Great Ocean Road/Penguin Parade

This past weekend, a group of us spent the weekend on a tour of the Great Ocean Road and Phillip Island. We went through Autopia and had an awesome time!

Great Ocean Road

What: Long stretch of famous beaches and coastal views
Where: Just outside Melbourne
When: Saturday, 12 March

On Saturday we spent the day driving along the Great Ocean Road and stopping to see famous formations such as the Twelve Apostles and London Bridge, beautiful beaches, and a rain forest along the way. It was a perfect warm and sunny day. We really lucked out.




We stopped at a stretch of eucalyptus trees known for its abundant koala population. Sure enough, we saw about six of them! These were the first wild koalas I have ever seen. Fun fact: koalas sleep 18-20 hours a day because their diet provides them with no energy but they insist on keeping their diet. We also saw and fed wild parakeets!

We spent the night in Apollo Bay, where we had an all-you-can-eat meat BBQ before hitting the bar scene where I watched my first Aussie rugby game. It was intense!



Phillip Island
What: An island known for its beauty, nature reserves, and abundant penguins
Where: South of French Island (Southeast of Melbourne)
When: Sunday, 13 March









We made an early start to our day so we could finish the Great Ocean Road before heading to Phillip Island. To get to the island, we took a ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento and drove the rest of the way. It was a beautiful drive through farmland (Australia sure does love its sheep). Once on the island we stopped at the Wildlife Reserve (a.k.a. PETTING ZOO!!!!) where we fed wallabies, kangaroos, and a brave few (myself included, though not quite so brave) fed emu! I touched a dingo and it licked my hand. There were two albino kangaroos - one baby and one daddy. It must be mating season here because I thought last week's fiaso was bad until this weekend happened. But I don't want to upset my parents so let's just say that there was a kangaroo threesome that involved a female, a male, and an albino male. You can't make this stuff up.

Anyway, it started to rain while we were in the petting zoo, so we went to the chocolate factory to kill time (and diets) before heading over to the penguin parade area. We went for a beautiful hike around the boardwalk where we saw some penguins hiding, ate pizza for dinner (I had curry pizza and crocaroo pizza - my first time eating crocodile, my second time eating roo), and squeezed in to the extremely crowded penguin parade stadium. Yes, stadium. The penguins are so consistent in their habits that there was a stadium built so hundreds of people can see the penguins return to shore and run home after fishing all day. No pictures allowed, unfortunately. After seeing about a hundred penguins, it started raining again so we headed home, exhausted from the incredible weekend.

First-time experiences from this weekend:
- saw wild wallabies, aussie geese, koalas, parakeets, and baby penguins
- saw albino kangaroos
- touched wallabies, kangaroos, dingos, emu
- ate crocodile
- saw the Southern Cross/realized Orion was upside down/realized the moon waxes and wanes in the opposite direction

Other updates:
- I have started rehearsals for the show "No Place Like" by Chris Summers which I am fight choreographing
- I have started my swordfighting tutorials with the fight director here
- I will be teaching weekly contemporary classes for Flare Dance Ensemble members
- I have finished four boxes of Tim Tams since my arrival in Australia
- I go to class