Melbourne, the Capital City of the State of Victoria

Melbourne boasts a population of 2.5 million.

Degraves Street, note the sign. We only noticed it after we took the picture.

There were numerous small alleys which reminded us of Europe.They were lined with little shops and eateries, entertainers and a throng of locals and tourists.

Dave does not like the coffee here but seems to have found a substitute in cappuccinos.

Flinders Station. It is the hub for all the trains and trams, etc
This City Link tram was a free downtown tour. That took about 1.5 hours.

The Yarra River meanders through the downtown core. Riverfront activities abound.

                                   Like this silver angel mime.

Melbourne skyline with the Yarra River and one of  many bridges.

This tall ship circumnavigated the world and accumulated a million and one half kilometres in it's life time. The Polly Woodside was purchased for one cent by The National Trust Organization (conserving heritage).

Center Way alley.
Eating again and more cappuccinos and chai soy lattes.

Modern day street art we think!!

Flinders Street Station was built in 1910 and is the oldest station in Australia.

 Our caravan park was within walking distance to tram service into the inner city. It only took 30-40 minutes to the city centre. Trams are what we might call street cars. They are powered by electricity and their direction is determined by railway tracks. On Sunday we could ride any transport all day for $3.50 per person. We missed Victoria open market as we were weary by the late afternoon so may take it in on our way to New Zealand Feb 7/12.

Phillip Island with the Little Penguins and Koalas

Phillip Island is 11/2 hours SE of Melbourne in Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania. It is famous for the Little Penguins or Fairy Penguins or Blue Penguins depending on where you live. We also were amazed and entertained by the koalas in their sanctuary.

The board walks on Phillip Island where you can usually spot young penguins in their burrows.

A chick waiting for parents to return from the sea in the cover of darkness.

"I'm starving, where are they with the food?"

"Oops, I know I can be picked off by a fox, large birds of prey, etc, but I really am getting hungry"

Stands overlooking the beach where the adult penguins arrive after sunset. We were not allowed to take any pictures. The penguins can walk up to a km inland where they have their burrows. Some of these banks are up to 50m high!!

oh, oh, Dave is cheating with the infra red!!

This is a professional photo of these little guys. They grow up to 13cm (13") high and weigh around 1 kg( 2 lb). Their average life span is 7 years. The sounds that the babies make when they hear them coming is very fascinating.

Well we couldn't resist the use of the infra red feature on the video. Dave and many others were told "no photography" by rangers patrolling the boardwalks. The parents were closer to us as they approached their burrows.

Feeding the pelicans

Cape Barren Goose

Sting Ray waiting for the left overs from the pelican feedings

Oh there are the camels that Dave was to ride at sunrise at Ayer's Rock. No, no these are Phillip Island camels.

And the koalas were so cute. They sleep up to 20 hours a day. Drugged induced ? from their sole diet  choice of eucalyptus leaves

The koalas choose only certain types of eucalyptus leaves.
The males weigh up to 9.5 kg and females are 6.5 to 7.5 kg.
Males can be distinguished from the females by their large Roman noses.
Females tend to have feathery tufts on their ears.

"What is everyone doing here?"

"I'll show them my tree climbing skills then"

"I looovvee my eucalyptus leaves"

Is this striking the monkey pose from "Tarzan"
It's a bit of a stretch.

A Quick look at The Australian Capital City of Canberra

I meant to post these earlier.

Captain Cook's Memorial Fountain on the artificial lake in front of Parliament Hill

Transport by tourists in Canberra. Just had to take a pic

The Parliament Buildings viewed from the War Memorial

The tall flag pole on top of the present day parliament structures, the white in the foreground were the 1st Parliament structures

Magnificent war memorial

Those are poppies beside names of fallen soldiers

This is the very modern looking Parliament Buildings

The flag pole on the roof

Happy New Year

Today is Jan 1/12 here in Australia and it is New Year's Eve in Canada & the USA.
We spent a quiet New Year's Eve in a little RV park near Lakes Entrance, in the state of Victoria and today we drove a couple of hours to Wilson's Promontory. It is one of their signature Nat'l parks 11/2 hours SE of Melbourne.
Here we partook of the great champagne (made in Australia) and spent the day at the beach.

HAPPY 2012 FROM NORMAN'S BEACH WILSON'S PROMONTORY NAT'L PARK, VICTORIA AUSTRALIA