We have never been to Phillip Island before, and it didn’t sound like there was much to do. We were anchored quite a ways away from shore, about a half hour tender ride. Michael hasn’t learned to take it easy when something hurts. His knee has been bothering him, so what does he do? He goes on another walk about. After the tender ride, he gets on a bus to the town of Cowes only to find out that the whole town, and in fact, the whole island, is without electricity from the storm the night before. So all the shops were closed except the grocery store, which had a back up generator. So, he came home with four cans of potato chips.
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| Cowes |
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| Wood carving |
Not wanting to waste my energy and stress my body any further, I spent a good portion of the morning and afternoon knitting in my favorite place on deck seven. I even got to see a Valentine day renewal of vows in the Winter garden with 12 different couples. Nice way to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget we are a day ahead of you.
Philip Island is home to the largest little penguin colony in the world. You can experience the magic of watching these amazing seabirds waddle home from the ocean to their burroughs any night of the year from the viewing platforms and boardwalks. The island is basically a wildlife sanctuary. The day’s excursion was scheduled to start departing at 5:15 PM and then every 15 minutes until all 800 people who signed up for the excursion arrived at the penguin place. We were going to see the parade of penguins, which is a big deal on this island. We tendered to shore and then walked the pier to awaiting buses. We rode through the countryside for about another half an hour, and were dropped off at the penguin place. OMG, you should have seen the amount of buses that were there. As I said, this place is a big deal, but we in no way expected to find what we did. You work through this huge modern sleek exhibit hall that had a café, restaurant, gift shop, and multiple bathrooms through to the back exit and walk along an elevated boardwalk. It was approximately 3/4 of a mile to the beach. We saw some wildlife on our way out to the viewing area. Once we got there, there was a huge section of concrete benches to sit on while we waited for the penguins to come out of the ocean.
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| Wallaby |
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| Nest |
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| Little penguin |
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| View from the stands |
The penguins do not come out of the ocean until after dark. So there we sat for almost 2 hours in the cold wind waiting for these small blue penguins to emerge from the sea. Once it was dark, we were told we could not take any pictures, and that we can download pictures to use. We brought towels to sit on to cushion the concrete and bundled up against the cold wind. And we sat there and waited and waited and waited. Around 9:30 PM, a group of about 10 penguins came ashore and made their way into their grassy bunkers. A few minutes after this, another group of about 10 came ashore and at that point we gave up. We have heard that some nights there are hundreds of penguins, but tonight was not the night to see a lot of penguins. And the fact that was so freaking cold everybody in the stands got up the same time and started the walk back. Needless to say, it was extremely crowded, and after sitting for so long, my body was pretty much frozen up. We made it onto the next bus that was going back and arrived at the pier and sat on the bus for at least 15 minutes. They didn’t say why we were sitting there. We figured out that they were waiting for another tender and they didn’t want to have to stand out in the cold.  |
| Bundled up against the cold |
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| Stock picture |
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| Stock picture |
When we arrive back in our room around 11:30 and there was a lovely plate of two jellied hearts and a nice card wishing us a happy Valentine’s Day. I was so exhausted, I didn’t even think to take a picture of this nice gesture.
Check out this video from my friend Emily: https://www.facebook.com/674936047/posts/pfbid07BjaKr3t8aSK5we4dCxZeZyBpidqoQNojXfMubhprqaSD3bxJvo3n5ZrwbG6h1zml/?
