We landed on our feet in Bicheno, staying with Emma's cousin Dugal and his partner Kylie at her aunty's beautiful little holiday house.
We had seen a few penguins at Lillico beach near Devonport, but here there were penguins all over the place, including living in the bushes under the back fence! They were so noisy in the early morning before dawn, that they woke me up the first few days we were there. I think it was the parents saying "goodbye" to the littlies as they left and the very loud replies of "don't forget to bring fish!" We did quite a few walks out the back fence and around the bay when school was done for the day. One day, we were wandering about on the rocks and Emma ventured up the bank to the foreshore walk. She got down to peer into a couple of penguin holes and saw...baby penguins. There were nests everywhere, and the penguins didn't mind too much us gawking at them, but if they did, it was good enough to turn their backs on us and pretend we didnt't exist
The day we arrived, after a painful hour of schoolwork, with both big boys showing us the full gamut of negative responses, we dropped down to the pier to watch a man fishing. His name was Francois, and he was pulling out squid after squid while we stood there chatting. They were amazing creatures, and as they were dropped onto the cement of the pier, they would instantly change colour to the surrounding ground. After a while they just sat there all glossy and silvery with amazing shining green eyes. I got a few fishing tips from him, me being an absolute novice, and I thought we could get the boys out for a fish over the coming days. We did fish... but we did not catch fish. The day we set aside for it was 17 degrees and very windy, so after fishing 'the gulch' for about 10mins, we packed up and came around to Waubs Harbour where it was a little more out of the wind and got nothing there too. At least we were a bit warmer.
The walks among the rocks showed us so many beautiful things, large and small.
There was an enormous amount of kelp around and the boys had a great afternoon or two as the pirate kelp warriors.
Diamond Island was just along the beach from where we were staying. At low tide, you can reach the island on foot. We had been watching the tides for a couple of days to organise a time when we could make the trip across. One afternoon, we realised that the tides weren't going to be right before we left Bicheno, unless we did it today. So we bundled into the car, and raced around to where the island joind the land, only to find that there was no public access. So then we raced back around to the other end of the beach, (where we started), and hot footed it onto the sand to try and make it. It was a bit of an anxious trek around, watching the sun go down, and the tide come in, but we finally made the distant shore. It was quite satisfying to have made it, and we messed about in the rocks and had a look at the many penguin holes in the sandy banks. Dom took the opportunity to write his name for the first time, in the sand at the foot of Diamond Island. All too soon it was time to wade across the channel and make our way back.