raymond island.

Ben and I have been able to do so many cool things so far, we joke that our time in Australia has been like a long honeymoon - except he's working - so we call it a "working-moon." Because of Ben's occupational travel, we've been able to visit some really amazing places that we probably wouldn't have even heard of if we weren't in the area.

Like Raymond Island, an offhand suggestion made by one of Ben's coworkers.

A mere 6 km long and 2 km wide, Raymond Island is a residential area for a small community of people - but it's best known for its large koala population (around 300, according to one of the residents).

A teeny tiny ferry routinely runs from Paynesville to the island. Ben, who hails from a very large island frequented by massive ferries, found this watercraft to be highly amusing, because it only holds 10 cars and maybe 20 people. Apparently there has been some controversy surrounding the ferry, which is currently the only way to get to the island (aside from boating, and maybe swimming if you're desperate). Some have lobbied for a bridge to be built for easier access, but others argue that the ferry is a great way to reduce traffic and keep the island's human population down, and is also a convenient way to seek shelter from zombie attacks.

We were prepared with our nice camera, which came in handy because we saw SO MANY KOALAS and lots of them were awake and active and adorable! Here are some of my favourite koala shots:

sleeping peacefully.

staring contest starts... now.

this one reminded me of a little teddy bear.

we saw this guy leaping from branches like a ninja.

We came across a precious little echidna waddling around and poking its nose into the ground. There were also a few rainbow lorikeets flying about, and other winged creatures we weren't able to identify but looked fascinating. And yes, we still love watching those pelicans.

rainbow lorikeets

pelican taking off

I know that oohing and aahing over all the Australian wildlife is probably akin to tourists photographing squirrels back in the States, but still - we had a great time on the island, and highly recommend it to anyone passing through East Gippsland. Koala-watching on Raymond Island sounds like something that should be on a bucket list, so I've started making a reverse-bucket-list: amazing things we've experienced that we weren't aware of before, but will definitely be reminiscing about for a long time.

CK