Phillip Island, Australia

We sailed south, southeast of Melbourne to Phillip Island where we tendered in.

Unfortunately, a major power outage throughout Victoria AUS closed down most of shops and restaurants, and those that stayed open with generators couldn't accept credit cards. We ended up having lattes at one of the nice restaurants that were open. We tendered back to the ship and had lunch.

*SPECIAL*: Phillip Island is home to the largest little penguin colony in the world. So in the evening, we took an excursion to Summerland Beach to watch the sunset Penguin Parade of little blue penguins returning to shore. These penguins are the only blue penguins in the world, and they grow to just about one foot tall. They spend approximately 80% of their lives in the ocean, only coming to shore to maintain their burrows, breed and raise young, as well as molt their feathers.

As this was the Chinese New Year Holiday, many Chinese tourists crowded the beach in front of our assigned Viking bleachers. Ultimately, we were able to see only about a dozen or so penguins actually leaving the sea and returning to their sandy burrows. We returned to the boardwalk where we did observe more little penguins searching out their burrows. We also saw many kangaroos amidst the little scrubs and low trees covering the sandy hills to the beach.

Fun, interesting, exciting, lots of fresh air... with mucho touristas!Read more