Blogs from Philip Island, Victoria, Australia, Oceania
Joe Blogs - Get Your Motor Runnin'
Published: March 7th 2012Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Philip Island
March 7th 2012
(Cough. Cough. Splutter) Where am I? What day is it? Who are you? (Splutter. Splutter. Cough.) Wednesday !?! Honest ?!? Crikey – better crack on. What’s the difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo? (Here we go, go on then). No really, I’m asking you, we don’t know. They say size - kangaroos can grow up to 1.8m, wallabies can grow up to about 1m - but, for medium sized animals, how do you know whether you’re looking at a small kangaroo, or a large wallaby?!? (Does it really matter?) (Pause) Last day in Melbourne and it’s time to pick up the car. Plan is to drive up the coast to Sydney over the next five days. Bit of argy-bargy in the car rental while we upgrade (we’ve got none left - but I rang and ... read more
February 16th 2012
It’s lovely here. I had imagined the island to be quite a distance from the mainland but it’s only separated by a small bridge. Nevertheless, you do feel like you’re on an island and in a somewhat special place. It’s clean and neat and the locals are friendly. We stayed a couple of days, checking out the beaches, watching the little penguins return to their burrows, visiting the Rhyll trout & bush tucker farm (we really like the little North Eastern village of Rhyll) and hanging out in laid-back Cowes. Property is temptingly cheap on the island. I spotted a gorgeous three-bedroom townhouse for less than the one-bedroom shoeboxes that we were looking at in Melbourne last year. Having said that, for now we are more than happy with the prime real estate that is our ... read more
February 3rd 2012
We decided that since we didn’t yet have anywhere to live in Melbourne, that we would turn this to our advantage and hire a camper van to live in for a few days. We checked out of the hotel and left the luggage that we didn’t need for a few days at the hotel, to give us some more space in the van, and we then caught the tram over to St Kilda where we were picking up our Jucy wagon. After signing some paperwork and a quick run through of how to convert the wagon into a bed for the nights, we were on our way to Ramsay St! It was only a 40minute drive from St Kilda to Ramsay St. It’s just an ordinary street in a suburb in Melbourne really, apart from the ... read more
January 25th 2012
T – The world famous Whitsunday’s would have to wait for another visit sometime way off in the future as the grey and black clouds gathered and broke over Airlie Beach and stayed there for two days with no signs of packing up or moving on. Our wallets were significantly lighter after our big tour of Fraser Island and so it seemed that nature and fiscal reality was telling us yachting through this pristine part of Australian coast was a no no. Two YHA filled days later we headed north again on another night bus for Cairns, the last big northern town we’d reach. Cairns is a medium-sized, sprawling low-rise town hemmed by lush mountains, sitting on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef and making a very tidy living off it. We are not alone ... read more
Tiny Penguins, Lazy Koalas, and Fuzzy Sheep on Phillip Island
Published: January 14th 2012Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Philip Island
January 13th 2012
Welcome back to the road trip with Emma and Jenny. After spending the week in Melbourne Emma and I debated extensively about the price verses value of visiting Phillip Island and the Great Ocean Road on a tour or trying to drive it ourselves. It would cost about half the price of the tour, but it would be more stressful. Finally Emma decided that she was confident enough to drive. We invited our Friend Marcella, from the Fruitshack, to come along since she had just arrived in Melbourne as well. So I studied the map and we trudged our way through the traffic of the Melbourne suburbs and made it to Phillip Island in about two hours We stopped at tourist information and bought a "3 park pass" to see Churchill Island, The Koala Conservation Center, ... read more
May 5th 2011
Well my day didn't really have the best start!! Firstly I had another lousy sleep which has really made me feel sick and shaky today. Lisa and lack of sleep don't really mix!! Secondly the lady at breakfast managed to pour tea all over the table! Bless her. Being tired I couldn't take advantage of the breakfast buffet either!! Sorry pal!!! It looks like I'll not have time for brekkie tomorrow either as I have to leave on the airport shuttle at 6.30! I forgot to mention a strange story from yesterday at the 12 apostles. I was stood on a bench there to get a birds eye view. Some Chinese people were there with their video cameras and in turn they got up on the bench with me hugged me, we waved at the camera ... read more
April 23rd 2011
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 ... read more
