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Bad weather has been forecast for most of the week so we thought it best to visit Philip Island to see the penguins. It's a 2 hour drive from where we are so we headed off about lunchtime going straight there to get the tickets without the hassle of the any crowds. We also decided to book and Eco Tour where a ranger takes you on a walk explaining things and answering any questions.

To fill in the rest of the afternoon we drove back to Amazenthings. A fun house with lots of puzzles and mind tricks. We had loads of fun there, at the end doing the maze. Tom lead the way and half way through Ian and Sally ducked out to the cafe, without telling Tom, for a sausage roll and milkshake. It didn't take long for Tom to finish the maze and discover they were missing.

We then took a drive in to Cowes to get some dinner, a task made much more difficult by the fact that nothing was open. We had just enough time to check out the nesting seagulls on the point before heading back to Penguin Parade to catch our tour.

Other than us there was only 1 other person there. We got to go down the boardwalk, across the beach and up to the sky box. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see any rafts of penguins out at sea even with the binoculars. Our guide, Brett, did give us a good tip about where to sit though. It was pretty chilly, especially sitting there for an hour waiting, so we were quite glad to have brought our beach towels to wrap around our legs. It was definitely a good spot to sit as may groups of penguins waddled past, falling over as a result of full bellies, to the track next to us. They are soooooo cute! After half an hour or so we headed back up the boardwalk to watch them feeding the chicks. What a racket they make calling to each other. Once we got to the top we had to stand nehind the white line while a ranger opened a little gate at the bottom of the big gate for a lone penguin to cross the boardwalk.