What!?! Penguins in St. Kilda! When I heard the news I was excited, actually I didn’t think it was real. Honestly, I never thought I’d see wild penguins in Australia of all places.
While waiting for my dinner, I invited myself to see the penguins with a French, a German and two Chilean guys. As well I invited an English girl who talked a lot, but luckily for me and unfortunately for him, the German guy had to listen.
Waiting at the Collins St stop to grab the 96 tram to St. Kilda beach at around 9:45 pm. Now you are supposed to tap on and tap off your myki but not all of us did. Honestly, we just gambled that the tram patrollers wouldn’t be out, and they weren’t. The cost is around $3.20 for one way, and is around a 20 minute tram ride to the St. Kilda station stop. You can go further down on the tram and get off closer to the pier.
As we approached the St. Kilda Breakwater Wildlife Area, there were various researchers and volunteers with yellow vests on trying to catch and tag penguins. One thing to note is you are not allowed to take pictures of the penguins with a flash, so basically all of my photos are black. The reason behind the no flash rule is that it hurts the penguins eyes and there were quite a few small penguins throughout the rocks. After staring and excitedly pointing at the penguins, a small animal scurried across the boardwalk – a sea rat! I personally dislike rats, so finding a sea rat I instantly jumped and shivers went down my body. After about a half an hour or more, we decided it was time to leave.
A quick stop to smoke a joint, and then told to move along by the police we headed to the St. Kilda station to catch the tram back to the city.
I’m a proud Australian, a very, very proud Australian. – Steve Irwin
Total Cost = $3.20 AUD
- Tram ride to St. Kilda $3.20
- Tram ride to the city $0
