Day 3: Mornington Peninsula

I made a "run date" to go out to run with Geraldine (part of Frank's Platinum running group) to run at 7am around her housing area. She had just moved to Melbourne a couple months back. It was a 'nice' hilly 12k route. After the run I showered at her house while she took her kids to school. Then she came back and we had breakfast together. Thanks Geraldine for making me breakfast!

Geraldine and me, post-run

The very nice Lexus my uncle loaned me for the trip!

Then I rushed back to meet with my family and extended family to head to Sorrento Pier at the Mornington Peninsula. Today we were going on a dolphin watching tour. A total of 16 of us joined the tour. Out of that number, only 5 of us decided we were going to go into the freezing water to swim with the dolphins. My sister and I did it because we thought it was going to be a good experience.

The ship basically sets out from the pier and try to visually hunt for the bottlenose dolphins. When spotted the ship try to intercept the school. A rope with buoys called a mermaid line is thrown into the ocean and the swimmers drop into the water holding on to the mermaid line the whole time. The mermaid is for safety as well as conservation. It ensures we stay safe and not get pulled away by very, very strong tidal waves. It also prevents us from trying to touch the dolphins as that isn't allowed.


It was such a cool experience as the dolphins seem to love us and swam really, really close. They were very playful too and did plenty of cool stunts around the boat. At one time, I managed to see a total of 4 adult dolphins, all within touching arms reach. It was kind of scary at times as I worry I would accidentally kick them while threading water. All in all it was a superb experience.

Night was a family BBQ at Uncle Brian's house where we had some excellent meats off the grill as welll as some really tasty 'siew yoke' my aunt made. Not forgetting tons of beer and wine.

Alcohol intake: 1 beer + 3 glass of red wine