We actually spent our first day not in Melbourne itself but instead on Phillip Island, about 1 1/2 hours outside the city. It was forecast to be our best day, weather-wise--since everything we wanted to see was outdoors, it made sense to go there when the weather would cooperate the most.
Phillip Island is known for its evening Penguin Parade, which was our main reason for visiting the island. Before the penguins, we stopped to see our first koalas at the Koala Conservation Centre. The centre's tree-top boardwalks allowed us to get much closer to these adorable guys!
Koalas are like pandas in that both animals' diets do not provide them with a lot of energy. Therefore, just like the pandas we saw in Chengdu, these guys snooze 16 to 18 hours a day, conserving what little calories they take in (from the surrounding eucalyptus trees) by sleeping a lot.
The event we were most excited to witness was the Phillip Island Penguin Parade, an adorable nightly show of Little Penguins (that's their actual name!) returning to their land burrows after spending the day hunting for food in the ocean. Little Penguins are the smallest species of penguin in the world, standing about a foot tall (0.3 meters) and weighing only about 3.3 pounds (1.5 kilograms). We perused the visitor's center, peeked into some of the burrows (where we could see a baby penguin waiting for its parent to return), and waited until the outdoor viewing area opened. We grabbed prime penguin-spotting seats and ate a picnic dinner while we waited for the sun to set and the penguins to arrive.
The sky turned beautiful pastel colors as the sun set over the Southern Ocean.
We kept our eyes open for penguins in the surf, but we knew that they wouldn't dare come up on land until it was fully dark, thus providing the Little Penguins plenty of cover from airborne predators.
This is the last picture we were able to take, so I don't have any pictures of adorable penguins to share. In order to protect the penguins and keep things as natural as possible for them, no photography was allowed as soon as the sun officially set. Instead, we have our memories of Little Penguins swimming up to the shore, waddling a bit onto the sand, scurrying back into the ocean (they are quite skittish so sometimes it takes a few attempts before they feel confident to make the full journey inland), and eventually making their way to their burrows, passing just a few feet in front of us. This night there were only a few penguins who came ashore....the number varies greatly and, while we were hoping for a show of hundreds of penguins, we were happy to see even just a few.
After the coastal viewing time finished, we walked along boardwalks and were able to see many more penguins that had come out of their burrows. They were waddling around, calling out to each other, and just generally being adorable. It was a really fun evening, and while we didn't get back to our Melbourne AirBnB until after midnight, it was well worth the trip.
The next day, we slept in and then took a walking tour of Melbourne in the afternoon. A local guide showed us the major sights of the city and explained its history to us. The boys were thrilled to find out he was a Star Wars fan and peppered him with non-tour related questions as much as possible ("What's your favorite vehicle?" "Who's your favorite character?"). He was patient and friendly to them.
This is the Old Melbourne Gaol, which was a prison that held some of Australia's most notorious criminals.
We passed through some beautiful parks on what was at first a gorgeous day.
We passed the Victorian Parliament building, where the laws for the state of Victoria are made.
We passed through some of Melbourne's ethnic areas, including Chinatown.
The weather was quickly changing, and it got really windy!
Melbourne has a thriving, officially sanctioned street art scene, and on our tour we passed by some of the most popular spots and creations.
We walked through some of the historic shopping arcades that had beautiful architecture and design.
And we passed through some of the lanes that are home to the restaurants and cafés that makes Melbourne a "foodie mecca" in Australia.
We ended our tour passing by the Melbourne train station, walking through one of the central Melbourne plazas, and ending at a scenic spot overlooking the Yarra River and the Melbourne skyline....just before it started to pour on us. We made our way to a little Vietnamese restaurant and enjoyed a delicious lunch of one of our most favorite cuisines of our trip so far.
Our time in Melbourne was short, but even in just a couple of days we could see why Melbourne has been ranked as the world's most livable city for the past 6 years running. The public transportation was extensive and easy to use (and even free within the CBD), there were fantastic restaurants and cafés offering numerous different cuisines, and there was also lots of green and open space to enjoy in the city. It was a great first stop as we restarted our travels on the Australian mainland!
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