Z penguins are z cutest.

Just south of Melbourne on Phillip Island, there lives a penguin colony made up of roughly 60,000 Little Penguins. Every day there is a "penguin parade" where the they emerge from the water and onto the beach after a long day of fishing. They waddle up the beach and into the brush to find their burrows in the hillside where they meet their mate and babies in order to feed them. Christine, Halley and I finally went to see this with Kim while she was visting and it is one of the cutest things I've ever seen. I mean, just look at the picture above!! How cute is that?!!

The sun is almost gone when they first emerge from the water in groups. From far off you can see their little white bellies bobbing to and fro as
they slowly get closer. The park has it set up so they walk straight to (and then around or under) the viewing platform. On their way to their burrows they have to periodically stop and rest because they are so fat with fish (some longer than others). Some were so damn fat that they could barely walk, which was pretty funny to watch! Every once in a while you would see one penguin come up and nudge a resting penguin from behind and the one on the ground would jump up and continue to waddle forward. It was all very endearing to see them helping and looking out for each other. As one group went by, others continued to come on to the beach. Hundreds of them coming in a constant stream. In addition to the parade, the air was filled with the tiny cries of the babies in the burrows calling for food. Apparently, the pareants can distinguish the caries and this helps them relocate their burrow. In addition to the babies, every once in a while the waddling penguins would let out a squeak or a sneeze. To cute, z penguins are!

We paid a little extra to get on the closer viewing platform and it was worth it. At times we were within a few feet of the parade and the burrows. There was a boardwalk along their main path where you could follow and watch them look for their burrows and even witness them feeding their young. Surprisingly, the humans or the soft lighting in close proximity don’t scare them.

The Rangers work real hard to make sure no one disturbs them and the park made every effort to minimize human impact, which was really great to see. We were so engrossed in our penguin watching that, at the end of the night, we had to be herded up the boardwalk by the Rangers (in a friendly way of coarse).

We walked away with a happy feeling after seeing such a lovely sight and feeling like we were so close to such a charming and beautiful natural phenomena.

FYI, there were no picture taking allowed so these pics are scanned postcards that I bought on the way out. Enjoy!!