Eight Day Vaca!

Hello! I am writing to you from Sydney! I know Sydney wasn't in the plans, but after Ian, Todd and I were dropped off in rainy Melbourne yesterday morning and all the Jucy Cribs down in St. Kilda were taken, we did the next best thing we could think of: we jumped on a train and headed to Sydney. Our train left Melbourne at 8pm and arrived in Sydney at 8am this morning. We now have the next three days to relax at a backpackers, which costs us $22 a night, and then on Wed we are scheduled to pick up a campervan at 10am and begin our adventure. We are thinking about going to the Blue Mountains or even heading out towards the outback, but we aren't for sure yet. We will figure it out on the go.

So, Sydney is a lot like Melbourne only a lot bigger/urban and a lot more social. There are heaps of bars and clubs and everywhere we walk there are empty beer and wine bottles. Maybe this is just because yesterday was their mardi gras celebration, or maybe that's just the way the city is. This morning we went to the botanical gardens by the opera house and in it found some giant spiders and a flock of bats. An Asian marching band scared the "flying foxes" out the tree as they passed by. The bats didn't like the music too much, but we thought it was great!

We spent last week on Phillip Island, which is just east of Melbourne. The highlights of staying on the island were visiting the nesting sites of the penguins and shearwater birds. They estimate that there are over a million shearwaters nesting on the island, which the birds do by digging burrows a few metres deep for their single egg. When the chicks hatch they make easy targets for pacific gulls and copperhead snakes. This just reminded me that we saw a Kookaburra two days ago catch a copperhead, kill it,  swallow it whole and then brag to the other Kookaburras by laughing away. As for the penguins, they are the biggest tourist attraction for the island. Every night the birds come out of the ocean and parade back to their burrows in the hills. One night after sunset we were able to go down to the parade and watch them. We spent and hour watching group after groups of penguins make their way up the rocky beach and back to their burrows. A ranger counted 650 birds come onto the beach that we were at, but there are thousands that nest on the island. The afternoon before we watched the parade we actually made homes for the penguins. We constructed little boxes for them and placed them in a site that had formerly been someones house, but had been purchased by the park. Reclamation of the land is happening all over the island as they realize how important it is for the nesting migratory birds. The ranger told us that the boxes that we made would be occupied by penguins within two or three days. We made sure to let the penguins know that Oles from the US made their box by decorating the inside with an American Flag and "ole sayings".

Wish us luck as we travel. I'm looking forward to the freedom, and driving on the left side of the road of course. It has been nice being with the group, but at the same thing every hour of our day is planned out for us, so we haven't had much free time to explore on our own and relax. It was quite the change of pace from NZ life, but its good! I'll upload some pictures when I can!

Up in a light house of the Otways! David Richard Skiba, David Richard Wett (and Katie)

Hanging out at the Twelve Apostles

Ke Han, Mary, Dr. Ba, Karen, a weirdo and Todd. This was supposed to be our party face. 

A eucalyptus forest is not a bad place to live as a Koala