A Little Adventure

After leaving Melbourne, Lauren and I headed south to Phillip Island, home of these adorable Little Penguins.  Growing only 12-13 inches tall, these native Aussies are the smallest birds in the penguin family.  Each night at dusk, thousands of them flock from the sea, waddle over the rocks, and find their sandy burrows on the coast.

I had no idea what to expect from the so-called Penguin parade, but it was amazing.  The penguins have suffered a large loss of habitat as the shore has been developed, so unfortunately they now only nest in a few areas on the south coast of Australia, and Philip Island is home to the largest of these colonies.

The southern coast of Australia isn't home to pristine beaches - in fact, the rough coastline, battered by antarctic waters, looks more like Britain than Bondi.  Just like in Ireland or Scotland, the green, scrubby hills fall directly into the surf.  As we walked around the boardwalks, the hills around us were a buzz with penguins calling out to their mates.  I've listened to the sunset songs of frogs, crickets, even bats, but to know that it was penguins calling out around us a very unique experience.

Melbourne

Melbourne - the capital of Victoria and second-largest city on the continent - is the "other" city in Australia; although if you said that to any Melburnians you'd have another thing coming.  The Melbourne-Sydney rivalry is even more alive than that between Boston and New York.  Even though Sydney always seems to be just one step ahead, Melbourne is widely regarded as the cultural capital of Australia, and is projected to overtake Sydney as the largest city in the next few decades.

For me and Lauren, Melbourne was the starting point for our trip.  After a quick two-hour flight from Brisbane, we landed in the cold.  I'd be told many times that Melbourne is a city that gets four seasons in one day, but as a proud New Englander, I wasn't intimidated.  However, as a New Englander who has become acclimatised to a subtropical surrounding, I promptly put on my layers and whinged when we hit the airport.

The first thing that hit me about Melbourne was the trees.  It's Autumn in Australia, and Melbourne is temperate enough to get a true change of seasons.  After missing two falls at home, my heart melted to see all the reds and oranges, and hear that familiar crunch beneath my feet.

We really only had one afternoon to see Melbourne, so unfortunately we didn't really get a grasp of the city.  One drawcard of the city is its beautiful gardens, which we did walk through.  The city is also famous for its side streets and alleyways, where you need to be in the "in" to know where to go.  I won't pretend to be a trendy Melburnian, but I'm lucky enough to know a few, so Lauren and I had a delicious dinner at a trendy tapas bar that you wouldn't have looked twice at if you had passed the the street.

Although I only got a taste of the "other," I was certainly left wanting more of Melbourne.

Melbourne CBD

Exhibition Hall from the 1880's

The Great Australian Roadtrip

After a quiet month of May, June came in with a roar with the beginning of the Great Aussie Roadtrip.  Lauren, a friend from home, came over to visit, and we set about our mission to see as much of Australia as we could in two weeks.  And I must say, it was a great success.

We flew from Brisbane to Melbourne, which is on the south-east coast of Australia.  From there we drove to Sydney, and then from Sydney to Brisbane, before flying up to Cairns in far North Queensland to see the rainforests and the reef.  In between the vast nothingness that makes up this country, we did manage to find quite a few amazing spots, and have lots of fun along the way!  And, most importantly, managed to make it back to Brisbane in our massive campervan (surely a tribute to my Barry heritage), without dumping each other along the way.

Over the next few days and weeks I'll blog about some of our best adventures, starting down in Melbourne and working up to Cairns.  Stay posted - it will be great!

All 2,000 kilometers of our road trip, and Cairns way up at the top.