What's Better Than Summer Concerts and Penguins?

At the Sidney Myer Bowl

I'm going to go with not very much.

My friend Caylee is in town for the next couple weeks until she goes back to California. She spent most of her working holiday up in Sydney and then did a nice amount of travelling around Australia prior to making her final stop in Melbourne before returning to the States. We met for dinner early last week, which gave us the opportunity to catch up since we hadn't seen each other since I left Sydney in November.

Enjoying the concert

A few weeks ago, I had heard about a free concert series that the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra holds each summer at the Sidney Myer Bowl, the venue where the Carols by Candlelight event took place back in December. After work, I took the tram to the event, planning to meet Caylee and several other friends from St. Jude's. It started to drizzle as I walked closer to the stage to get to where the overhang was, which I hoped would protect me from the rain. It was already crowded, both on the lawn and the seats, but somehow I just so happened to conveniently run into everyone almost at once.

Pre-concert picnic

Although I'm no expert on Russian classical music, I do have a certain amount of appreciation for that genre so I thought the concert itself was beautiful. I enjoyed it so much that I attended the second concert in the series yesterday with friends from my Connect group at City on a Hill. This particular concert featured a musician who played the didgeridoo, a wind instrument that is native to the Aboriginal people in Australia. I was interested in hearing someone play the didgeridoo, but I wasn't sure how a collaboration with string instruments would sound; however, it was absolutely brilliant as I felt the concert showcased pure talent at its best.

Didgeridoo and orchestra

The concert was lovely, but Caylee and I ended up leaving at intermission to try to make it to St. Kilda Beach in time to see the Fairy Penguins, the smallest species of penguins, that have a colony there. These penguins seem to be one of this city's best kept secrets as many Melburnians don't even know about them and would recommend Phillip Island as the closest place to view them. Anyway, I had read and heard different tips regarding when to go to the pier, whether it be right before sunset or afterward, so we were hoping to arrive there prior to sunset just in case; however, it got darker a little earlier and a bit more quickly than we had anticipated so we didn't get there until well after the sun had disappeared over the horizon.

Fairy Penguin at St. Kilda Beach

As we strolled down the pier, it seemed like we were going to have to return another evening if we wanted to see any penguins, but luck was on our side because we eventually did spot some. There was a volunteer there who said that the peak season so see them is November, but I remember reading somewhere that there's a good chance to see even just a few all year round. If I had known about them earlier, I would have taken a trip to St. Kilda beach when I first arrived in Melbourne since it would have been the perfect time to go. I talked to one of my friends after going to the pier, and he told me that whenever he had gone, there were heaps of penguins.

Maybe I'll have to return to Melbourne in November before I do the rest of my travelling.