It’s the end of December and school is finished for the year. Alexis has completed her first year of school here in Australia and is moving on to grade 1 in February. But first, it’s time for 6 weeks of summer holidays! This summer holidays, we spent most of our time in Torquay. Having the beach at our doorstep, it seemed logical to stay here for the summer and enjoy every minute of it!

We did take a one short holiday away, a few days in Warrnambool with Shane, while he worked at his shop there. Alexis and Reid have watched the movie ‘Oddball’ several times and love it. This movie takes place in Warrnambool and is based on a true story about a Maremma dog who protects the fairy penguins that live on Middle Island from hungry foxes. While we were in Warrnambool for a few days, we had the opportunity to meet the next generation of Maremma dogs, Eudi and Tula, who are the current guard dogs working on Middle Island. The two people who care for the dogs and work on the penguin project, took us on a tour to Middle Island so we could see where the dogs work and what they do. We were hoping to see some fairy penguins as well but because we were there at midday, most of the penguins would have been out at sea.

To get to the island, we wore life jackets and hiked up our pants as we had to walk through a little bit of water to get there. At low tide, it is possible to walk to Middle Island in water about ankle deep. The tide wasn’t quite at its lowest when we walked over to Middle Island and Reid and Alexis ended up waist-deep in water.

Eudi and Tula, the guard dogs, spend 5 out of 7 days a week on the island, wandering back and forth on the boardwalk that has been built for them. The dogs stay on the boardwalk so they do not disturb the hundreds of burrows and nests that have been built by the penguins and birds on the island. The dogs spend their days off on a farm just outside of Warrnambool.

Since the dogs have been introduced to the island, there have been no penguins attacks by foxes. The program has been a tremendous success and the number of penguins has gone from 10 at its lowest point, to over 150 penguins today. The project is training up the next generation of Maremma dogs, a boy and a girl, to be ready to take over for Eudi and Tula when they retire.

On our second day in Warrnambool, we visited Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve. Tower Hill’s location boasts of an ancient crater and other volcanic features with an abundance of wildlife. There are five self-guided walks there, each with a different theme. We decided to tackle two of the five walks; the Peak Climb, a 30 minute steep hike to the top of Tower Hill with stunning views of the surrounding area and the Lava Tongue Boardwalk, a 30 minute hike along a boardwalk through the wetlands to admire the wildlife living there.

As we were making our way back to the carpark, we spotted a koala in a tree. We watched it for a while and to our surprise, the koala climbed down the tree and wandered off to find a new tree to climb. We followed the koala, from a safe distance of course, and watched him move from one tree to another and then go to sleep again!

After Warrnambool, the excitement of Christmas came and went and we started to look forward to some of the other activities we had planned for the summer holidays. During the first and second weeks of January, a group of teenagers made their way to Torquay to run a camp called Beach Mission, a free, Christian-based camp for kids age prep to year 9. Alexis and Reid were excited to be involved this year and attended everyday. Reid was hesitant to participate on his own, but after 5 days, he forgot I was even there! This was a major break through for him. He even stood front and centre on stage when the Beach Mission group led the songs at church on Sunday!

Later in January, Alexis and Reid both enrolled in VicSwim, an open water swimming program where they learned some important skills and knowledge about water safety in and around the ocean. Although the weather wasn’t great, Alexis still enjoyed her lessons. Reid, on the other hand, required an enormous amount of encouragement to participate.

Playing at the beach for the remainder of the morning after the lessons, was more fun than the lessons themselves!

Summer by the Sea is program offered to kids all over the Surfcoast and Bellarine area, focusing on learning about our beautiful beaches, the creatures that live there and how to care for them. Reid and Alexis joined a Beach Detectives session where they had to solve a murder case. A penguin had died and they needed to figure out how and why. The lesson to learn was to pick up your own rubbish as well as take three pieces with you every time you go to the beach, it can save the lives of many marine animals.

No summer is complete without an evening at the Nightjar festival, a vibrant, colourful and eclectic mix of a night market, music festival, food stalls and showcase for local artists. In the month of January, the Nightjar went on every Thursday night in Torquay.

Finally, a summer would not be complete without a trip to the strawberry farm. We went to Tuckerberry Hill Farm to pick our own strawberries and blueberries. After a very successful harvest, and a costly one, we had plenty of strawberries to eat and make jam with as well as loads of blueberries to enjoy.