had to be the other side of town at 11.45 for the Phillip Island tour! Power walked (very Harold Bishop esque) to Flinders St Station for 12.05, having missed the bus but getting there just as the neighbours bus pulled in. It was the lady who had given us the tour the day before and she phoned the office to get the bus to wait for us there while we caught a taxi over there. We're so lucky 😊
Finally got on the tour bus and met a couple from St Andrew's Uni who are going to Cambridge next year (they recognised Pete and Dave's splashtops) - her to do a PGCE (keep an eye out Matt!) and him to do the clinical bit of medicine. Also met 2 boys and a girl from Yorkshire who'd campervanned New Zealand and were interested in Wicked and gave us some handy tips on getting showers at campsites without paying (tempting...)
Stopped off at a winery - not very good but at least noone was driving - and then went to a sanctuary/petting zoo type place. It would have been nice to do a safari in the wild but there's no denying it was totally cute being able to pet and handfeed the animals. Saw a baby wombat - feel soooo guilty although apparantly they turn ferrel at 3. They're not endangered so I couldn't even give to a Save the Wombat charity. Then saw some koalas (which are suprisngly like monkeys) and which kept threatening to bite as we stood next to them for photos tentatively patting them. Alpacas, dingos and evil emus (they have scary eyes and look like a big blob on legs - remarkably like Rod Hull and emu actually) and then kangaroos, a couple of which had joeys in their pouches, one of which had arms and legs everywhere and looked like it would never be able to get out again. There were some older joeys as well and some wallabies which I kept getting confused with joeys but which were much shyer.
We passed the 'big earthworm' on the way down to Phillip Island - apparently we'll see a lot of 'big' things on the side of the road as we drive around, something I know I'm looking forward to...
First we went to the windiest beach in the world with huge surf, where apparently the world surf championship took place this year because the surf at Bell's beach wasn't good enough. It was gorgeous but where the sand was loose around the sand dunes it was like a sandblaster on your face. We also found a dead 'little' or 'fairy' penguin which with hindsight I wish I'd taken a picture of - yeah I know it's a bit sick and twisted but you can't take photos of them alive because it damages their little eyes!
We went on to the 'Nobbies' otherwise known as seal rocks. Except the seals had buggered off because it was so cold. The waves on the big flat outcrops of rock were huge and it was so frothy from the waves the water on them looked like pouring cream. There was a blow hole as well but the tide was too low for that. Grr! The seagulls were pretty cool though - scary because there were so many of them - but cool because you could see them struggling to hover but they just got flung all over the place by the wind.
Finally we went to the penguin parade, which is a big arena facing the beach where you can watch the little penguins (only 30cm tall) coming out of the sea after a hard days fishing at sunset. They're so cute - they'll wait till there's 10 or 20 of them on the edge of the tide and keep swimming in and out with the tide until one of them decides he's brave enough to lead them across the beach to their homes in the sand dunes. Even when they get half way across sometimes they get scared and run back. Had pizza on the way home and got told that a friend of the tour guide does a tour to Adelaide that takes 3 day and we're planning to do it in a day - it's only 1000km - I don't know what everyone's complaining about. Went to the pub (Maitz again) and watched some of the ashes - we're winning for once!

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