The Land Down Under

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne » Philip Island
June 14th 2011

Published: June 15th 2011

We are having a most wonderful time. The people here are overly helpful. Our running joke is ask and you shall receive because people are so accommodating and patient with us foriegners to the point that sometimes you don't even have to ask. If you look confused they will just approach you and offer help. We spent Christmas on Manly Beach in Sydney with hundreds of aussies dressed in santa hats, dresses and bikini's, and yes there was a lot of shrimp on the barbie. We also got to snorkel. We took a different ferry out to Bondi and Coogee Beaches from the Harbour (awesome view of the Opera house and bridge) but most of our time in Sydney it was rainy. Once we got to Melbourne it was a sweltering 40 degrees celsius which is almost 100 F I think. We loved Melbourne. There was so much action around town and at the beaches. Everyone is on holiday. Boxing day (26th) is a holiday the aussies made up. A lot of people don't seem to know the reason for it or care but our tour guide said that it is the day when rich people regift to their servants, not in those words. It's also when the stores have massive sales and when the rich people have a yacht race on the coast. We learned lots of local slang and saw some cool aboriginal art. I got really sunburned despite lots of sunscreen. My vacations don't seem to be complete without a mean sunburn but it was worth the relaxation factor. Then we left the city for some wildlife. Not only did we see kangaroos but we got to pet them. There was also a koala and it's joey that were so cute I keep having dreams that they live in my backyard in Culver City. We got close but weren't allowed to touch the koalas. Then we watched the penguin parade at Phillip Island which is quite a spectical. At dusk groups of 10 or so penguins run accross the sand to the beach. If they come out and there aren't any other penguins they go back in and wait till there's a little group. Strength in numbers and it worked because we didn't see any birds swoop them up.

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