Mood:
a-okTo start things off, we knew we were going to have two “suck days.” Those days were loosely defined as the days in which we had to drive to, and then from, the Greater Melbourne area. As such, we had no activities planned for said “Suck Days.”
So we left at about 5:40a. The drive would take us about 8 hours to make it to Phillip Island, and it was a long, hot drive. That being said, we at least saw changes in the terrain and travelled through the Australian Capital Territory, through New South Wales, and into Victoria. We saw plains, mountains, forests, and beaches all in the same day.
We got there around 1:45p. Check in at the motel wouldn’t be until after 2:00p, so we went to a place that Kimberly found in her Australia book called Wildlife Wonderland. As I said before, pictures of animals in zoos is cheating, but this was a free-range sort of petting zoo in which we got to see, feel, feed, and play with kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats, as well as see (but not play with) koalas, dingos, and a crocodile.
After Wildlife Wonderland, we headed to the motel and checked in.
After check-in, we decided to explore the Island. We knew we needed to find the locations of our two venues the next day, we wanted to do some shopping, and eventually, we’d have to find dinner. It was all way too easy and we got WAY more than I expected.
The two venues were:
1) The Koala Conservation Center – They were supposed to have several koalas on their grounds, some of them lived there in natural habitats that had a board walk built up around the trees so that you get really close and personal with them. They called this their “Tree Top Walk.” Others came and went as they pleased, so you had to keep your eyes peeled in the surrounding tree line.
2) The Penguin Parade – The Nobbies host one of the larger populations of Ferry Penguins (also called “Little Penguins”) in the world. Each night, at sunset, all of these little penguins pop up out of the ocean and waddle across the beach to get to their nests, sometimes great distances up extremely rough terrain. They do this every night. We had tickets to go sit in the bleachers and watch these little guys do their thing. Unfortunately, no photography is allowed. They say the cameras scare the penguins. I think the cameras scare their resellers, who already have plenty of pictures… Funny how hundreds of people and streetlights don’t scare these little guys but cameras were verboten, even without flashes… Either way, no photography at the Penguin Parade.
We wondered out to the Nobbies and found the Conservation Center easily enough. We wandered around the area taking pictures of the scenery when we noticed that these penguins’ nests were all around us. Some of them were occupied! We took several pictures, which were allowed here, and had a great time with the views of the ocean, the penguin spotting, the wind and sunny weather. All of it was fantastic! We were supposed to be able to see seals there, too, but they must have taken the day off.
After the Conservation Center, we went out to Cowes, which is the major population area on the Island. It had all of their souvenir shops and restaurants. We did our part to support both. Afterwards we headed back to the motel to recover from the drive and get ready for the next day.
happy
cheeky
not sure
