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We arrived from Sydney and were picked up by a driver from the Hotel Como, our home here for a couple of days. He gave us a guided
tour with some humorous asides on the construction problems they have had - some funny, some tragic. A new suspension bridge was built and they decided it had too many bolts in it so they started to remove bolts to
make it lighter. They continued doing this until the bridge collapsed leading to many deaths, a very strange way of quality control management on a construction project. They have just built a new sports stadium
with a roof that opens, similar to the ones in Toronto and Seattle. One small problem - if you try and use the roof mechanism during an event it overloads the power supply and shuts down the stadium, so they have to
determine the position of the stadium roof before the sporting event. Finally, they have just built a new tunnel system under the river, which our driver called the world's longest carwash. It leaks so bad (over
1000 liters per hour) that most of it has had to be closed. You couldn't make this stuff up! The things you learn from locals.
 The Hotel Como was a delightful modern hotel that had elevators and
more. Yes, large rooms, nice decorations, good food and a high speed Internet port in each room. Add in the fact that the TV had CNBC and we were in nirvana. We could watch the stock market crash in the middle
of the night and read the news about it as well on the net in real time. More importantly, we could update this web site and not pay $1 a minute to do so. However, the
highlight was the guest gift. Lot of places have toiletry kits, sewing kits, etc. but this is the only hotel in the world that we have ever found that gives each guest a rubber ducky to take home.
With all of the above amenities it is clear they know the executive travel market which we were happy to rejoin for a couple of days.
We went out to explore the neighborhood, which had a London suburb feel to it. Lots of restaurants, low rise apartments, and a pleasant pace. We looked in a few shops and had an early
dinner in a local Italian restaurant. We went back to the hotel and watched US TV for a while and got some well-needed sleep.
 We explored the downtown area the next morning, which was
moderately interesting but did not have any compelling sights. There were a fair number of "street people" around which was surprising. We learned by reading the local papers that there is a
heroin problem here and the proposed "solution" is government monitored injection rooms with social workers etc. It is very controversial but a strange solution from a North American
perspective. We went to a local park and viewed Captain Cook's original home. Yes, they bought it in England and shipped it to Melbourne and set it up as a tourist attraction. Sort of like the
original London Bridge that was bought and sent to Arizona to anchor a real estate development. The Cook cottage is a little less ambitious but preserved a building that was the home of one of
the central figures in the discovery and exploration of Australia.
 The afternoon and evening was set aside for the bus trip to Philips
Island, home of the Fairy Penguin Reserve, another of our wild kingdom adventure stops. We broke our basic rule of no bus trips as the Reserve was an hour and a half ride south of Melbourne and
we would be returning late in the evening. That combined with left hand driving was even more unappealing than a bus trip. We chose a company that had small buses, which limited the possibility of
being packed in with 200 other tourists. The plan worked.
 The driver gave us a lot of information on the
way south as we passed various places of interest. The first major stop was a private game reserve (i.e. Zoo) before we arrived on Philips Island. It
was kind of downtrodden but it gave us the first opportunity to see the major Australian animals up close. Arnie got to cuddle a wombat, pet
numerous kangaroos, and see our first Koala. We also saw dingos (wild dogs), emu's (one of whom thought Arnie was lunch), and Alpacas. Our real interest
was to see the fairy penguins as we were going to see more of the other animals in Brisbane but it was a good introduction. We then drove on to the fairy penguin reserve.
 Fairy penguins are the smallest penguins in the world and Philips
Island is their major home. Viewing them has become big business for this part of the world. Over 500,000 people went to this beach last year. Permanent viewing stands are set up, as are lights,
wooden walkways, and concrete bleachers. All sorts of multimedia displays are available as are the requisite souvenir stores. The bad news was that the previous tourists had not followed the no
flash photography rules. Thus, the reserve recently banned all photography, which was a big disappointment. Thus, the only photos we have are the official ones from their site.
 We found some seats in the viewing stands at dusk and watched as
the first penguins appeared in the surf. They stood around and waited for more to arrive. Soon there were clusters measuring in the dozens and they headed up the beach like soldiers in WWII.
Platoons went to the left and right of the stands and some went through a tunnel between the stands. This was all new and exciting to the viewers but a nightly event for the birds. Wave after wave
hit the beach like a D-Day invasion of very well dressed miniature soldiers. Think of it as the attack  of the mini-maitre d's of the world.
As the ranks thinned out we went on the walkways to see the penguins up close. Some were literally a few inches away from us as they strolled under
the walkways or stood on the mounds observing the observers. They made a lot of noise as they "talked" to each other and looked for their mates. Gisele
does a very good imitation of these sounds but since we have no means of uploading this sound file, interested parties will have to wait for her return.
Please send all email requests for this file directly to her as Larry and Arnie cannot vouch for its complete accuracy.
The penguins went to their various boroughs, many of which were only a few feet from the observation walkways. After cuddling their mates, they disappeared into their boroughs for the
night. Still, the night was filled with lots of penguin sounds as we left for the long bus ride back to the hotel. This concluded the penguin-viewing portion of the trip. On to Queensland...
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