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Phillip Island, land of the little Penguins!
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Phillip Island is named after the first Governor of Victoria & is around 2 hours drive from Melbourne.
It is now home to the only protected colony of little Penguins in the world. These cute little creatures are the smallest of the Penguin species & grow to between 30 & 40 cm tall & weight around 1kg. We went to Phillip island to watch the Penguins when they come ashore in the evening & go waddling to their little burrows.
On the way the Phillip Island, our first stop was a Winery. Victoria has many vineyards & is one of Australia's main
wine producing regions. We tasted some different wines & also Port & Sherry that are produced at that particular Vineyard.
After the Winery, our next stop was a wildlife park where we met lots of native animals.
We first met a baby wombat called Wilma.
Wilma was 18 months old & loved having her tummy tickled. In the wild you wouldn't tickle a wombats tummy as they would probably try to crush you. They have a hard plate in their back to protect their burrows from predators, this will also be used to crush anything that does manage to get into the burrow.
Next we saw some Koalas who, unlike the Koalas in Queensland & the other states, you are not allowed to touch as they are slightly larger & have bigger claws so it is actually illegal to touch one!
Strange I know but I'm sure they have their reasons!
The stars of the wildlife park had to be the kangaroos & wallaby's who we were allowed to feed & were so cute & friendly!
They just come up & eat out of your hand! The baby ones were slightly more nervous but they were so cute & fluffy & they hold onto your hand with their little claws (that aren't sharp) in order to keep their balance when
they're standing up! The big Kangaroos are alot more bold & a little bit cheeky!
When we went into their
Field, as soon as they noticed us (and the food we had) we had around 8 Kangaroos bouncing across the field
towards us!
It was really cool though! In the wild they are considered to be a pest but they are very cute & they have, after all, been here in Australia for a lot longer than we have!
There were also animals such as Emus
(a bit scarey) and Ponies, goats & Geese but we get those back home so I think everyone has seen those before.
Our next stop was Smiths beach. Smiths beach is very popular with surfers in the summer, it is however, also one of the most dangerous beaches in Australia! On a scale of 1 - 10, 10 being the most dangerous, Smiths beach
scores 8! In the summer, there are lifeguards manning the beach & our guide told us that if you swim between the flags you'll be OK. No one has ever drowned between the flags. In the words of our guide though, if a rip tide gets hold of you then you can be half way to Tasmania in 10 seconds!
It was however, a very beautiful beach & not to far from where the little Penguins come in to next. When we visited it was definitely not sunbathing weather but still a very nice place to stop.
Just along the coast, we visited the Nobbies,
2 big rocks which, in summer are home to Seals & also, the little Penguins!
By this time, the sun was starting to set so we made our way to the little Penguin colony as they come waddling in just after sunset.
We were not allowed to take pictures of the Penguins as the flash scares them. They were very cute to watch though, they come in in little groups of around 10 Penguins at a time & waddle up the beach
together. They put on quite alot of weight when they are out catching fish, sometimes they can come back 1kg more than they weighed before they left which, when they only weight around 1kg to start with is quite alot. It takes them quite along time to waddle up the beach, they only have little feet & fall over quite alot. They definitely seemed a lot more agile in the water than out!
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