phillip island

i'd like to start this blog post by bragging about my new little niece indra, who was born on the 19th october. from what i hear and see on the pictures, she's such a lovely little baby and i can't wait to meet her. i am now the proud aunt of five absolutely adorable children!

over to the adventures down under.. after a week in melbourne, it was time for us to leave the city and go for a little road trip. we decided to go to phillip island to watch the penguin parade, which is one of the world's largest colonies for this particular penguin species. the penguins who live there are the smallest species, imaginatively enough called 'little penguins'.

arnold and amie are getting the van ready for the trip

amie was driving, while arnold and i had a few beers

the nature around the island is beautiful and here we are in front of the seal rocks at sunset

unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take photos of the penguins, but this is what they looked like when they emerged from the sea and waddled across the beach

we stayed in a hostel (that arnold referred to as a prison, but that was actually quite nice)

outside the hostel, there was a big wave and we tried out the surf
(guessing it might be pretty easy to see which two have actually surfed in real life and who hasn't..)

we took the ferry over from sorrento to queenscliff

and enjoyed an ice-cream in the sun

from queenscliff, we went to torquay - the gateway to the great ocean road. bought a pair of flip flops and a pair of pink, fluffy slippers (a real bargain, had been $24.95 and i got them for $9! don't think i'll need them in singapore, but they will probably come in handy once i'm back in cold europe again.. in a couple of months or so..).

on the way back, we also stopped in geelong to say hello to arnold's cousin and before we knew it (i fell asleep on the way back) we were back in melbourne again after an amazingly nice weekend!