Melbourne photos

I took a TON of pictures, but I'll only upload a few that are uniquely Melbourne. This one is the train station at Flinders street adjacent to the Yarra, one of the Melbourne icons:


Here is the tower on top of the Melbourne Arts Centre, another easy-to-spot feature when wandering around the city:


There are foot bridges across the Yarra that are particularly artsy. This one has metal figures that actually move across the bridge:


This one is very geometric - a triangle holding up the walkway, which is itself suspended from an arch:


Downtown is full of a mix of old and new buildings. This gothic building is actually a bank, and is nestled in among glass and steel skyscrapers:


I went on a bus tour in the afternoon to see the Penguin Parade. On the way, we stopped at a farm that had some tame kangaroos that we could pet:

We also stopped at a Koala Conservation park, where we could walk through the woods and try to spot the 14 koala bears they had there. I didn't take any photos because they were too high up in the trees, but I got some good video due to the camcorder's 40x zoom.

We could not take photos or video of the penguins on parade. This is a picture of the sign outside that shows what the little guys look like:


As the bus approached the beach where the penguins come back from the sea, the driver stopped and showed us the layout of the beach. It was low tide, so the penguins had an awfully long way to go to get from the water to the bushes along the shore, where their burrows are:

The penguins go to sea before dawn and return just after sunset, using the darkness to help shield them from predators. They feed all day, then return with full bellies to their mates, who are waiting in the burrow with the little chicks. They feed the chicks, and then it's the mate's turn to go to sea to hunt. When darkness falls and they come up to find their burrows, all the penguins call to each other. They make quite a racket!