dazjet 'n family: Phillip Island

5 days on Phillip Island was a pleasant way to begin the latest school holidays. We booked and stayed at 'Jerebeth Cottage' in Cowes which was a great base for touring around the island. Clean, modern and comfortable... we were even welcomed by a basket of home grown eggs and a block of chocolate! The complimentary coffee was also a lot better than the average instant you get in such establishments!

Over the course of the 5 days we got and discovered as much as we could. We'd pre-purchased the Phillip Island Nature Parks 3 parks pass, which got us to Churchill Island, the Koala Conservation Centre and the famous Penguin Parade.

There is a little used - perhaps not widely known - dirt road linking the Nobbies and the Penguin Parade. Along this road is some of the most spectacular coastal scenery you could find anywhere!

These geese have the best views!

Cape Barren Geese have been listed as endangered, and a breeding program has been instigated on Phillip Island which appears quite successful as we saw them everywhere! There were also quite a new chicks of various ages... these young ones were on Churchill Island.

Also on Churchill Island we loved seeing the herd of Scottish Highland Cows! They are very cute indeed, especially the calves.

At the Koala Conservation Centre we saw lots of koalas high up in the trees, but were fortunate with one which was down low and was wide awake and on the move - unusual as they sleep for 20 hours a day.

Not far from The Nobbies is Flynns Beach which features the remnants of an old jetty which looked spectacular in the late afternoon sunshine.

The kids had a lovely afternoon on Flynns Beach, playing in the sand, making sand castles and playing a bit of beach cricket.

We hung around for a nice sunset at Flynns Beach...

As well as general admission to the Penguin Parade, we joined a family tour with a ranger which took us behind the scenes a little and find out more about the penguins and their lives! The kids loved this, asked lots of questions and learnt a lot leading up to the evenings parade. It also meant we were able to get excellent seats for the parade. The night before, over 1000 penguins came ashore. We rugged up and enjoyed the waddling spectacle, then spent some time around the boardwalks watching them go by - listening to the various noises they made - including the cries of the hungry chicks in their burrows. Unfortunately no photos are allowed of the penguins... so this one is from their website.

In Cowes we enjoyed a couple of walks out on the jetty including one evening after fish n chips.

Of course, Geocaching featured on this trip - here we found our 200th cache which was marked with much celebration! We found most of the 'Not Road Kill' series which consisted of various types of rubber / plastic animals hidden around the island.