+Penguin Parade!
I got to Australia safe and sound (but tired!) and have been having a great time here. Karen Williamson has really researched what to do here and we have done some great stuff. The first night I was here Erik, me, Karen and her friend Gina went to the beach and had a fantastic vegetarian meal at a restaurant called Soul Mama. After dinner we all walked along the beach for over an hour. It was really beautiful. The weather was perfect. The beach was amazing. The company was the best. It was a really nice way to start off my stay in Australia and it made me feel better about Joe not being able to come.
The next morning Karen and I got up early and did an 8.5 mile along the river and through the botanical gardens. That is a really pretty run and since it was a Sunday there were lots of other people out running too. I loved the workout but it seemed so flat compared to where I have been running! I have become addicted to running the hills! After running Karen and I went to the gym and did some weight work. We met Erik there and he mostly just laughed at how hard we were working.
After working out we all went to Koko’s for lunch, a really nice Japanese restaurant in the Crown. After lunch we headed out to see the penguins of Phillip Island http://www.penguins.org.au/
On the way we stopped at an animal preserve and saw kangaroos, wallabies, Koalas, wombats and other native animals. It was kind of like an adult petting zoo. The animals there were rescues and were very tame. You got to go into the kangaroo enclosure and feed them by hand. The kangaroos just came right up to you and ate the feed right out of your palm! That was awfully cool.
After the rescue center we headed off to Phillip Island to see the penguin parade. The Little Penguins (that is the species name) are the smallest penguins in the world. Every night at sundown the penguins come out of the ocean and run across the beach to go back to their burrows and feed they chicks. Spectators can watch this from bleachers set up on the ocean. We signed up for The Private Penguin experience where a ranger takes you down tot he beach and tells you penguin facts and the history of the penguin parade. You then get binoculars so you can really see the penguins coming in from the ocean. There are hundreds of them coming in at 5 different landing points.
The penguin parade started back in the 20′s when a guy who lived on the island started bringing his relatives and friends down to see the penguins. It grew from there. In the area, during the middle of the last century, there was a housing development built which drastically endangered the penguins survival. While the penguins had no natural predators on the island (that is why there were so many of them) people brought in predators with the housing development, like cats and foxes. Also, the cars were a huge danger because the penguins aren’t naturally scared of cars. One car could take out 100 penguins in a night. Add to that there were some terrible people who would play soccer with the penguins, I mean use the penguins as the balls! Can you even imagine?????
Luckily, in the 1970′s the Australian government began a buy back of all the houses. When they would buy a house they would remove it and then plant native plants over the site where the house was to encourage penguins to burrow there. Ther are now only a spattering of houses left in the penguin habitat and they expect to complete the buy back soon.
Back in 1998 the penguins almost completely left Phillip Island because the fish they ate, pilchards, got a virus and began dying out. Because of that the penguins did not have enough to eat and it was unclear whether or not they would return the next year. Luckily, the penguins adapted and changed their diet. Pilchards became only 20% of their diet and the rest was anchovies and squid.
If you ever make it to Australia, the parade is a must see. Seeing these hundreds and hundreds of penguins come in from the ocean is amazing. I felt so keenly that my kids were not with me because they would have loved it. I was so sad they did not got to share that with me and now I know I must bring them to Australia with me. Everything we did yesterday they would have loved.
This morning I got up and Karen and I ran again, 7 miles this morning. We went back to the botanical gardens since we knew that was an awesome place to run. We worked out a little in the gym and then I went and got my registration for the tournament tomorrow. Tonight I am having dinner with my Dad and Howard at Koko’s again. Then tomorrow I am acutally playing some poker. I have been having so much fun here I almost forgot it is a working trip 