{"id":4965,"date":"2012-07-20T11:19:00","date_gmt":"2012-07-20T11:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/07\/20\/destination-phillip-island\/"},"modified":"2023-05-10T02:23:42","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T02:23:42","slug":"destination-phillip-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/2012\/07\/20\/destination-phillip-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Destination: Phillip Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/div>\n

Holidays. Week 3. Monday. Prospective
\ndestination: Phillip Island (weather permitting). Forecast: cloudy with a
\nchance of rain. <\/span><\/p>\n

That, dear reader, was the knife\u2019s edge on
\nwhich we all retired for the needful deep and dreamy on Sunday night. What was
\nthe morning going to hold?<\/span><\/p>\n

We awoke on the Monday to a sky 60% full of
\nstratocumulus clouds, but with a gusty south-easterly clearing things rapidly.
\nThe would-be meteorologists in the community quickly showed their personality
\ntendencies towards either optimism or pessimism, but happily for all of us the
\noptimists won through. We bundled ourselves into the van and set off for the
\nIsland, praying that the weather would stay fine.<\/span><\/p>\n

(Here is a brief pr\u00e9cis on Phillip Island
\nfor those who have never heard of it before: it is a little island inside Port
\nPhillip Bay, on which the city of Melbourne is built, and it is home to both a
\nMotoGP circuit and fairy penguins, not to mention picturesque little beaches
\nand nature trails. To clarify matters for anyone who is wondering, we did not<\/b>
\ngo to see the motorcycles.)<\/span><\/div>\n
\nWe alighted at the westernmost point of the
\nisland and had a quick look around. It looked good \u2013 excellent beachside
\nboardwalks and hardly any tourists.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
After a brief time for abluting (that\u2019s a
\ngood Scrabble word, by the way) and recovering from the curse that is travel
\nsickness (fresh sea air does wonders) we ventured onto the nature trail.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
It was a splendid day. We couldn\u2019t have
\nasked for more. While most people go to Phillip Island during the evening to
\nsee the penguins from a bit of a distance (by purchasing tickets to see the
\nfamous Penguin Parade \u2013 they all march along the beach at around dusk, I believe),
\nwe got to see them during the day, up close! Mother Catherine\u2019s sharp eyes
\nspied a little penguin hiding under the boardwalk, and on closer observation
\n(which required the following manoeuvre \u2013 I think we should call it\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe Postulant\u201d;
\ndon\u2019t new gymnastic tricks get named after the person who first performs it?)\u2026 <\/span><\/div>\n

\u2026we saw\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u2026not one, but four<\/b> little penguins!
\n(The fourth one is hiding just at the very right of the picture.) They didn\u2019t
\nseem bothered by us at all, and were happy to just stare right back.\u00a0 <\/span>Maybe they shared a secret sympathy with us
\nand somehow knew that we sometimes get called penguins too (especially during cappa
\nseason).<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a>Here is one of their little nesting boxes, which
\nhave been placed all over this part of the island, presumably to encourage
\ntheir growth and development \u2013 I think they look a bit like little wooden
\nigloos:<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

After the excitement of the penguins, what
\ncould compare? Well, God is good, and brought the sun out for us so we could
\nenjoy these spectacular views as we walked:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n

(The postulants look just like a postcard, don\u2019t you think? And did you notice how well the sky had cleared?)<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a>Soon it was time for lunch, and we thought
\nwe\u2019d find a nice secluded beach for this. There was only a brief period of
\nanxiety when someone thought we were driving the wrong way down a one-way road
\n(which turned out not to be the case), but otherwise we made it there
\nuneventfully.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
After refueling ourselves, some went for a
\nstroll along the beach:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
While for some others the call of the sea
\nwas too strong:<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Some took on the challenge of getting as
\nfar as they could on the rocks without getting their feet wet:<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
But some hadn\u2019t taken the rising tide into
\nconsideration (for the record, their feet did<\/b> get wet):<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Not quite Monte Cassino, but a very good
\nspot for gathering material for meditation nonetheless!<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Our lovely day had to come to an end
\neventually.<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/a>\u00a0But do you know what? Coming back home to the convent after a grand
\nday like the one we had isn\u2019t quite like coming home after a party and feeling
\na bit sad it\u2019s all over. Instead, we get to come back to the chapel where Our
\nLord lives, to talk the day over with Him, to relive the magnificent sights and
\nsounds of the sea that He made and to wonder all the more at His works, from
\nthe great,<\/span><\/a> big, wide seascapes to the little things that
\nHe keeps sort of like a secret surprise, waiting for us to find them \u2013 like
\nthese!<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holidays. Week 3. Monday. Prospective destination: Phillip Island (weather permitting). Forecast: cloudy with a chance of rain. That, dear reader, was the knife\u2019s edge on which we all retired for the needful deep and dreamy on Sunday night. What was the morning going to hold? We awoke on the Monday to a sky 60% full … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-convent-life","infinite-scroll-item","masonry-post","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4965"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5223,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4965\/revisions\/5223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opsisters.org.nz\/preview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}