Today I went on a trip to Phillip Island. My grandma had told me I had to go and see the penguins here so I made sure I booked a trip. The others didn't come with me but I still had a great day!
I was picked up at around 10am, and was the first on the bus. The guide was called Lee, and he was training up the driver, Stephen. Lee was really boisterous and definitely keen to make everybody have a 'crazy' day. He was just on the right side of annoying though so he was really good.
There were 18 of us altogether on the trip, including a cute old couple called Les and Lyle (Lyle was the lady). They had been with Lee the day before on a Great Ocean road trip and Lyle was super keen to sing along to all of the songs and have old lady banter with Lee. She was really sweet, and kept forgetting my name. Eventually she started called me Lotta so I just went with it.
There was also a twelve year old boy called Harry, who came and sat with me at lunch and asked me what year I was in at school...embarrassing.
After all the pick ups and a drive to a little town called Koo Wee Rup (yep) we stopped for lunch. I was the only one with a free lunch voucher which was good so I had a tasty roast chicken roll from a chicken shop.
Our first proper stop of the tour was at a family run winery called Bass Hill I think. The family moved over from Calabria in Italy in the 1980s. I have never done proper wine tasting before, except once when I was 14 and my dad's cousin tried to introduce me to it...it didn't end too well. I tried three whites, two reds, a sparkling wine and a cherry wine. I like sweet wines so my favourites were the cherry wine and the Muscato. I nearly bought a bottle of the cherry wine to take home but there is no way it would fit in my backpack.
There was also cheese to taste from the local cows, apples from their orchard and olives which they grow as well. I couldn't stay away from the mature cheddar (I don't like blue cheese).
The scenery surrounding the vineyards was amazing - all rolling green hills and blue skies.
The next stop was a chocolate factory - I wasn't sure what it was going to be like. Aussie chocolate isn't normally very nice because they put some dodgy ingredients in it to stop it melting. The Cadbury here is unrecognisable. Luckily Panny, the owner of the factory, makes really nice Belgian chocolate. There were loads of games where you could win chocolate, machines where you could make your own chocolate bar (Marmite flavour for example), and a huge chocolate mosaic of Dame Edna. I had a great time playing with the chocolate robots and creating my very own chocolate squiggle. There were so many free samples!
I couldn't leave without buying anything, so I bought myself a strawberry cream bar, and then a honeycomb bar for Hannah and a vanilla and nut bar for Vick.
After the chocolate factory we went to a koala conservation centre. I have already seen koalas but this was really good, as they are essentially in the wild. There are boardwalks in the trees so you are at their level, and I saw quite a few, including a tiny little baby - it was so cute!
It was about 4pm by this time, so we headed to Nobbies (a coastal area I think) for a walk along the boardwalks. Underneath the boardwalks you could see little penguins having a nap, they are only a foot tall and so, so sweet. The scenery was spectacular as the sun was just beginning to set.
In between each place Lee played a song or something about it, so we had a Monty Python wine clip for the winery, the Candyman for the chocolate factory, a song about koalas for the koala place, and a song about penguins for the parade. He also played a Rolf Harris song about kangaroos which I'd never heard but the Aussies seemed to love it, as well as the YMCA for no particular reason. It was quite surreal sitting on the bus with a load of strangers dancing to YMCA. I had to join in because otherwise Lee makes you sit at the front of the bus facing everyone and sing them a song, and I didn't want that.
Our final stop, and the highlight of the day, was the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. Loads of little penguins all come out of the sea at around sunset to go to bed in their burrows. I decided to pay extra for a Penguins Plus ticket, where instead of viewing the penguins from a distance, you get to see them waddle right past you. I also got a free hot chocolate to drink whilst we were waiting for them.
The numbers vary each day, but apparently there were close to 1000! It is amazing seeing loads of their little white bellies come out of the sea and then waddle with you all the way down the boardwalk before heading off in separate directions to their burrows. As it is molting season, they have extra food to keep them warm, so some of them are really fat, and kept falling on their tummies. I have never seen anything so sweet in my life!
At about 8pm I had a look around the gift shop before heading back to the bus. We had to check under the bus for penguins before we left. I was the last to be dropped off, so I didn't get back until after 10.30pm. It was a long day but 100% worth it - definitely a highlight of my trip so far!
xxx