Melbourne has a population of 4.5 million and is the second largest city in Australia. You can't help but notice the incredible amount of cranes across the city landscape:
Apparently, high-rise developments are being built at a rate four times that of some of the world’s highest density cities. And staying here, Melbourne certainly has the vibe of a young, vibrant city.
We were particularly surprised by the number of Asians. So much so that we even looked it up. They say there are a little over 300,000 from Asia residing here but it looks like much more- like maybe 50%:
We couldn't get over the number of Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Korean restaurants. Good for us that food in these restaurants are cheap compared to Australia as a whole (we've found Australia the most expensive for food of all the cities visited in our journey).
A big attraction is the "Penguin Parade" on Phillip Island (about a 90 minute drive outside of Melbourne):
About 2,000 of these penguins arrive each night at sunset after swimming for food during the day and come onshore to get into their burrows. They are called 'little penguins' due to their small size (only 13 inches tall). They are the smallest of all penguin species and have blue and white feathers instead of black and white:
Unlike the larger penguins we saw in Argentina that mate for life, these little guys do not- if breeding success is low, they may look for a new mate. Also, they have a shorter lifespan of only 7 years vs the 25 years of their South American counterparts.
We're beginning to realize that our world journey is nearing the end with just two more countries before we fly back Dec. 16th. It's been terrific so far and just feels like we're on a bullet train coming to a close (literally, that will happen in Japan, our last stop).
Next up- New Zealand
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