Friday, August 25, 2006
Home of the Penguins & Koalas
Last weekend I went down to Phillip Island for a weekend getaway with Sally. Its one of the main tourist destinations and a great place to go for people living in and around Melbourne as its not far to drive but yet it feels like you're a world away from city life. We stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel where we booked a spa suite that included a 'balcony' with sea view - only to find when we checked in that we were on the ground floor with a patio overlooking the footpath with a stream of tourists walking by directly in front of our room. So you can imagine we were none too chuffed with the noise that resonated from the streets in the evening from tanked up teenagers squabbling over who lost their virginity first (Jess had it off first...with Jill and Sharon, together) Anyway, we got to know Jess really well that night, so I highly recommend this hotel if you want to know all about him...if you prefer to sleep - stay away!
Next day we struggled out of bed at 6pm to make it to the Penguin Parade - one of the few places in the world where you can see penguins in their natural habitat waddle back from the sea to their burrows. We weren't too tired after we learnt that the penguins spent most of their day at sea, travelling up to 200km searching for food!! They only sleep a few hours before heading off to sea again...poor little buggers. We felt sorry for them - especially after you see their burrows... they all had sea views but there's no spas or mini bars - how do they survive?!
We also went to the Phillip Island Nature Park to see Koala bears in the wild. They're lazy as - apparently they spend 22hrs of the time sleeping, only moving to have a quick feed before going back to sleep. That following Monday I spared a thought for the Koala as my alarm clock rang out in the morning at 6am! 
