30th Birthday @ Melbourne

I've been thinking whether I should write about my trip in my blog... reason being: That's my birthday present for myself, so, it's very personal... and I was too eagle to share with everybody when I come back, so, can you imagine how many times of same story telling again and again? I felt a little boring to repeat the same thing. But, at last, I still decided to write, because at least even if one day, I've forgotten some details, I still have a record here.

(actually I just copy & paste the whole story which I've written in an email to my close friend)

My travel buddies

My flight to melbourne was on time, and i didn't expect the flight was so full, can you imagine the queue at the check in/ out counter & at the custom in both country? I reached Melbourne International Airport T2 @ 9.30am (their local time) (I think there were also 3-4 flights arrive almost the same time), due to the long queue & tight immigration checking, I can only claimed my luggage and got out from custome around 11am. I was told to call my hostel to get my complimentary airport transfer booking number, but I have no coin, so, since I was a little hungry, I went to the one and only cafe in the airport to buy a bottle of mineral water & sandwich, in order to ask for some coin, you know how much was my bill? 12.9AUD (AUD = RM38.7). pretty suck blood. At first I was a little worried about the complimentary airport transfer to my hostel, because the ppl from my hostel refuse to give me the booking number before hand through email, she insisted me to call when I arrive at the airport, then my 2nd worry was time limitation, I've booked a day trip to Phillip Island and the bus will come to pick me up @ Novotel Hotel (15 minutes walk from my hostel) at 12.10pm. Of course, at last I was able to get my shutter and arrived my hostel at 11.30am.

I think must be a lot of Chinese ppl visiting Melbourne/ Australia

I looked horrible after a night in flight, since I've a little bit of time, I decided to take a shower before walking to Novotel. When I come out from my bath room, gosh, I saw a guy in my room, he was my roommate?!! (I booked a 6-bed dome, bathroom en suite). Because I was rushing, I decided to leave this aside. Actually I already got the direction to Novotel, but I was running too fast (like headless fly) and I missed some junctions, so, I was actually walking away from Novotel, it's already 12.10pm and I still can't see Novotel, I was panic, so I decided to ask a pedestrian, I thought Australian is very "cold", and racist, but to my surprise, this young gentleman (quite good looking too) was trying his very best to help me and pointed me the direction. The weather was very cold (only 6 degree celcius, it's crazy with this temperature in Spring isn't it?), and I was tired of running, and time was up, so when I saw an empty cab stopping at traffic light, my natural instinct told me I should take the cab. in 2 mintues (12.15pm), I reached Novotel, cab fees is 5AUD (very high expenses living in Melbourne right?). I looked around and I didn't see any bus from the travel agency, I thought I have missed the bus. But around 12.25pm, the bus came, wohooo... thank god. I boarded and you know, i felt safe finally... this was how my day trip begins.

even in the bus, we need to fasten the seat belt

My expensive breaky

Bus picking up other tourists @ Federation Square

I was not living in CBD (central business district), I live somewhere near the beach, St. Kilda road. After my pick up, then the bus went around CBD to pick some other tourists, there are ppl from UK, a lady from US (but she is a chinese), Brazil (a family) and a couple from Malaysia. Thanks my parents, I've got a friendly look, ahem... haha, so, we started to talk to each other d. They are a sweet couple. The husband was on his business trip, but they went there earlier to do their "honeymoon". The husband travel quite extensively due to his job, and mostly the wife will tag along. I thought they were just married (because I see they are very dear to each other), but later the wife told me they are already 38 years old and has 3 kids. What a perfect & sweet couple?

The lady from US, she was borned in China and worked in US for 10 years as lecturer (teaching finance). She was invited to give a seminar in Melbourne Uni, and then she extended her business trip to join this tour. She is a very nice lady, very friendly, since we were both travelling alone, so, we were helping each other to take pictures.


although the trip is called penguin parade day tour, but the trip also include places like churchill island, koala conservation centre, nobbies broadwalk to see seal before we actually go to see the penguin parade at night.

after the bus picked everybody, the driver cum tour guide started to tell us stories about penguin, philip island, play video of penguin, but I was not listening, I fell asleep untill we reached churchill island after about 2 hours of drive, a pit stop for us to see wallaby.

the wallabies are kept in a place with fence, the farm keeper let us in but we can only walk close to the fence and try not to disturb them, when the wallabies saw us, they basically just look at us, maybe thinking "what the heck these walking animals doing in my territory?" the wallaby is smaller size of kangaroo, I remember when I was in perth, I can interact with the kangaroo, touch them, feed them, but this time, we can only go in to the farm, walk a round and that's it. nothing very interesting.

Crossing the strait to Philip Island

Heading to Churchill Island

The wallabies

Poor sheep after shave

It's amazed that somebody in my trip doesn't know what animal is this...
I thought you celebrate thanks giving every year?

beautiful flower in spring
is this lavendar?

Little daisy... lovely!

There's also a victorian style country house in Churchill Island, it is opened for us to walk in to see the interior in the house.
Above is the study room

Master bedroom with a baby bed
oooo, it's kind of scary when I look at this picture.

The kitchen cupboard with china & baby chair

me & the house manager, dressed in traditional costume

My favourite flower - calalily

the lady from US
She was learning how to use the whip

beautiful wild daisy

Then we proceeded to koala conservation centre, the sky started drizzling, but you know, that kind of rain won't make you get wet. When we were in, we need to observe closely to the tree branches to locate the koala. Some of them are sleeping (they sleep 20 hours a day), due to cold weather, some koalas put their hands and legs together close to their bodies, so, it seems like a big grey fur ball sitting on the branches. We were lucky, because some were awake eating eucalyptus leaves. They are super pampered, the farm keeper will pluck the leaves and put close to them, so when they wake up, they don't even need to move, they just need to stretch their hands to reach the leaves.






When time was almost up, suddenly the rain and wind became so fierce, we need to run to bus as fast as we can. the lady from US was so kind, she offer me umbrella... the driver said the koala has finger print which is similar to human, so, any crime happen in bushes or outdoor, the ppl will blame the koala (koala actually quite violent too).

Koala Conservation Centre

then the driver (I forgot his name), sent us to an early dinner @ nobbies broadwallk, weather was very very cold & raining heavily outside, we can't do anything outdoor, and there's not many choices of food in the penguin parade centre, so the driver suggested to us to eat @ nobbies.Because my throat still hurt (ya, I had sore throat for 3 weeks), so i picked grilled chicken, salad and a little bit of potatos, simple meal like that costed 19AUD... throughtout the trip, I think I spent quite a lot in food... I'm not a big eater or I'm choosing only fine meals, but averagely, 15AUD per meal is normal.

Nobbies has a broadwalk surrounding the buiding, we can actually walk out to see if we were lucky enough to see a seal, so, before we depart to see the penguin, I tried to walk out. the wind was so strong, I can feel the wind was going to blow me away (remind you, I'm not light weighted), then in a sudden, I felt my head turned numb (brain freeze). I wanted to snap photo but I can't help my hand to stay stable. I even saw a small eagle freeze to death and his/her partner was sitting next to the dead body, so sad. the seagull wanted to fly against the wind but no matter how hard it flipped, it still can't move an inch forward...

Seagull hiding in the bush

small eagle hiding in the bush too

The Seal Rock

Rain pouring down
I was sitting in the bus when the driver pointed that's the place we will be seeing penguin coming up later

in my heart I was praying, please stop raining, (the deck seeing penguin parade is roof-less). the tour guide said first penguin came out from water at 8pm the night before, so, that day the penguin will most probably come up at the same. he was trying to persuade us to spend and enjoy our time with the penguin as much as we can no matter how's the weather changing, unless we decided to go there every year. he is a very responsible and good tour guide, because usually the tour guide will urge the tourist to leave as soon as possible so they can be off earlier, but I can see he really has a lot of passion to those cute little creatures.

I bought a rain coat from the souvenir shop, and I'm glad that I did & felt very thankful to the rain coat, it not only kept me from getting wet, but also kept me warm. we were sitting by the beach, on the watching deck, then at 8pm, we could see groups and groups of penguins coming up from the water, they are so tiny, maybe one or two feet tall, but they are able to come up to the shore although the wave was so strong, drawing them back to the water, and their home too, located very high up at the hill, but they can be able to walk up slowly... it's really touching when seeing them came out from water and walked back home, some penguins really very nice, they are like "big brother", took good care of everybody and make sure nobody left behind. very cute.

Postcard

Can't take photo with the actual penguin, so, I took with the penguin figurine

shhhh..... secretly took this, but I checked my flash off before taking this, so, I won't hurt them

we left philip island at 9.30pm. by the time I reach my hostel, it's already 12am. because I was the last dropped off, I got some time to chat with the driver. the driver actually isn't a full time tour guide, he is doing this every weekend only, his permanent job is a paramedic, he started the conversation by throwing me a question to me:"why kids always cry when seeing me?" (he is not a bad looking guy), then i said, because he always jab the kids, of course the kids will cry whenever seeing him.

he told me he is from sydney, then his wife from brisbane, they met each other during commenwealth game in 2006, they both came to help up in the game and then decided to stay in melbourne. he said this is not his first marriage, his previous wife was killed in an accident, he said it's very difficult to be a tour guide cum bus driver in Australia, they need to go through a lot of tests and he asked me if malaysia is doing this too? then i said no, we had a lot of scary accidents happen due to reckless bus drivers.

then i asked where does he stays, he said stay somewhere near philip island. gosh... he can only reach home 2am every weekend. so, I think if he isn't so passionate about doing this, I mean being a guide to philip island, he wouldn't border doing all this. then I asked whether his wife has any complaint? then he said:"this is the best thing of marrying a psychologist!"

In the morning he picked me up at novotel, supposely, he only need to drop me off at novotel, but he was kind enough to ask whether I was really staying there, and he volunteer to send me back to my hostel.

I felt i was really really very lucky on my birthday. 1. able to catch the bus even I was late, 2. meeting nice ppl throughout the trip.

when I reached my hostel, I was trying to fix my mistake of mis-booked a mixed room, but all female domes are fully booked. I've no choice but stayed with the guy that night. In my heart, I pray hard again, hope he doesn't snore. I was lucky, it's either i sleep death that night, or he really didn't snore, I had a good night rest until next morning.