Phillip Island

Traveling in a camper van thus far had been an interesting experience--though not as traumatic as I had expected. Staying at places that had cooking facilities and showers made the whole sleeping in a car thing a bit easier to manage. And, surprisingly, it was warmer than I expected it to be--though I probably had my nice Kathmandu sleeping bag I bought back in NZ for half price to thank for that. But yes, even sleeping and living out of our David Bowie-clad van, we managed to get by pretty well. This was even more apparent the night of our Mornington Peninsula trip. Of the many things we talked about with the cellar door hand at Tuck's Ridge was what would go well with each wine. John decided to make moules mariniere from the mussels we bought at the fresh seafood marker recommended by our Tuck's Ridge friend to have with our Chardonnay we purchased. That night, trying to cook Moules Mariniere on a small, single butane-powered cooker in the chilly evening air with a decent breeze was no easy task--but we managed! Though we didn't even end up drinking the Chardonnay as I had had more than a few glasses of wine that day all together and didn't feel up to the hair of the dog that bit me. So we had water instead. But yes, we were getting the hang out of this living in a van thing--though I will admit I had those moments when I was really missing our little Melbourne apartment.

Anywho, onto the next day when we were to tour Phillip Island! The day started out a bit cloudy and we weren't sure how it was going to go, so we decided to start the day off indoors at the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory! Only a $12 entry and free chocolate to start the day? Yes, please!?

First we needed a nice hot beverage to start the morning and plan our route for the day (a delicious hot chocolate for me, of course, and a mocha for John). 

Then it was off to tour the museum. They had a lot of interesting facts about chocolate and how chocolate is made--from the cocoa plant all the way to packaging. They even had chocolate art on display, as John is gesturing below:

They had a chocolate village, little arcade games where you could win chocolate, a machine where you could try different chocolate and combination flavors (I had strawberry and John had wasabi and cola . . . don't ask), a machine where you could make your own chocolate art, and a cool chocolate strobe illusion! I got it on camera to share:

By the time we left the chocolate factory the sun was shining and it was time to do some walks! There were several places located around the island where you could do some nature walks--we did a short boardwalk track over a swampy area, a nice circle track inland where we saw a few more wallabies, and then over to the far side of the island to a place called the Nobbies. Phillip Island is actually well known for it's colony of Little Blue Penguins (called Fairy Penguins here) but the center is much like the one we visited in Omaru--paid entry to see them come home at night, under a large viewing deck where you cannot take pictures--so we skipped it this time and just did some of the walks. The Nobbies is actually a big visitors center as well, with lots of information about the local wild and marine life and there is a boardwalk track that wraps its way around the coast a bit to give you a view of the Nobbies--which is basically two big rocks in the water--kind of like Nugget Point in NZ but more developed. It was still a nice walk that gave you some good costal views. There were signs up saying that a certain type of snake (a venomous kind) nested in that area but luckily it was too cold for us to spot any of them!

We ended our day with a visit to an area called Surf Beach--and indeed we went right around low tide and encountered many surfers on their way to catch some waves. We, however, ventured to an area a bit further down the beach called Forrest Caves. It was a big rock formation just at the edge of the shore--huge rock hollowed out by the waves crashing and it was a nice place to explore around low tide.

After hanging around the rocks for a while and getting some nice pictures, it was time to head to our next destination: Wilson's Promontory!