P P P P P P Pick up a Penguin!!

Today's special event was a day trip to the Mornington Peninsula and Phillip Island!

After setting off early doors we headed down to the Mornington Peninsula, it turns out my calculations of Australian distances was once again completely wrong and so it took quite a while to found our first destination (which was in the middle of nowhere!).

We stopped off at Chapmans Point lookout which was beautiful and then eventually found Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm where we picked some of the nicest perfectly shaped strawbs I have ever tasted. We then enjoyed a lovely snack in the tearooms, Mum chose the Devonshire cream tea and Joey the strawberry cheesecake! After tasting the strawberry wine and looking at the vast amount of strawberry goodies in the shop we headed on our way down to Phillip Island!

To Chris' delight today we were finally blessed with huge rolling blue waves and so surf was up!!! We pitched up at Smith's Beach where we enjoyed a few hours of fantastic surfing in the sunshine..even Mum had a go and really enjoyed it !!(see the pics!)

We grabbed a bite to eat in Cowes...by the way..we didn't see any however we did see hundreds of seagulls who were busy harassing the tourists eating fish and chips!

As the sun was now getting low, we went to the Penguin Parade and took our seats ready for the miniature penguins to arrive! To try and describe this evening would be really difficult..you have to see it to believe it! Hundreds of tiny penguins slowly start to emerge out of the sea and waddle at great speed up the beach into the sand dunes..they are sooo cute!

Me and Mum found ourselves chanting 'you can do it' to a couple of particularly slow fat penguins who were struggling to make the distance!

Mum, whilst trying to enjoy the penguin experience was finding it increasingly hard to sit still as there was a curious mouse exploring the seats where we were perched and so every few minutes she would jump up and shout 'oooohhh don't let that thing come near me!' we all found this very amusing!

After watching the penguins marching up the beach we walked along the boardwalks watching them find their way to their nests and listening to the babies calling out for their tea...what an amazing experience!

This has got to be one of the best days so far since being in Oz, everyone loved it and we will definitely be going back!

Enjoy the surf pics everyone, sorry there are no penguin pics...but no cameras allowed..strict Ranger rules!

Speak soon

Netti xx