Posts Tagged With: animal encounter

MICF Day 6: PENGUIN PARADE AT PHILLIP ISLAND!!!

Posted on April 23, 2018 by Mel

I was so pumped for this. We went with the tour on Viator (AAT Kings was the local provider) and it included the drive to Phillip Island, a stop at a wildlife park and PENGUINS! PENGUUUUUINS ON PARADE! Our AAT Kings bus collected us from our hotel at 12:45pm and by 1:15pm we were on our way out of Melbourne.

The first stop was at Maru Koala and Animal Park and I will admit – I was skeptical. I mean, I’m Australian…what the hell interest do I have in these animals? Turns out they are adorable and very used to people so they come up for pats. It’s also a rescue hospital so *thumbs up*. They have koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, a llama, Dingo’s, rabbits, a kookaburra, emu and more!

it was about another 30 mins to Phillip Island from there and our first stop was at Nobbie’s beach for some amazing scenery.

We then drove down to the tour centre for the penguins. B and I had paid an extra $40 each for the Ranger Guided Tour and it was so worth it! Not only did we get a personal guide for 10 of us but we got commentary and prime viewing position to the right of the stands….without having to bags a good spot 3hrs early! It also just so happened that on this night, 80% of the ones coming ashore did so in front of us instead of the main stands. Score! Before the photo ban kicked in, I got some lovely night time shots

Now, because people are essentially all idiots they have actually outright banned photography at the penguin parade. This is a harsh stance in comparison to when I was at Moreton Island feeding wild dolphins and they let you take pics, just with no flash. This total ban is completely understandable though – the only way to get a good pic at almost-dark is with a flash and flash hurts their tiny little penguin eyes + upsets them – so if you ban all photography you avoid idiots using a flash when told not to. Easy. The ban on photos meant I spent the whole time excitedly nudging B about how cute the little penguins were and (quietly) cheering them on as they returned to their nests.

At 7:30pm we boarded the bus for the 2hr trip back to the CBD. Home time tomorrow.

Here are some cute penguin photos provided by Phillip Island to visitors in place of allowing photography:

Categories: MICF 2018 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MICF Day 4: Melbourne Zoo + superheroes, improvised musicals (again!) and Joel Creasey

Posted on April 21, 2018 by Mel

The zoo was AWESOME! We ubered there and back ($12 each way) and also paid an extra $25 for a close encounter with a seal. That meant we each got to have a seal kiss! Seals are also known as the dogs of the sea if you refer to B and his weirdness….and google…. It was only $27 for the experience and I considered it $27 well spent.

We explored all the different sections of the zoo and were there for more than 3 hrs in total – it was closer to 3.5hrs. My favourite animals were the orangutans.

Other animals included giraffes, meerkats, baboons, a hippo….and more! The lemur walk through experience was amazing, they just hang out right next to you and you can take lots of photos.

After the zoo we had a brief (too brief! Waaaah my feet) rest and then it was off to the Elephant and the Wheebarrow for comedy show number 7 “Battle of the Superhero’s” which was a debate with 4 comedians about who was the better “super” – Hulk, Microwave Man, Jessica Jones or Daenerys? The winner (by 2 votes) was Hulk….I voted for Daenerys Targaryen though. Mostly because she’s one of the performers from my favourite improv group Impromptunes.

We than had a quick on the run dinner at Nandos before our second Impromptunes visit for the festival – if you ever get a chance, we can’t recommend these performers enough! Tonight’s musical was “La Musicale” and featured an opera singer, a ballerina and the hit song “you’re a pig dog”. It also, weirdly enough, featured the lovely lady who led our seal encounter at Melb Zoo today! Turns out they hire performers.

After that it was a short walk to the final venue for the evening (the Town Hall) to see Joel Creasey. We saw him last year and really enjoyed it, it’s great to see his popularity is growing and he’s in a mucccccch bigger venue this year.

Categories: MICF 2018 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.