The pictures you've all been waiting for...

A few days ago Joel and I took a day trip down to Philip Island. It took a little over an hour to get there I believe (I was so stuck in reading my Kindle, I love long car trips now!). First things first, Joel needed to get in the water with his new surf board. So we found a beach that had decent waves, and he headed into the water:

I stayed on the beach reading. It was really windy down there (as you can see from the way my hair is blowing in the following picture). It was also pretty cloudy now and then, so I lay on my towel, zippy-hoodie zipped up and legs wrapped up in my skirt. I got a good sunglasses sunburn on half my face from laying like this. :) There were other people on the beach- girls laying there in their bikinis as well- but honestly, I don't know how they did that! Joel's reply, "They're Victorians." (meaning they live in the state of Victoria, Australia) Brrr.

Cute pic on the beach. :)

After we went to the beach we had a walk around main street and had a late lunch. Then we set out to find some animals. We didn't find the place we meant to find (a koala sanctuary) but we found a wildlife park instead- and we think we lucked out. The Koala sanctuary would surely have had, well, koalas, but this place had it all! Check out the pics!

Aggressive emus wanted to be fed. I didn't like them that much. I'm pretty sure they have a big ole middle toe that can gut you in like two seconds flat.

Joel was all, "Stand there, look at me." And I stood and looked, but didn't know what the emus were doing, or how close they were getting. Then he was all, 'The one is coming around your other side, really close." And I was like, "Eek!" And inched away...

Then we got to feed the kangaroos! Witness the first kangaroo I saw in Australia!

Then that dang emu kept following me, and trying to eat all the food- notice my scowl meant for the bird.

Then the nice kangaroos ate out of my hand!

I'm amused!

There were lots of em!

This one had a joey in it's pouch that we could see moving through the skin, but it didn't stick its head out.

Here's another mamma- but you can see her joey! :)

Joey head again!

(I tried to get close to her, but she growled at me- Joel used the zoom to get this pick.)

Here was another group of them. They were more aggressive than the other group.

Down the end of this post should be a video of me feeding these guys. You can see that the one is actually holding my hands as I feed him. He was hungry!

Koalas!

This one was sleeping. SO CUTE!

After this great fun, we headed to a place called The Nobbies where there were meant to be seals. We didn't see any. It was a nice walk along a boardwalk that overlooks some pretty mean looking water. Beautiful though.

The night ended with the whole reason we went to Philip Island- watching the penguins come in. Unfortunately, it is not allowed to take any pictures of the penguins, as they are actually wild birds- we get the opportunity to watch their natural comings and goings, but we have to do our best not to disturb them. So, we watched em come in from the water, waddle up the beach, and head to their burrows in the bushes that line the beach. Walking back up to the carpark, we also got to see all the babies that were standing outside their nests squawking for their mum or dad to hurry up and come feed em! :) The penguins were really, really cute. They are the smallest penguin species, once known as fairy penguins, now referred to as small penguins. Anyway, super cute. :)

So, there you go- I have seen Australian wildlife, although not completely wild, I'm satisfied. :)