After landing and getting through the airport we waited for our hotel shuttle in the dark. With a five hour flight and time change it was 10 o'clock already. Once we had caught the taxi and checked in it was already 11. The next day we had to leave the hotel by 9 so we took a shuttle to the car rental, got our van and grabbed some muffins for breakfast before driving out of Melbourne (on the left side of the road) to our first destination Moonlight Sanctuary. It was a couple hours south east around the bay and as soon as we walked in our first stop was to see the koalas. There were a few koalas hanging from the Eucalyptus trees and one of them you were able to touch. (It's not usually good to familiarize wild animals with humans but this koalas was orphaned at birth and couldn't be released back into the wild.) The koala's fur was super soft and smelled strongly of eucalyptus. It was really cool to see it up close because in the wild you usually see them way up in the tree tops and they look like a big grey ball of fur.
We moved on to the wallaby and kangaroo habitat. We had some kangaroo food and you can actually feed them out of your hand because most of them were orphaned joeys and raised there. What usually happens is the mom gets hit by a car and the joey is still alive in the pouch. We walked down the pathway and entered the huge habitat with wallabies and kangaroos on both sides. We all took turns feeding the kangaroos and wallabies and they would lick all the food off of your hand and they even stole some right out of Sage's bag.
Once we ran out of food we went to see a show at the front of the sanctuary. We took our seats and a cockatoo flew right over our heads. He flew around the audience a few times before flying back to the front of the stage. The sanctuary volunteer told us about the cockatoo before calling in a barn owl who flew past us without a sound. And the last part was a tiger quoll. They're a bit like a Tasmanian devil but more tan coloured and a little bit smaller. The small tiger quoll ran right up a tree with ease before heading back into the back of the outdoor stage. At the end of the show we got to see a nightjar that would stretch out its head and look like a broken tree branch. It was really cool.
Then we headed to see the laughing kookaburra at feeding time. The sanctuary staff was throwing pieces of rat meat high in the air and the kookaburra would snatch them out of the air. Not one piece hit the ground and after they made the weirdest laughing noise.
When they were done feeding we moved on to the Tasmanian devil habitat. The Tasmanian devil was almost thirteen years old, which is quite old for a Tasmanian devil, but was still quite fierce looking and could tear us to pieces if it had the chance.
After the Tasmanian devil we headed over to see the Dingos. They looked a little like golden furred dogs but are one of Australia's main predators.
We took a few pictures before heading over to see the wombats feeding before we had to leave. We made it just in time to see the wombats coming out of their dens for some food. They looked like giant gophers or huge guinea pigs but apparently they can hold their ground against dingos. When a dingo attacks the wombat retreats into its den and when the dingo lunges in the den to get him his head hits the back of the wombat which is made of rock hard thick skin (hard cartilage). If the dingo doesn't die from the collision the wombat smashes its head into the top of the den, which sounds like a horrible way to die.
By late afternoon we left the Sanctuary and headed down to Phillip Island. We arrived at the hotel and had a quick dinner before driving out to the beach to the Visitor Center for the Penguin Parade. Once through the center we walked down the boardwalks to the beach and saw a Fairy Penguin (also known as a Little Blue Penguin) in its nest in the dunes. Since there was still some daylight we could take a photo without hurting its eyes with the flash.
We headed the rest of the way out to the bleachers on the beach and joined the huge crowd waiting for the tiny penguins. As the sun set, on the far side of the beach, there was a group of about fifty fairy penguins waddling up the shore. You could barely see them with the binoculars and they were just tiny moving dots without them. We watched them carefully make their way up the beach and disappear into the dunes.
(Can you see them? It was hard as it was getting dark and we weren't allowed to take pictures after sunset.)
We were a little disappointed that they were so far away and were thinking of leaving soon until one Fairy Penguin bobbed in the waves not far from us. He rode the wave up onto the shore and then pulled right back out again by the wave. He kept going till three more penguins popped out of nowhere beside him. They all rode the wave until two more popped their heads out of the water and then they all marched up the sandy shore together. A few more small groups went up and out of the water until a hug group wattled up the shore and everybody from the stands went up to see them pass under the boardwalk. Once everyone had left the stands we headed down to the first row right on the beach. The hotel we were staying at told us to wait for everyone to leave the stands and to go upfront and be patient. The majority of the people had headed back up the board walk to the visitor center leaving us alone in the stands with probably 20 of the hundreds of people that were there. Then out of the water came more and more groups of penguins only five at a time but the view was incredible. Towards the very end three adventurous penguins waddled right up towards us. As they went by I could almost reach out my hand and touch them. They scurried up a hidden path towards the boardwalk. (Would have been great photos if we could have taken them but it was a great memory.)
Soon after there were no more penguins popping out of the water and it was getting quite dark so we walked up to the boardwalk and saw all the penguins make their way to their nests below. You could hear them calling out to their mates to find their way back in the maze of nests as we headed back up the boardwalk. We checked out the Visitor Center to learn about them some more and then we headed back to the hotel ready for our big road trip the next day.
Total planes: 1
Total shuttle taxis: 2
Total vans: 1
Total miles walked: 1.8 and 2.4 miles
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