Phillip Island, Australia

We have such a nice lot of friends here on the ship and last night Henry invited twelve of us to celebrate his 84th birthday with him. It was a lovely time in a private dining room and we laughed together all evening.

Today was as cool as yesterday was warm! And what a day it was at little Phillip Island! A friend had had the idea some time ago that Valentines Day would be a good day to have a renewal-of-the-vows ceremony for whoever wanted to do that. So, by word of mouth she had collected eleven couples and several spectators (we were spectators) for the morning ceremony. We were overwhelmed with the elaborate affair which the ship’s crew orchestrated! There were about 15 crew members participating, including the Captain and other highest ranking officers, videographers, entertainers, bakers, etc.

And among the spectators were Jim and Janet, who lead the church service and our Mixed Bible study group.

And Bob and Brenda, who we have cruised with before and who we wouldn’t want to be without.

This one is just for fun!

After eating a delicious piece of (carrot) wedding cake we hurried to lunch and then out to see Phillip Island. We had anchored in the bay this morning so we used tenders to get to land.

It was a lovely island with lots of wildlife and one sleepy little town which today had no electricity due to a storm. Almost everything was closed so we just enjoyed a walk around town and a visit to the grocery store (which must have had a big generator).

It was a huge store with some huge vegetables like this biggest celery I have ever seen (my cell phone for perspective), grown in Australia.

The streets were lined with these stately trees which appeared to be some variety of cedar but the streets were so empty of people, all enjoying their unexpected day off, I guess, that there was no one to ask.

Our exploring done we took the bus back to the dock and the shuttle back to the ship and had dinner quickly before reversing our course and getting back on the island to see the famous Penguin Parade. Phillip Island has about ten thousand one foot high blue and white penguins and their very punctual emersion from the ocean each night attracts thousands of spectators. Not all the penguins are in the ocean on any given day and therefore do not emerge on that night and tonight was certainly a low mark for emersions so we figured it was about 100 to 1 — people to penguins. We did, however, have a great time on our over 6 hour excursion! Wildlife is everywhere on the island and we got to see many bouncing wallabies, beautiful Cape Baron geese, pelicans, black swans, and a little bandicoot besides the penguins.

Since we were not allowed to take pictures as the penguins emerged, and it was dark anyway, the only image I have of them was of a pair in their nest as we walked out to the beach and as we walked back later at night we saw many of these little blue guys walking beside the boardwalk making their way to their nests.

It was a cold few hours sitting there waiting for sunset and the Penguin Parade and it reminded me of sitting in a baseball stadium in early Spring watching a game just about as slow. It was fun!

Another long bus ride and shuttle boat brought us home before midnight. It had been a good day!