Day 126 - Melbourne, Ben & Gillian's for lunch & the Penguins of Phillip Island - Sunday 19th February 2012

Arrived in Melbourne at 6.30am, tired, uncomfortable and hot after our 11 hour overnight bus journey but we were looking forward to seeing my mum, brother Stuart and Uncle Derek. We got off the bus grabbed a $1 coffee from the seven eleven shop (it tastes like dish water but is cheap and wakes you up!) and made our way down the street to meet the guys. We got a little lost so we phoned Derek who asked where we were and what we could see, after a few 360 spins we saw them standing on the corner at the bottom of the street! After the usual cuddles and mum crying we headed back to the hotel where they had stayed the night before to grab a quick shower. We listened to mums stories of climbing the harbour bridge, the opera house and 23 hours in the plane then headed for breakfast!Derek took us to a really nice place on the river where we all had a really nice breakfast and some flat whites, he even picked up the bill - brilliant, thanks Derek!!

Once done, we jumped on one of the free tourist buses and viewed some of the sights before jumping off at the Victoria central market to look around. We saw a stall selling Australia souvenirs including didgeridoos; I grabbed one straight away and tried to play it, after failing miserably and just sounding like a wet fart, mum grabbed it ready to show us how it's done… nope she was even worse, luckily Derek saved our embarrassment and managed to get a note out of it!!

We then drove to our cousins Ben and Gillian's for lunch. It was great; we had lamb and sausages off the BBQ, a few beers and swam in his pool in the garden.

After lunch me, Soph, Stuart, mum and Derek jumped into the car and made our way to Phillip island to see some penguins. It was about a 2 hour drive; once there we walked down to the beach and took our seats. The spot we sat in is where the Australia small Penguin comes to shore to feed their babies; we all waited patiently and after about an hour Soph spotted something moving in the shallows of the water, then all of a sudden 5 little penguins waddled out of the sea, straight past us and up the rugged ground behind us to their babies. We were all pretty happy with that, but after a few minutes there was another bunch, then another and then more and more. We probably saw about 35 - 45 waddle out of the sea and a further 30 - 40 babies sitting inland crying for their parents to come and feed them. It was pretty late when we left and whilst Derek drove, we all fell asleep!! We stayed the night at Ben and Gillian's and Mum, Stuart and Derek stayed at a motel round the corner. Seeing the penguin was a great start to Melbourne and seeing mum, Stuart and our Australia relatives made it even better.