Sunday, July 24, 2011

Penguin Orgy

Yesterday was a gorgeous, clear, crisp winter day in Melbourne. So I decided the weather was cooperating enough for a trip to Philip Island today. I picked up a few tips for those who have never done this and aren't going with a local.

The first is that if you tell your Android phone to 'Navigate to Philips island' it will give you a route that takes 59 days, includes tolls, a ferry, and passes through Japan. This is *not* the right island. Thankfully the island I was seeking was only a two hour drive from Melbourne. So I took out my Flexicar Honda Jazz with a picnic lunch and faced my first tollway/freeway experience on the left.

The nice thing about the M1 tollway is that it is full speed for all lanes. No tollbooths, just glowing overhangs that make your toll device go beep really loud when you go under them. I'm not sure if they check speed at the same time, so I was a good girl, 80km/hr feels slower than it sounds. It rained for most of the drive down, but I was rewarded with a magnificent view of the ocean when the sun broke through in that glorious stormy way.



Philip Island is on the Bass Straight which is 350 km of water between Australia and Tasmania. It is home to the 'Little Penguin'. Sometimes they are known as Fairy Penguins, but that is not correct according to my guide. They are the smallest of the 17 penguin species and the only ones that are blue and white instead of black and white. So they are clearly fashion forward even if they aren't fairies.

Penguins were the reason I went to the island. But they don't make an appearance until nightfall, so I sought out the other scenic attractions first. I was told to visit the Koala habitat, so that was my first stop. Koalas are not native to the island, and humans have done a lot of work to make this home viable for them. In the past they flourished so much they decimated the Eucalyptus trees on the island. The informative panels made reference to our own trajectory in this regard. But I have faith that we are better at managing our habitat than an animal that sleeps 20 hours a day. In fact, we have turned our ingenuity to making sure they survive despite their very poor evolutionary choice of eating only eucalyptus leaves. They spend hours eating leaves to get as many calories as we get from a bowl of cereal.








I actually saw one move more than it's head this time, which was nifty. But mostly I spent the afternoon sighting furry lumps in tree branches. The highlight was hearing a Kookaburra and watching some magpies fight over a female.

I arrived at the Penguin Parade grounds at the allotted time and learned the following things that they don't tell you on the website:


  1. If you buy the Penguin Plus tickets and don't want to shop at the gift shop for an hour, get there about 30 min before sunset. The birds don't appear until all the light is gone

  2. If it is wet that day, bring some plastic to sit on, better yet a blanket

  3. The penguins do in fact parade right by you (and 1-4000 other humans) without seeming to be perturbed. So much so that they get right down to business within minutes of arrival. The sounds of penguin lust fills the air and one pair even gave us a show in range of the lights.



The video you can buy detailing the lives of these lovely birds has a label that says 'mature themes', but the website has no such warning about the live event.

It was a really neat place, and worth a trip from anywhere in the world. I didn't take a penguin home, but I did get an intimate view of their land lives, which is really better since they clearly have no shame.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

The Angry Bird Saga



The beginning

Some of you may not know about the Angry Birds phenomenon, so read up and this will make a lot more sense.

My friend inspired us to decorate our cubes with a theme. Her theme was "it's a jungle in here" and she found a plush angry bird that made bird noises when squeezed. It was so popular that it became clear we needed the whole set. So I was charged with acquiring more plush angry bird characters while in Hong Kong, and possibly even a large slingshot to take aim at our friendly sales team across the room.

The hunt

I was only supposed to be in Hong Kong for 5 days, but thankfully my time was extended, because it took a lot of visits to various markets before I found what I was looking for. I tried Central, Mid-levels, Stanley Market and then finally had success at Trendy Market and Ladies Market.

Trendy had mini ones with slingshots, which are loads of fun, but mostly recoil back on you instead of hitting your target. I hit the jackpot with one stall that had birds that were twice the size of my head. I bargained down to $50 HKD, which is about $6.50. In my excitement over my find and bargaining I neglected to consider how I would carry such a thing home with me.

My bags were already stuffed, so I determined to test the limits of carry on allowance on international flights. I showed up with a big pink plastic bag full of plush angry birds and pigs and ready to make my case that they would compress well in the overhead bin. The Hong Kong staff are clearly used to overstuffed shoppers and I was given no grief. I was safely on my way to Tokyo with the giant red angry bird overhead.

The separation

I dragged that pink bag of birds on the bus from Narita airport to Shibuya, by cab to the office, then to the train station and finally on the train on my way back to the airport for my flight to Sydney. I put the bag above me and ended up in a conversation with my neighbor. At Terminal 2 I got up to unlock my bag because they warned me to do this before the stop and then got off promptly at the stop. About halfway up the escalator I realized that I had left the bag above my seat on the train.

The rescue

Quite unexpectedly, the gentleman I had just met on the train offered to run down and get the bag. But he was too late and my birds departed for another terminal. I figured that was the end of that but my new friend encouraged me to ask the staff and miraculously we found someone who spoke English fluently. She called ahead and told us we had to pick it up from the next terminal. I was worried I'd be late if I embarked on another journey, so he went in my stead and promised to meet me at the Qantas checkin.

And to my relief, there he was not long after I checked in, with my pink bag full of angry birds in hand! My hero!

The outing

The birds were well received in Sydney and participated in our first quarter celebrations. After an incident doused the angry bird with beer we took him back to the hotel.

The theft

Now that the team had bonded with the bird it was even more important that he arrive safely in Melbourne. So I became worried when the checkin woman was giving the guy ahead of me a hard time about luggage allowance. Thankfully I got the nice one and away we went. The flight was completely full and I crammed the birds in the overhead bin. After a rough landing I awkwardly maneuvered to get my birds out and was confident I had my pink bag well in hand. But wait, it feels lighter as I'm walking, and oh no! The big red angry bird had fallen out of the bag.

I ran back to the gate and found the attendant to be highly amused as she radioed "can you see if there is an angry bird on the plane". the whole plane emptied before the answer came: some boys had taken it! So I ran for baggage claim and wondered how I hadn't seen them go by with my large red angry bird held captive.

The end

I scoured the crowd, which was limited to just our flight and slowly but surely gave up hope. I stood at baggage claim feeling sad that I had lost the big red angry bird on the last leg of my journey. Then the attendants came by and asked if I had gotten my bird back, I shook my head sadly and the woman from the plane said, "there they are, they have it". And with a chagrined look, a 20-something guy pulled my bird out of his duffel bag.

When I got in the cab I told him not to let me leave the cab without this bird in hand. He did not seem amused, but he just didn't understand the saga of the angry bird.