One Hell of a Weekend

Hello all!  or should I say g'day?  As the title suggests, my weekend was full of fun and generally life changing experiences.  To begin, I basically surrounded Port Phillip, the inland bay which Melbourne is seated.  Take a look:

I went to each side (day 1 is Saturday, day 2 is Sunday) within 36 hours.  To let you have a grasp of how large Port Phillip is, it's 1,930 km² (750 sq mi for my American friends) and each trip highlighted took 2 hours one way (That's roughly the distance from UIUC to Chicago).  Also, for reference, the Bass Strait is the Pacific Ocean.

That's right! (pun)

So, lets start with day one since that's the logical order of things.  Road trip to Phillip Island!  It was nearly a perfect day (30 C/86 F).  Day one began with a car rental from Budget and some left side driving.  It's pretty nerve racking at first, especially in a large city.  It's easy after awhile, you just have to keep saying "left!" in your head and remember that the turn signal control is on the right of the steering wheel (and the wipers are on the other side... totally made them go a couple times).

After driving to Phillip Island, the group of us (Susan, Justin, Erin, Kristin, Emily, Lizzie, Dani, and Maddie... we took two cars)  stopped at one of the 24 beaches for some sun and relaxation.  Afterward, we visited the Nobbies Center which is supposed to be a great spot for seal watching, however we didn't see any seals.  That doesn't mean we missed out:

I don't have 1000 words to describe this picture because I was speechless when I took it. 

After walking around with our mouths wide open, we took a trip up to the main town on the island called Cowes.  There we discovered a night market with heaps of food, so we grabbed dinner.  Then the grand finale: Penguins.  That's right, natural Penguins.  Though we weren't allowed to take pictures, it's something I'll remember for a long time.  We saw a bunch of Little Penguins come out of the ocean at dusk to waddle to their homes on the hillside.  It was extremely cute to see small, foot tall penguins scurry from the shore to their burrows in this nightly ritual.  After this, another drive home and sleep at 12:30am.

Yeah, I'm underwater, what of it?

On to Day 2.  I woke up at 5am to meet my ride down to Queenscliff where we would dive (4 and a half hours of sleep... I'm really tired right now).  Not quite sure what to expect, I was driven down the other side of Port Phillip to a boat dock for an early dive at 7:40am.  Being out of practice, the first dive was not the best, however I rebounded at had a phenomenal second dive with pictures to boot (underwater camera!):

Lobster Catching

Patrick!

 I have started my diving adventures in Australia!  I can't wait to go up to the barrier reef!

The third dive was hardly a dive at all, since the weather decided to change moods quickly from sunny and calm to turbulent storm.  We tried diving, but the current was so strong that I could not keep up with the other divers and just surfaced instead.  The boat ride was thrilling however.  There is a part of the port which used to be the river that flows out of Melbourne which is a large gorge in the entrance of the port.  This affects the currents of the bay and creates 20 to 30 foot swells (called the Heads) at the edge of the bay.  It felt like a roller coaster but with a lot more danger involved.  Exciting but dangerous.

After the botched dive, we came back and now I'm here.  I'm extremely tired but for very good reason.  I declare this weekend to be a phenomenal success.

Hope you enjoyed the read!  Keep reading for more Australian adventures!

Paul