Have you ever been to a place for holiday and they tell you the tourist spots and you feel you have to go see each and every place mentioned in the tourist pamphlet, even if you knew if was not fun or something you want to see? I don't know what it is. Pure morbid curiosity or the guilt of not getting your money's worth or the fact that it will be fun and people will be laughing at you for year? There are not many forces that powerful as this urge.
The visit to Philip Island was one such place though I have to admit that the trip there and spending lunch at the seaside town of San Remo and also visiting a chocolate factory was the highlight. Philip Island also had a spectacular view of the ocean and is the famous home of the Little Penguins. They are the smallest penguins in the animal kingdom and they come home every night to the nest on Philip Island and this tourist attraction is called the Penguin Parade.
You can buy tickets where you will sit on a grand stand right in front of the ocean waiting for these little guys to come out of the freezing ocean and we were told not to make any noise. There was a couple of teenagers sitting in front of us that kept shushing the kids and I. I of course as a responsible parent got together with my kids and kept irritating them by making giggly and farty noises.
The chocolate factory (not "the" chocolate factory as in Willy Wonka's but just "a" factory) was a visit well worth AUD12. We had free chocolate to clog up the arteries of 10 rhinoceroses and we got to design our own chocolate. There was this contraption that collected chocolate liquid and then let is flow like a chocolate curtain in it's brown glory. I had dreams that I was under the flow with my mouth open and my entire internal systems shutting down voluntarily. What a way to go. There was a train model with the town done entirely in chocolate and a full choclate stature of David by Michaelangelo as well as machineries and other chocolate ingredients to show you how it's done.
There was also a koala's sanctuary but I have seen enough koala's from our last trip and the wild koalas on the Grampiens to care. Australia would not be complete without a visit to the farm to see how sheep dogs hustle sheeps, how "cowboys" "round up" sheep and calves and of course how to make billy tea. The put some tea leaves in a rusty can, add boiling water and ask you to swing the can 360 degrees with your arms straight. I doubt that's how it's done in the outbacks and this is just to see how stupid us tourist are (answer: pretty darn).
The penguins' show ended pretty late and in the end the parade was quite worth it. Just don't get the skybox or grandstand or whatever additional tickets they ask you to get. In the end, we are all mixed around anyway regardless of ticket price. Also we didn't take any photos of the penguins as we were told it would hurt their eyes or even scare them. Thousands of giant watching you go home, no problem. Flash! Oh my gawd!! Run for lives! We are so scared!!!!
So ends Day4 and Day5 is about shopping in the city....THANK GOD!
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