Hangin with Ranger Rick

Our anniversary plans were in flux for most of the week leading up to the big day, mainly because we had wanted to go see the whales in Warnnambool. Instead (when the whales didn't show up) we flipped our plans over to the other side of the bay and headed down to Phillip Island to see the Fairy Penguins.

Our trip took a couple of interesting turns when we ended up on the wrong highway, but we got sorted out quickly and were still headed in the right direction so no harm done. Although the day was pretty grey, traffic was light and we made good time to Phillip Island. We'd been on the lookout for food the entire trip from Melbourne, but it wasn't until we saw the Chocolate Factory that we decided to stop and check it out. LOTS of choices and many of them with Dark Chocolate so we had to come home with some samples. Josh also found a slice of carrot cake that looked especially tasty and it quickly became lunch!

Back on the road we first visited The Nobbies, well known for a fur seal colony just offshore. Sadly you couldn't see any seals with the naked eye, but they had some remote cameras setup that you could control from the visitors center (after paying $5 that is), and it was fun to watch them shuffling around and arguing about who was king of the rock. It is amazing how time flies while watching seals play and before we knew it we only had 15 minutes to get to our tour meeting point - of course it only took 5 minutes to drive 3k and park so we didn't have to worry much. As we sat and filled out our paperwork, the guide for the evening - Ranger Rick - showed up to give us a briefing of what to expect , and we discovered that there would only be 5 people total (inculding Rick) on our ultimate penguin tour. All our friends (including the lady on the phone that sold us our tickets) had told us to 'rug up' and be ready for cold weather so we had brought along multiple fleece jackets, rain gear, hats and gloves, and Josh had even wanted to bring long underwear. Rick led us to the official briefing room to show us our gear, discuss the temperatures and the experience, as well show a couple stuffed specimens so we knew what we were supposed to see while on the beach. It turns out that the weather was pretty mild so we didn't need ALL the warm stuff we'd brought, but we were glad to have brought it just in case.

We then said goodbye to the growing crowds at the visitor center and headed off to a different beach on the other side of the island. While the sun started to go down, Rick gave us more background on the area and started to point out the early-visible planets (Jupiter was really bright!) When the sun finally did set in a burst of reds and purples and pinks, we were on the beach in our camp seats ready for the penguins to show up. Even with a nearly-full moon it was still plenty dark. Rick whispered to us (through a headphone system to minimize noise) about how the penguins would bunch up before coming ashore for safety and also how they could move pretty darn quickly for being so little as they made their way up the beach to their little burrows. With the help of our night-vision goggles we soon spotted the first little guys moving up the beach and it was really something to see how they waddled along. We didn't see hundreds of penguins, but some of them came close enough that it almost seemed like they would trip over our feet as we sat on the beach! Once they had generally finished coming ashore, we started our walk back to the visitors center. On the walk we saw many more penguins at their burrows. The amazing thing was how loud these little guys were - all sorts of chirps, sqwuacks and quacks with their white bellies glowing in the moonlight. We were also lucky enough to see a couple Swamp Wallabies on our walk back as well.

Seeing and hearing the penguins in the burrows singing through the night is an experience we won't soon forget. We definitely understand why it is one of the most well-known tourist attractions in Victoria and it fully lived up to our expectations.