The place I went for my holiday with Rachel.
In all honsty, this has to be one of the most enjoyable holidays that I have had the pleasure of going on.
First things, the amazing caravan park that we stayed at, and the cabin within it.
We stayed with “The Big4″ in Newhaven which was absolutely amazing. For what we paid for the week, we got a HUGE cabin (by caravan park cabin sizes at-least), a kitchen that was large enough for our purposes, a nice comfy bed, a huge shower, a comfy couch, REALLY good reception on the TV, our own hot-water service, and a reverse cycle air-conditioner.
It was just so comfortable, and relaxing, and it was brilliant and having the beach just a short walk ACCROSS the park was amazing and gave a brilliant view of the area around, and out the mouth of western port bay.
The Nobbies, its a place that has changed every single time I have visited there.
My first memory of the nobbies was when I was younger, I can’t remember how old I was, but I remember the telescopes at Seal Rock, and the boardwalk being very simple, and letting you down onto the rock shelf below, followed by the Pengiun Parade that night.
The second time I went was quite a few years later, with my highschool, and we only went to the Pengiun Parade then.
How it is now, is completly different to how I remember it, and its absolutly fantastic.
Seal Rock, and the Nobbies Center has been upgraded a heap, and inside the Nobbies Centre is amazing they have a fairly decent sized restaurant, which while the food is a bit expensive, seems to be really nice (didn’t buy anything to eat from there as we went in the afternoon), and the information section infront of the resturant has had a huge revamp, and is actualy interesting to take a look at and a walk around, the best feature being the seal cams, one under water, and one above. Theres are user controled, and display a perfect HD image onto a nice big screen. The pictures that you get through this are amazing, we watched one group manipulate the camera, and zoom right in so we could see the little babe seals playing around. Truly an amazing sight.
The boardwalk is much as I remember it, except at this time of year, access to the rocks are not avalible due to bird breading (read: Seagulls everywhere). The board walk was extreamly good, and the telescopes where still there. Worth the $2 spent to use them just to see the look on Rachel’s face as she watched the seals.
Later on that night, we took a trip to the Penguin Parade (how can you go to Phillip Island without going to the Penguin Parade), not much has really change of the setup they have here, but they have improved where it counts: presentation, you are no-longer forced to sit through the entire Pengiun Parade, but are free to move about the series of board walks, watching the pengiuns make their way to their burrows.
After we watched the cuties come up the beach, we took a walk along the board walk, and was able to see, up close, a mother pengiun (only 33cm high roughly) come home to feed her two little chicks… so cute!
We also had the chance to explore off the island, specifically around the Pallat River, its mouth, and San Remo.
The Pallat River, and the surf beach, and rock formations that are at its mouth are amazing, its so weird to at one minute, be able to cross this river, with the water only reaching your knees one minute, but give it another half an hour, and you have to wade upto your neck against a strong current.
And the rock pools, beautiful, whilst not as amazing as the ones along the Mornington Peninsula, but the colors that the volcanic rock makes against the water is a sight un-to itself.
San Remo, often gets overlooked since Phillip Island is well, just over the bridge, and its sometimes seen as a “through” town. But we actualy spent some time in there. Of worthy note is the Fish & Chip shop that sits right next to port (literaly). sorry to the fantastic people working in there, but I’ve forgoten the name of the place. However, I challenge ANYONE to find a better Fish & Chip shop in Australia. I GAURENTEE that if you go there, you will have the BEST Chips, and the BEST Fish (flake, or REAL fish). Go there, spend your money, be happy.
They also do something else there other than Fish & Chips. That is the feeding of the Pelecans. Its amazing seeing these huge birds gathering to be hand feed, and even more amazing to learn that they EAT Seagulls (even more reason to like them), if they get hungry.
If that isn’t an awesome bird, then I don’t know what is!
Anyway, thats only a VERY little amount of everything that really could be covered, but this post has been saved as a draft WAY to many times! I havn’t had the chance to talk about Cows beach, or the Italian joint at Rhyll, or the awesome IceCream place, or the……………
