Laze'n Away on a Saturday

After a trip to the village for breakfast and a few errands, with the mercury making a steady climb towards 30 degrees Celsius (92F), and the sun shining brightly and unobstructed by clouds The Thomas Family decided it was pool time.

Swimming suits – check, sunscreen – check, cushions on chairs – check, iPad – check, cold, frozen drink – check, bum in chair for the day – check, check!

The kids found relief from the sun by playing Marco Polo, lounging on rafts, and diving and jumping through rings.

Izzy decided Mom needed company!  She also is training to be the newest Pittsburgh Steelers Wide Receiver.

Gary enjoying a frozen cocktail while seranading the neighbors with a little old school BBD, the East Coast Family (Bell Biv DeVoe for those of you not familiar with this genre).

Dinner grilled – check, dishes done – check, showers taken - check, blog post done – check, BED - CHECK, CHECK AND CHECK!

Phillip Island Part Two - The Penguin Parade

The last part of our trip to Phillip Island was spent waiting very patiently for the infamous Penguin Parade.  So along with a couple hundred other people, we made the trek down to the beach to sit and wait for the Little Penguins.

People have been going to Phillip Island to watch the Little Penguins make their way from the sea to their beach burrows for over 80 years.  In the 1920’s spectators would sit directly on the beach and the Penguins would walk around them.  In 1960 fences and viewing stands were built because spectators were causing damage to the burrows and the habitat.  As the Penguin Parade became increasingly popular there was a need to upgrade the stands and build a Visitor’s Centre.  The Visitor Centre was built in 1988 and further upgrades were done in 1995 and 2005.   

  

The penguins that inhabit Phillip Island are known as Little Penguins.  They are only 12 inches tall and weigh only about 2 pounds therefore making them the smallest species of penguins.  They use their flippers to propel them and their tails and feet as rudders to guide them.  Their flippers beat up and down 3 times per second when swimming and 5 times a second when chasing prey.  They can dive up to 73 metres (240 feet) and can make up to 700 dives in a day as they search for food.  They have small feathers that insulate them from cold waters and they secrete a liquid, wax substance from a gland that makes their feathers waterproof.  Their feathers are indigo blue on their back and white on their front.  This helps camoflage them in the water.  They can spend many days in a row at sea searching for food.  They need to consume 240 grams of fish a day to maintain their weight.  They start their day just before sunrise, when they leave their burrows to head out to sea.  Those penguins planning to return home come back to waters near Phillip Island in late afternoon.  They gather together in groups called rafts and wait until just after sunset to make their way back to the beach.  They will land in a similar place every night and take the same path back to their burrow holes all the while calling out to their chicks if it’s hatching season or calling out to their mates any other time.  Their journey to and from the sea is done in the dark to camoflage and protect them from predators. 

We chose to sit directly on the sand and not in the observation bleachers.  We were also very fortunate to be visiting during hatching season.  So about 7:30 we made our way down the boardwalk to claim our spot and wait for the Penguins to show up.  Along the way down, we saw massive amounts of burrow holes, most occupied with chicks waiting for their parents return.  These amazing creatures did not grace us with their presence until 9:15pm as it is summer here and day- light savings time.  I must say as we sat there for almost 2 hours patiently waiting for these little guys, we began to question whether this was really worth the effort, time and money spent.  But, as they started to show up, it truly is a remarkable experience.  They can come ashore in rafts of 100 plus.  We probably saw about 75 penguins come ashore that evening.  They would swim in with a wave, try and catch themselves on the beach and then start their little bodies waddling up the beach towards their burrow holes.  It would sometimes take several waves for them to final wash ashore to the beach.  Once on shore, they waddled their way to their burrows, some traveling about a half a mile to their burrow holes.  As they waddled along they were calling out to their mates and chicks.  Upon hearing their calls, their chicks made their way out of their homes to greet their parents and wait to be fed by regurgitation. 

We watch the Penguins swim ashore for about 30 minutes then we made our way along the boardwalk to watch them waddle to their homes, call to their families and feed their chicks.  I think we enjoyed this part the most.  It was amazing to think that after several days out at sea swimming non-stop and searching for food that they had the energy to waddle all the way back to their burrow holes. 

As we were walking back to the car talking of our experience, we were repeatedly reminded by signs to check under our cars for penguins and to be careful driving on the road because they may be crossing.

*** Pictures of the Little Penguins are from the internet.  Flash photography is not allowed as it is harmful and scares the penguins.*** 

This did not make me very happy, but I did follow the rules this time.

*** All factual information contained in the post came from the Souvenir Program that I purchased at the Visitor's Centre.***



Phillip Island - Part One (Koala Conservation Centre, Churchill Island Heritage Farm and the Nobbies Centre

Phillip Island is located southeast of Melbourne.  It is connected to the mailand by a bridge.  Western Port Bay is located to its North and Bass Strait to its South.  There are several things to do and see on the island, but we chose to visit the Koala Conservation Centre, Churchill Island Heritage Farm, the Nobbies Centre and the infamous Penguin Parade. 

We started our day at the Koala Conservation Centre.  Here we got to see many koalas in their natural habitat.  We walked along an elevated boardwalk that put us close to the tree tops so we would have a better view of the koalas.  We walked through the bush on a nature trail where we saw koalas, birds and wallabies.  We were even warned of a possible encounter with a “shy” snake.  This so called “shy” snake is a copperhead, the only snake that is found on Phillip Island.  Coming from the States, we are quite familiar with such creature and feel that the word “shy” is not an adjective we would use to describe it.  Fortunately, we did not have an encounter with it.

Our next stop was the Churchill Island Heritage Farm.  It is designed to show you how a traditional Australian farm would function.  There are cow milking, blacksmithing, working animal, sheep shearing, whip cracking and boomerang throwing demonstrations daily.  We happen to be there when they were doing the whip cracking and boomerang throwing demos.  We left the whip cracking to others for fear of being hit in the face or other body parts by the whip.  Gary and the kids did however, participate in the boomerang throwing.



We were off to the Nobbies Centre next.  The Nobbies are two rock islands located off the southern coast of Phillip Island.  Here we walked along the boardwalk that overlooked the waters of Bass Strait.  We saw a ton of sea gulls, amazing scenery, little penguins in their burrow holes and Seal Island.  Unfortunately, we were not able to walk the entire boardwalk because it was nesting season for the sea gulls.

Our final stop of the day was the infamous Penguin Parade.  This was such an amazing experience that it deserves a post of its own.      

Christmas in the Land of Oz

Christmas in the Land of Oz was a lot different for the Thomas Family.  We are used to having family around.  We have two Christmas trees one (Mom's tree) is by our fireplace where our stockings are hung and one is in the dining room decorated with all the kids' special ornaments.  There is normally a few inches of snow on the ground and the temperatures are barely making it out of the 20’s.  We bake cookies.  Lots of cookies!

Christmas Eve we set out our freshly baked cookies with milk by the fireplace, carrots for the reindeer of course.  Gabby sprinkles her special reindeer food on the lawn and we each wear our new, warm, flannal, cozy Christmas jammies that Mom spends hours searching for each year. 

Christmas day, we wake early to open our presents that Santa has left for us.  We stop to pose with each one as Mom snaps a picture.  Mom then makes us a huge breakfast complete with chocolate chip pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy.  The rest of the day is spent with family and new toys as Mom and the Grandma’s, Aunts and anyone female make our traditional dinner.  We have roast beef, ham, mashed potatoes with gravy, candied yams, green beans, macaroni salad and desserts aplenty.  At the end of the day, we are stuffed and happy. 

This year our stockings were hung by the entertainment center.  We only had one tree and it was decorated with the kids’ ornaments.  There was no snow to be had and the temperatures were well into the 80’s. 

Christmas Eve was spent traveling back home from our wonderful Holiday before the Holiday (see previous post).  We rushed home to bake chocolate chip cookies and make puppy chow because we had to bake at least one kind of cookie for Christmas.  We did have Christmas jammies this year and Mom did spend a lot of time looking for them.  Not because there were tons to choose from, but because she simply could not find them.  She improvised and we had Christmas t-shirts and shorts.  They were cozy though.

Christmas day we woke to open a few presents as most of them were lost somewhere over the Pacific Ocean.  We later found out that Santa got confused and our package went from St. Louis to Chicago to Los Angeles to Tokyo to Singapore to Sydney to Melbourne to us.  WOW! Our presents were well traveled! 

We did spend the day with some newly made friends from the UK who were also without and missing their family.  We swam, made pizzas in our new outdoor pizza oven, Gary grilled chicken and steak on the barbie and we enjoyed a few frozen cocktails.  We did still have mashed potatoes but with salad and corn on the cob.  The desserts were still aplenty!  Our Christmas breakfast was made the next day as our new friends spent the night because they had a long drive back to their house.  

We missed family and our yearly traditions terribly, but we did learn that you can adapt, make a few new traditions and make anything special as long as you have each other and a whole lot of patience. 

We also learned to never trust the US Postal System or the Australian Postal System.  A package that was expressed mailed on December 8^th did not arrive to us until December 29^th.  This is when the kids got the rest and main part of their Christmas gifts.  The package did not arrive in Australia until the 24^th, but could not be delivered to us until the 29^th because the Australian Postal Service was shut down for 5 days for the Christmas holiday.

Hamilton Island - A Holiday Before the Holiday

On December 20, 2010 we took off to the beautiful destination of Hamilton Island.  While my pictures are terrific, they do not do it justice and I would highly recommend this island as a place to visit especially if you are going to make the trip to Australia.  We only had 3 ½ days to enjoy the remarkable destination, but you will see we made the most out of our time on the island.  I will first start off with a little history on the island.

Hamilton Island is and island located in the Whitsunday group off the coast of Queensland, Australia.  It is the largest inhabited island of the Whitsunday Islands and is one of 74 islands in this subtropical paradise. 

Hamilton Island is one of the icons of Australia's top tourist holiday destinations. It is on about the same latitude as Hawaii in the northern hemisphere and consequently has a most attractive climate all year round. Average year round temperature is 27 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).  Two major movies were filmed here, Muriel’s Wedding and Fool’s Gold.

The first European to explore the area was Captain James Cook who travelled through the area on his journey up the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. He passed through Whitsunday passage, a narrow channel which lies between the mainland coast, South Molle and Daydream Islands to the west and Dent, Whitsunday, Hook and Hayman Islands to the east, on Sunday 4 June which happened to be Whit Sunday (the seventh Sunday after Easter) - hence the name of the area.

After our arrival, check-in and retrieval of our golf cart (pretty much the only form of transportation, excluding buses, on the island) we hit the beach and the pool.  While lounging by the pool, Santa even made an appearance.

We shared a snack with a few feathered friends and were forced to abandon our balcony for fear of being invaded by these Lorikeets and Cockatoos.  We were warned to not feed them and to keep our balcony doors closed, but as you can see Gary did not heed the warnings.

We enjoyed a Yellow Submarine Snorkel Excursion, which took us on a jet boat ride to Bali Hai Island where we then boarded a yellow submarine and took a tour of the inner reef located just off the Great Barrier Reef.  After the sub tour, we donned our bright yellow stinger suits and snorkeled the reef.  The stinger suits provide protection against the Irukandji jellyfish. It is deadly and only measures 2.5 centimeters across making it almost impossible to detect.  It is found in the waters off the coast of Queensland from October to May.  

We saw beautiful corals and fish.  It was definitely an amazing and unforgettable experience.  One of which we hope to repeat at a later date and hopefully do the actual outer Great Barrier Reef.

We went on a Night Safari Barbecue where we were transported via 4 wheel drive on a dirt road through an undeveloped part of the island to arrive at a secluded beach paradise.  We played cricket on the beach, went looking for oysters, taught a family from India how to skip rocks, ate a steak dinner (we think it was kangaroo because it sure didn’t taste like beef), sat around a campfire, sang songs, played a didgeridoo and played games. 

We drove around exploring the island, enjoyed our lunch of fish and chips (a staple in Australia) at a beautiful look out,  raced gokarts and Gary and the kids sailed a catamaran.

All of this was packed into 3 ½ days!  WHEW!!!   WHAT A HOLIDAY!   We loved it so much that we hope to visit again before we leave Australia.

DISCLAIMER:  All of the historical data was obtained and totally plagiarised from www.about.com, www.wikipedia.com and www.smh.com.au.