Leaving Tassie for the Mainland

We left Hobart at 9:00 on Monday morning the 15th of February,  Arrived in Melbourne, after having to pay $230.00 for excess baggage.  We flew via Jet Star and they allow 20kg. per person and $10.00 per kg. after that, they did give us a break because it should have been $300.00.  I tell you, going naked doesn't sound so bad anymore!

We had to drag all of our luggage, golf clubs too, to McDonalds, which is about a 5 minute walk from the airport as the van was to be delivered to us there.  When we arrived we found that it had been driven down from Sydney.  We therefore had to deliver the driver and his wife, both named Chris..back to the depot as they were taking a van back to Sydney for the company.  We spend the better part of the day going over the vehicle and finding out what was missing and what we needed to acquire, so off to the big boys store to pick up a few things.  Dalton had asked for a Jerry Can for gas and an outdoor table. They purchased both for us and we were on our way.  

We wanted to get as far out of Melbourne as we could, we made it about 1/2 hour out of town, found a campsite and there we parked for the night.  After being up so early and having so much stressful running around we were both asleep by 8:00.  

Tuesday, we drove to Phillip Island, we wanted to see the Fairy Penguins there and heard it was a beautiful place to be.  It really is a beautiful spot, sandy beaches all around, the water is warm also.  We spent the rest of the day looking around the town.  The town we stayed in was called Cowes, we haven't figured out the correct way to say it yet, we were afraid to ask in case it was the obvious.

This little guy was sitting under a walkway at the Nobbies.  That evening we went to the Penguin Parade..awesome.  I couldn't get any pictures because we couldn't use the flash but we were able to have a picture taken, have to wait to get to Stuart's to scan it.

 Wednesday, we drove all over the island and visited everything there was to see.  We went to the Chocolate Factory where they have an exact replica of Michaelangelo's David made out of solid chocolate, the difference is, this one has a fig leaf and the real one doesn't.  I can attest, it is anatomically correct.    

This was absolutely amazing!  The picture does not do it justice.  If it wasn't so time consuming I would add the town made entirely of chocolate.  What a place.

 We also went to see the Penguin Parade, we paid a little extra and got a special tour, there were only 10 and the conservation officer in our group as opposed to the 3000 Chinese who showed up as their way of celebrating Chinese New Year.  The big groups go to one part of the Island and sit on bleachers to watch the penguins come out of the water and make their way to their burrows we, however, were taken to another part of the beach where we were supplied with night goggles, flashlights and comfy chairs to sit on.  The penguins came right up beside us on their way home, we also walked among them on our way back to our starting point.  There were at least 200 of the little guys, the only are about 33cm tall, very cute and soft too.  We also saw three wallabies close up and personal.  We arrived back at the campground at 11:30 and everyone around us was asleep. 

Thursday we decided to have a beach day as the most beautiful beech was just 100m from our doorstep.  We were only able to stay there for a short while as the sun here is extremely hot and the old ozone layer is slip sliding away, so you have to be very careful.  

Friday, We left Cowes and headed south, we want to see some of Victoria before we hit the Great Ocean Road.  

Our first stop was Tarwin Lower (they do have different names here) and we took a walk by the river, looked like crocodiles should have been leaping out at us, but there aren't any in this part of the country. 
 

Our next stop was to Venus Bay which is a beautiful surfing beach, there were a few people out but not as many as you would think, this is summer.

We stopped at Walkerville to look at the old Kilns, huge things and again the most beautiful beach with miles of sand, we walked in the water and decided it was every bit as warm as Maui.   

Lunch was at Foster at the Exchange Hotel, Dalton wanted to go there and it has a beautiful facade.  The lunch was $18.00 each, pretty expensive down here.  I guess we can miss dinner tonight.  

We stopped at a little town called Yarrem, a very nice campground, not by the water but has nice facilities and we can park on green grass, something we haven't seen much of lately.

It takes such a long time to download our pictures onto the blog and we have lots, will save this for later.