Laura's Lighthouses

And like the king penguins (in March of the Penguins) the shearwater parents take turns leaving the chick to get food, and then they fly around the flock calling out to their partner and chick. They may have to make a few passes before hearing its family, but when they do, they land and feed the chick. It was quite interesting to see!

The shearwaters have to watch out for the seagulls as they try to steal the fish or even the shearwater chicks to eat! (This was a very violent nature tour!)

Anyone can spend 3 or 4 nights here at a cost of $300 per 4 nights per person. We were able to go to the top of the lighthouse. You'll have to ignore my hair, as it was so wind blown from the boat ride and the wind on top of the lighthouse! And I was a bit sun burnt! But it was worth it!

This is the mountain in Narooma, taken from the top of the lighthouse.

The Aboriginal legend goes: There were 3 people, a mother and her 2 sons. The older son, left and made it on his own. The mother was so upset with his leaving, she asked her other son to stay with her. He did. The mother is the big mountain, the older son is Montague Island and the second son is the smaller mountain just the right and slightly behind the mother.

The white man's story, is that all 3 are volcanoes from roughly the same time period. The big mountain is slightly older than the island and the smaller mountain. There is still evidence of the volcano on the island, but I don't have a good photo of it. The other photos are of the island.

Because I went in November, the first 90 minutes of the tour was to be spent looking for whales, killer whales and humpback whales. Our guide told us that there had been killer whales in the area over night, but they were already moving south, so we wouldn't see them, but we also may not even see any humpback whales as the orcas hunt and eat them, so the humpback whales tend to stay out of the area when the orcas are around.

(Funny? sad? gross? side note - our guide told us years and years ago (when killing whales was a way of life for food, oil, etc.), the orcas used to assist the whalers with killing the humpback whales. The orcas would heard the humpbacks into the harbour and actually pull the whalers boats into the harbour where the humpbacks were killed. The whalers were so grateful for the help, they would feed the orcas the brains and tongues of the humpbacks as a thank you for the help. Of course the whalers had to be quick to get their kill out of the water before they were eaten by the orcas! Nature! Cool!)

However, after about 10 minutes on the water, we saw a small family of humpback whales. (The family was small, not the whales!) They are migrating from up north to Antarctica. The family was a mom, dad and last years calf. Once the mom decided we were ok, she let the calf come up close to us!

I was so overwhelmed, I forgot to take photos! ME! Yes, but then I saw everyone else with their camera and remembered! The whales were putting on quite a show. Slapping the water with their fins until they decided we were ok and then playing and swimming up to the boat.

After 90 minutes or so, we headed to the island which is home to seagulls, penguins and shearwaters (all the way from Japan) for breeding. Not to mention the Australian and New Zealand fur seals.

The difference between the Aussie and New Zealand seals is that the Aussie seals are lighter in color and like to lie on top of each other and are very close. The New Zealanders, on the other hand are darker, and are spread out as they sun bathe.

You can see the difference in the photos below. Here are the New Zealand seals:

And the Aussie seals:

And of course there is a lighthouse on this island! (Of course!!)