Tuesday night went for a meal in St Kilda with Amanda & Mandy - was great to see them together again. We were all living in Holland around the same time, so it was a spot of nostalgia. If you read this Mandy, it was great to see you, have a good trip Fiji and then home to Perth! Oh, and can you send me the photos

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=83195

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6220154.stm

The penguins can only be seen at dusk, so we stopped off on the way at Maru Wildlife Park, which speacialises in caring for orphaned wildlife (usually due to cars running them over), and releasing them back into the wild when they are able to hunt for themselves. We saw at close quarters a wombat, koalas, tasmanian devils, emus and also ended up hand feeding wallabies and kangaroos. 

Hand fed wallabies and kangaroos once before, near Port Douglas north of Cairns about 6 years ago, but this was the first time I’d seen a wombat and tasmanian devils. Also, got a lot closer to koalas than I’ve ever managed before (usually the trees were too high ). All in all we spent a fun few hours there.

Then it was off to Phillip Island itself. First stop was Woolamai Beach. There was awesome surf here, and only hardy souls ventured into the water. I didn’t take bathers, but still got hit by an unexpectedly large wave and got soaked!

There looked to be quite a rip, but it wasn’t great for surfing at the time we were there due to the onshore wind amongst other things.

In fact, I didn’t see a single surfer at Woolamai Beach. I did however see quite a few just a few hundred metres around the coast from the seal colony a bit later on. Shark bait, every one of them!

The seal colony is actually on a rocky outcrop about 1km offshore from Phillip Island, so no photos unfortunately. There are telescopes available at an exorbitant $2 for those that don’t want to run the risk of the White Pointers by swimming over to the colony. This rocky outcrop is at the south western tip of the island, and the prevailing winds ensure it is pretty always close to storm force winds here - as you can probably tell from the spray of the sea in the photo below. It’s tiring just walking against it, so after a few photos we left for the shelter of the mini bus. 

After dinner in Cowes, under the photographic gaze of a 6.4m long dead white pointer hanging behind the bar, we drove to Summerland Beach. This is unfortunately the only place left on the island where a penguin colony still exists (there were once a dozen places on the island). These are fairy penguins, the smallest of the 7 penguin species known. There native predators are eagles, crows, dingos when on land, and at sea they are constantly at risk of being eaten by sharks. However, seals do not eat penguins, in spite of the massive size difference. These penguins have been tagged, and traced to get as far as Tasmania, 400km away out to sea. Quite incredible if you imagine these penguins are no more than a foot long (30cm), and generally only leave the nest a day at a time. Around daybreak these pairs of nesting adult penguins part company. One (not always female) will stay and guard the nest (eggs and/or chicks) from predators such as eagles or crows. The other will waddle down to the beach, sometimes more than 100m away from the nest, and hunt for food. Then, at sunset, the hunting penguins will emerge, will quite comical caution, out of the surf of the beach. They will tend to stick together, in groups of around 10, and try to cross the beach to the nests in the grassy slopes at the back of the beach. They seem to stick together. Quite often, the penguin at the back of the group will panic, head back for the safety of the sea. On seeing this, the rest of the group already on the sand about to make a run for it, have 2nd thoughts, and end up rushing back to the safety of the sea. This can go on for a few attempts, before the complete group as a whole finally pluck up the courage to make a dash for their nests. These penguins are easily frightened, therefore I was unable to take photos of the penguins. This was banned a few years ago due to people ignoring the requests for them not to use flash photography. There are many such restrictions in place due to this being the only colony left on the island. Understandable.

Once the bridge was built to the Phillip Island, the penguins suddenly had a few extra predatory hazards to overcome, which is partly to blame for the loss of so many of the penguin colonies on Phillip Island. Foxes were now able to access the island for the first time, and penguins were now at risk from cars (well, more than previously when access was only via a ferry service). The Summerland Beach colony is therefore highly protected now, and the area around this beach is fenced in to stop the penguins accessing the road, and to keep other predators out. However, they still have to be wary of eagles and such like. Our guide told of seeing an eagle, just 2 weeks ago, swoop down in broad daylight and snatch a penguin chick from its nest!

Absurdly for those Europeans living here, it is also the time of year you have to fight your way through the crowds out doing their Christmas shopping… The only other sign that Christmas is approaching, has been the decoration outside this restaurant;

I spent Christmas 1997 in New Zealand, and have come to the conclusion that they don’t bother with Christmas lights in the southern hemisphere. Fair enough I suppose, as it get’s dark between 9pm and 10pm this time of year, so they wouldn’t be very visible.

Just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take this photo :-D

I also had a surprise on Friday evening. Was approached by a girl in the Elephant & Wheelbarrow in St Kilda, who I have to admit looked vaguely familiar, but I’d thought nothing of it until later. Anyway, Nikki said she recognised me from the Nag’s Head in Mumbles, where she was working in June. Indeed, I would have been there beginning of June - it was one of the places we went during the football world cup when I was back home in Wales. Bizarre!

Cairns is arranged in blocks, with lots of shade as can be imagined. Every building has aircon pumping at full belt, making the temperature difference between outside and inside about 20 degrees. Luckily at this tie of year the humidity is bearable, and the shade is comfortable. We spent most of the day killing time, on terraces drinking and trying to stay cool.

Soon it was time to go. Luckil we flew back on a direct flight to Melbourne, meaning the flight was just 3.5 hours and we arrived at 00:30 at Tullamarine - to a very cold Melbourne. It seems a cool change has been predicted for southern Australia this week, with winds coming off the south pole. That’s bad timing for us!

Fringing coral reefs are slowly receding, and being eaten up by the island as it grows over time. However, this also creates an amazing sight of marine life extremely close to shore. In fact, we found a giant clam just a couple of metres from the shoreline. This clam is destined to die in the near future, as it has no protection from the dying coral around it. Apparently these clams, once dead, are cleaned out to just a shell within hours by other marine life.

At about 2 hours and 70km from the mainland, Michaelmas Cay is almost on the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. That means this part of the reef is more exposed to tides and cyclones, hence the formation of Cays such as this one.

We went with Ocean Spirit Cruises, who offered complimentary champagne whist we were sailing back to the Reef Fleet Terminal in Cairns. We also had the chance to chill on the forward deck of this large catamaran, warming up in the sun and getting some much needed r & r. Our last trip to the Reef has ended