Australia: day one

Well, I can’t really find a workable way to access the internet to blog, so I’m going to write some entries now, and simply post them all when I get home.

My trip "down here" was really quite nice, given what it could have been. The flight to LA was routine, and the flight from LA to Melbourne -- while excruciatingly long at 15 hours -- was fine, too. Qantas is quite nice as airlines go, it reminded me a lot of KLM flights to Amsterdam (only twice as long).

Our first day has been a long attempt to stay awake and in the sun, so that we can readjust our bodyclocks. This afternoon we all got in a tour van and drove two hours down to Phillip Island to watch the "penguin parade." This is a daily event in which, at sunset, hundreds of small penguins come in from the ocean and waddle up into the vegetation past the beach where they nest and mate. Simply watching the ocean as sunset approached was wonderful (although they did not allow any cameras in the area), but I really enjoyed seeing the penguins. They are quite small, maybe 12-14 inches tall, and they would first appear out of the surf in the darkness as white flashes. Then as more than one or two would appear, they'd suddenly decide to walk up onto the beach and into the grass. We were on a viewing stand only a few meters away, and it was really interesting to watch them. Definitely worth the two hour drive down, although I kept nodding off on the way back.