Day 4 - #Thatchersontour - Philip Island

Today we were off to Phillip Island for a day trip, ending with the penguin parade. After the early start yesterday for the walking tour we had a chilled morning (I even managed to fit in a gym session and Blake went for a swim) before heading off on the 2 hour drive to Phillip Island. Our first stop was Smiths Beach for what we thought would be a nice spot for lunch and a sunbathe. The weather had different ideas though and we were sadly blown across the carpark before even making it to the beach. We strolled down to have a look and make sure it wasn’t more sheltered on the beach but it wasn’t to be. Instead we decided to visit Rhyll as it was on the east coast of the island and a tad more sheltered for lunch. From there we went on a nice walk along the mangroves boardwalk which was around a 2km return walk. The fam even got their first glimpse of some Aussie wildlife with lots of lizards and some wallabies.

Next on the itinerary was the Nobbies, which we previously visited when we came to Phillip Island. The Nobbies are very picturesque craggy rock formations boardwalk out in the sea and there is a nice little boardwalk which wraps around the coastline. Like Smiths beach we almost got blown away but the coastline is absolutely stunning so we didn't want the fam to miss it. We also saw one or two penguins in their little nesting boxes sheltering from the wind. Looking rather windswept we decided to grab a coffee from the tourist shop before heading to Cowes for a fish and chip dinner.

Feeling nice and full we headed to the penguin parade. We purposely got their early but it turned out we were 2 hours early and they hadn’t even opened the doors yet. This worked in our favour though as we managed to get the same spot at the front we had last time we were here (I did have a race with a man and his kids though which was pretty funny). When the sun finally went down we had wave after wave of cute little penguins waddling up the beach(although sadly not quite as close as last time). Last time we came, around 1,000 penguins returned home from their long day at sea however this time 2,322 penguins came home so we were in penguin heaven! Last time we ergs here it was mating season so this time we got to sea that all of their hard work had paid off as there were lots of little baby penguins to see as we were walking along the boardwalks around their nests. The fam absolutely loved it!Read more