Melbourne - the most livable city!

Melbourne beat out Vancouver as the world's most livable city (though the reason was a bit silly...) and it is definitely a great city. We have found all the cities we have been in are clean, easy to navigate, accessible on foot, by car and have great transit systems.

We spent our first day on a trip that I had really been looking forward to the whole trip - the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. This colony of Little Penguins (or Fairy Penguins) goes out to fish in the ocean during the day and then at dusk, return to their burrows in the western part of the island.

The first part of the day we spent on a farm and got to pat kangaroos and feed wombats. The next stop was the koala conservation area and got to see more koalas and their babies up close.

The event of the night was up next as we pulled in to see the penguins. We were excited to see our adopted penguin, Allan (thanks Cogans!) settle in to his burrow for the night. We were technically not allowed to take any photos but Jared was naughty and snapped a quick one at the end of the night. It is a bit dark but you can definitely see how adorable they are.

Thursday we used as a day to explore the city and we definitely covered a lot of it. We walked through the various arcades (covered malls) and even picked up some delicious macarons. We then moved on to the Old Melbourne Gaol. The tour was a fun experience as we were treated like criminal being booked at the police station. Ha it really was enjoyable.

We ended up on Brunswick St to find cheap pizza (including dessert pizza) and stopped by Charcoal Lane to make reservations for dinner. We passed through Fitzroy Park on our way back and stumbled upon the MCG where they play cricket and Aussie rules football. We caught a bit of a cricket match but as it is a bit of a slow sport, we didn't stay long.

Our last trip in Melbourne was a Great Ocean Road tour which included the 12 Apostles. It was a magnificent view all the way along and we lucked out with the weather. It was a 600km trip which took us by gorgeous shoreline, tree lined roads and beautiful rock formations.

We have had a tremendous time in Australia and they were so many things we missed! We were sad we missed out on some things because of time but it just means we will have to return one day! Tomorrow we are off to Bali for a week of relaxation by the beach. Being a tourist is exhausting! Thank you again to those who made our trip possible - we had the time of our lives.