Penguin Island

24th April 2016

I was trying to choose between Rottnest & Penguin Island for our day trip. Rottnest's charges are pretty outrageous, $100 per pax for the ferry ride & bicycle rental, or close to $200 for the guided tour of the island. In the end, I chose Penguin Island simply becoz they're close from June to September for the nesting season. 

I drove 1.5 hours to Shoalwater in Rockingham & bought the tickets for the 45 mins Penguin & Sea Lion Glass Bottom Cruise at $38.50 each. It was a cloudy day, just the way I like it. Although the cruise didn't cover dolphins, we did manage to see some wild dolphins when our skipper purposely took us close to the dolphin cruise. The dolphins like surfing the "waves" that were created by the dolphin cruise & that was how they drew the dolphins out.

We saw only 4 sea lions & our guide explained that these 4 were oldies or juvies & they were all males. The females were all up in Jurien Bay & all the fit adult males had swam over for a rendezvous. They were all just lying on the sand, looking dead. But they were in fact, just resting. We were told to "never stand between a sea lion & the sea". If we see sea lions on the island & get too close, they will feel threatened & try to escape out to sea. If we are between them & the sea, we'll get mowed down.

After the cruise, we were dropped off at Penguin Island where penguin feeding would take place shortly. The fairy penguins are of the smallest variety, are also known as little penguins or blue penguins. They grow up to 33 cm tall & majority of the penguins on Penguin Island are wild. There were 10 penguins in the sanctuary that were deemed unsuitable to return to the wild due to blindness, some were orphaned & hand raised hence they would not survive in the wild.

It was a nice day trip & very enjoyable. Next on the list will be Rottnest. With a price tag of $200 for 2, I'll have to think about it. But it's just 1 of those things that I feel we should do at least once in our life.

Pelicans & sea lions on the tiny island.

1 of the fairy penguins in the sanctuary.

At the time of our visit, there were 10 fairy penguins deemed unsuitable to return to the wild. 

She was sitting on her eggs. I was trying to take picture of something else. Apparently, I got too close for comfort & she abandoned her nest. But she wasn't too happy about it & kept squawking at me.