Penguin Parade
Comments(4) We were delighted by a visit from our friends Nick and Zaida last weekend and on their suggestion, decided to visit Phillip Island to see the little Penguins. It is a big tourist attraction for Melbourne visitors and something we hadn’t got round to doing yet.
With a cold winter’s day forecast of rain and strong winds, we decided to forge on and make the best of it. Amazingly, the rain stopped every time we ventured out and then came down again when we were inside or driving and the wind wasn’t too bad on the island.
The penguin experience at first seemed rather commercialised with crowds lining up, a huge visitors centre with souvenir shop and upselling of special close-up viewing opportunities, free drink thrown in. We decided to go with the basic package along with the masses and found this gave us a more than adequate view. We joined the throngs in one of the concrete stands (rather like going to the football) and waited until sun-down.
The first group of penguins suddenly appeared at the water’s edge and were slowly joined by more friends. They moved forward and ran back for a while unitl they gathered the courage to waddle up the beach en masse towards their burrows, behind where we were sitting. They were so adorable!
After a while we headed back up to the boardwalk where we could view many penguins up close waddling through the grass and small tracks to their homes.
I felt a bit sorry for them with all those people staring at them. The centre seems to do a lot of research and work towards conservation which is great but it’s kind of a weird phenomonen all those people and man-made structures amongst these wild birds. We had seen fairy penguins at Oamaru in NZ when we were there in 2005 and it was much less touristy.
Saying that it was a great experience to see them up close and hopefully didn’t disturb them too much.
Sounds lovely… it must be an experience. They are so adorable!!
Hey Amit, yeah, they are so cute
It was amazing to see the little fellers waddle up to their burrows, got to see them very closely as they walked within 30cm of the boardwalk at times! Was great to see Nick and Zaida as well. We had a couple of good dinners out as well as seeing one of Nick’s friends at one of the pubs in Fitzroy (although we got there a little late and only saw the last four of five songs of his set…).
The weekend was nice, although we did need our winter warmies on and the rain jacket helped too
Brrr! Your battle with the elements paid off and it sounded as if it was well worth the effort. I would like to see the fairy penguins one day. Is it only at this time of year that you’re able to view them?
Your time with Nick and Zaida was most enjoyable to be sure. They would appreciate your warm hospitality.
You can view them all year round and actually there are a lot more of the penguins in Summer than in Winter (and of the other spectating species no doubt).