Puffy's Travel Journal, Part 1

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

We were lucky enough to sit next to an Australian businessman on the flight to Melbourne so we enjoyed comparing customs and finding out about his country.

A limo was waiting for us at the Melbourne airport. Once we checked into the hotel around 10 am, we couldn’t wait to see the city. We walked to the nearby Victoria Market which had items for both locals and tourists.

This truck, marked “American Doughnuts” fried the doughnuts in the truck.

They tasted like beignets from New Orleans. We saw brightly-colored wooden boomerangs, didgeradoos, and rainmakers. There were knock-off designer purses and UGGS. And we saw aisles and aisles of fruit and veggies that we had never heard of and lots of lamb, chicken, and beef.

We took a free tram around the central business area of the city which was along the Yarra River. Yarra is an Aboriginal word meaning “flowing flowing.” A couple of restaurants we saw were a fish and chips place called Lord of the Fries and an Italian restaurant called Scusami. We saw some beautiful gardens.



Melbourne was having a heat wave so we got really hot. We washed our underclothes in the shower while we showered. I watched a little bit of the Biggest Loser, Australia edition. The male trainer is called the Commando, the hostess looked similar to our American hostess, and they’re all allowed to swear on TV with no bleeping.

We saw a photo exhibit called, “My Last Supper,” which featured photographs of famous chefs and a description of what they’d like for their last meal. I took a picture of Anthony Bourdain.



The newspapers are huge; too wide to hold in two outstretched hands and impossible to read while eating at a table. They’re just enormous pieces of paper.

An interesting bit of Australian news occurred while we were there. A sunken Aussie WWII warship, the HMAS Sydney II was found, after all these years. It was discovered off the shores of Australia a few days after they found the sunken German ship that shot it down. We had great buffet breakfasts every day. We tried the vegemite spread, on Frodis’ suggestion; yuck, ptooey, and blech. Enough said. Way too salty! We went on a bus tour of the city. Melbourne’s favorite sport is “Australian Rules” football. We went to a beautiful war memorial. Each November 11, at 11:00 am, the sun shines onto the word “love” in the center of the memorial. This is the exact time of the armistice, the end of WWI. Every single town we visited, without fail, had a war memorial.

We found a “Big W” store, identical to a Wal-Mart. We bought water and Tim Tams, which is a box of cookies that Frodis suggested I try. “Take away” is Australia’s way of saying food “to go” or “take out.” Look what else I found to eat:


Now for one of the highlights of our entire trip…We went to Phillips Island, south of Melbourne. We saw all these animals in their natural environment: kangaroos, emus, wallabys, koalas, and little penguins! There were raised boardwalks near the koalas so we could be up high near them as they slept in their trees. A wallaby is smaller than a kangaroo and has a sharp face, like a fox. Here's Mr. Puffy with a kangaroo.



Here I am with a couple of emus.



I have so many koala pictures; I don't know which to choose!





*Claps hands* The nightly Penguin Parade!! The little blue penguins are the world’s smallest penguins. They are molting now so some don’t go into the water to get fish when molting. They’re not waterproof without their feathers! This means that they don’t eat for perhaps 2 or 3 weeks! The penguins fly all the way to Japan or Alaska during the Australian winter (our summer) and reappear in September-the same week every year! The mother and father penguins go into the ocean every day to get fish. They both return each sunset at dusk to feed their babies who are waiting in the burrows on land. No other penguin will feed another one’s baby. This is an ancient ritual of nature. They stay out in the water until sunset to avoid predators. They must clean and preen (oil) themselves to continually be waterproof. A gland on the back on the rear is the oil gland and keeps them safe from the cold water. The babies don’t have oil in their fur so they can’t go into the water.

One fox can kill 40 penguins in one night! They’re trying to eradicate the foxes from Phillip’s Island. The penguins drink salt water when they eat fish. A salt gland on their head excretes the salt and they swallow fresh water. We weren't allowed to take pictures or video of the penguins waddling up from the ocean. Just imagine watching the waves and all of a sudden penguins appear and waddle up the sand to their nests. Here's a penguin, hiding under a boardwalk, before we got to the place where they come up out of the water.



Before we left the beach, we saw the Southern Cross in the sky! What a wonderful experience we had! It was one of the most exciting days ever!

Next time…Alice Springs and Ayers Rock.