Day 110 - January 10

Woke up and went surfing at Back Beach in Torquay. We rented wetsuits and surfboards for $30 for 3 hours from a store that the hostel suggested. Though it was also raining, it wasn't cold.

We surfed near the edge of the beach, a little close to the rocks. The area I was in was close to the rip. Everytime I paddled out, I was slowly being pulled toward the rocks by the rip. Rather annoying. I had enough of that, so I repositioned myself and moved closer to the middle of the beach.

The waves were bigger and came more often than I was used to. Since I had the beginner G board, because it was more buoyant, it didn't go through waves very well. Because of that, I was pushed back toward the beach a lot father than I would have liked.

After about 2 hours of surfing, Craig and I were done. We headed back toward Melbourne. On the way back, I spotted a Red Rooster restaurant and had to get some. I saw them everywhere so I thought it must be worth trying. I ordered the tropican meal. It was a quarter chicken leg, fries and 2 deep fried pineapples. The pineapples were really good. The chicken was pretty good too. Not as good as KFC or Swiss Chalet, but okay for a fast food place. Mmmmm... Swiss Chalet... I miss their sauce. Come to think of it, I will have a Timmy's coffee and a whole chicken meal at Swiss Chalet with 3 extra side orders of the sauce. A good ol' fashioned Canadian meal.

I dropped off Craig and at his place. He lived in a very tiny apartment with 2 other housemates. His housemates owned a one-eyed cat.

What is it with me and meeting cats that have some sort of disfigurement? First it was Oscar the tailess cat that I lived with, now Craig's One-eyed cat. Just looking at its gaping hole was kinda creepy. I wanted to put a blue marble in the socket so that it just might look normal.

Afterwards I headed to Julie's place. Julie and Nicholas offered their place for me to stay for a couple of days. The perks of making friends who are also travellers.

Since I still have the car for 1 more night, I drove Julie to St. Kilda to see penguins. It was super windy as well and it's always colder by the harbour. We saw a couple of penguins here and there. We got really close to them too. There were a couple of volunteers that made sure that no one touched the penguins. It wasn't as cool as the penguin parade on Phillip Island, but since this was free, it was really neat. Definitely something to see if you're in Melbourne and can't make it to Phillip Island.