The drive down...

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After so many months of not being able to just 'relax', sticking to a tight schedule where every minute is crucial to the flow of the day, it was nice knowing that we could wake up and take our time to get down to Phillip Island. We cleaned the house the night before to come home to something inviting, so all we had to do was have breakfast, pack the car, put the dishwasher on and leave.

We left home around 10am, got some fuel, went to the supermarket to pick up some cereal for breakfast and a case of water bottles (24 bottles for $9 is a whole lot cheaper than $3 a bottle) and bought some lottery tickets (for just in case!). I bought a scratchie ticket for each of us. We sat in the car busy scratching away before leaving the parking lot. Kurtis was the lucky one who got a $3 return on a $2 ticket. I started the car and allowed the sat nav lead us for a drive from the exciting new Thrift Park Shopping Centre in Parkdale to Philip Island.

I accidentally took the wrong turn off along Boundary Road (should have gone down Governor Road), as I was so used to going to the Mornington Peninsula, but was corrected on Springvale Road taking me to Hutton Road towards Cranbourne. After we got out of suburbia, into the rural dairy farm district, we saw two skydivers floating down from the sky looking like they were aiming for the road, but for the skydiving centre landing just as we drove past.

A friend had mentioned to go via Koo Wee Rup, and as we had time to kill, it was a great excuse to take a short detour. First stop was the restrooms for 9 year old Kurtis and 7 year old Nick, and then we found a delightful antiques shop closing down with a whole 'old' world of treasures to sift through. There were rooms in different colour themes, things for kitchen, things for garden, things for lounge and dining rooms, things for bedrooms, things for baby... it was the ultimate antique bazaar. The boys had fun with the old scales and rolling pins, but we left before I was tempted to buy something.

We had lunch at the modern Koo Wee Rup Bakery, optioning for their delicious meat pies and a chocolate milkshake. It was a pleasant 'country' change from the standard Americanised take-away... maybe something that I should make sure doesn't happen for the entire trip. It was great to see the boys devour some wholesome country food rather than their standard fare.

We stopped in that Tatts shop and cashed in Kurtis' ticket. The Tatts shop owner said that we were lucky we were driving to the Island today because it was bumper to bumper yesterday, being Good Friday. So it was in the back of my mind that it might actually take us a little longer to get there. We took the left turn from the township to find the M420 and it wasn't long before we hit a stand still.

The drive in the end was slow but steady. We saw lots of attractions that are possible visitation opportunities on the way home - the pirate mini golf course, the Amazing Wonderland (the home to the giant worm), a dairy farm that includes milking at 3.30pm every day, devonshire teas, kid's menus, baby animal farm, etc. turn offs for wineries and a list of surf beach towns that were familiar by name, not by previous excursion... mental note - must visit sooner than later...

We took the Phillip Island turn off and again another stand still. But it was nice to take in the scenery. The crystal blue water came out to play around the shape of the island and the mainland coasts as the sun came out from under the clouds for the first time in the day. We saw the architectural span of bridge in the distance and we weren't far anymore... I was glad because I was getting tired.

Once we were on the island, there was a giant Koala, plenty of surf beach turn offs and of course, an L-plater who had just rammed up someone's arse in Mum's precious new Peugeot. We found our stay - Banfield's Motel and Conference Centre, checked in 15 minutes before we were supposed to and found the comfort of our 'home' for the next 3 nights.

Banfield's is quite a set up. An outdoor pool, barbecue and picnic facilities, children's playground, restaurant and the only cinema on the island. The motel owner warned me to be careful of mum's in 4WDs dropping their kids off at the cinema and driving fast out of the complex to escape their kids for a couple of hours. The boys and I wandered around, with Nick desperate to go for a swim, but it was just too cold. So we went back to our room to watch a DVD and relax before we set out to see the famous Penguin Parade in the early evening...

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