Philip Island

  Philip Island, Australia
Thursday, May 31, 2007

Hello everyone,
 
I hope all is well.
 
I am making progress on my essays and am starting to see the finish line.  Whoohoo!  Another week or so and I should be ready to relax a bit. 
 
I was able to break away from the books this past week to give a presentation to the Rotary Club of Flemington and make a day trip out to Philip Island with some of the other Rotary scholars. I also finished moving stuff into me new place.  It rocks!  I will be sure to put up some pictures next time around.
 
The Flemington club was chartered in 1987 and has 21 members, all great people.  It was my first breakfast meeting in Melbourne, but the early morning blues past with the first cup of coffee.  I spoke about my experiences back home and we had a nice discussion regarding some of the social issues facing both the USA and Australia. I was also offered an invite to come spend a weekend at a member's beach house in Torquay for some surfing.  I might just have to take up the offer...
 
Every now and again, the other District 9800 Rotary scholars and I try to meet up to explore what Australia has to offer.  Once of us had a car and someone else liked penguins.  Philip Island only made sense...
 
 Philip Island covers about 10,000 hectares and is about 2 hours southeast of Melbourne.  Named after Governor Arthur Phillip (Admiral in the British Navy and founder of Sydney), the island is host to a number of activities: farming, cattle grazing, Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, surfing and penguins...
 
Little Penguins, or Eudyptula minor (ha ha), are the smallest species of penguin.  They can be found on and off the coast of New Zealand, the Chatham Islands, Tasmania and southern Australia.
 
Every night you can come to the island to see hundreds of the little guys come ashore and waddle up into their little penguin apartments on the beach.  It was apparently a xxx show that night, as it was their mock breeding season...
 
Well, back to work.  We have a dinner with Bill Boyd, president of RI, this weekend and I get to speak at the Rotary Club of Prahran on Monday.
 
Mike