March 8th - Phillip Island

We've only seen a few parts of Australia so far, but I have a feeling we are located in the best and most beautiful state... Victoria!!!
We may not have enough weekends to see all the beautiful sites within a few hours from our homebase.
After, what seemed to be, a very short work week, Norm and I headed out to Phillip Island. It is a 3 day Labour Day weekend here in Australia and we didn't prepare for the weekend. By the time we got around to booking a hotel, everything was sold out on that beautiful island. It is only 1:15 hour from us so going for the day was not a problem.
It didn't seem like a long drive heading out as the drive was lovely during the day but it seemed like forever coming home in the dark.
On our way there we stopped in San Remo just before the bridge to the island. We heard that there were pelican feedings there but as we found out later, these occur at noon. We were there around 9:30 -10...we were peckish and tried a healthy snack...and shared a 70 cent green pepper...thrifty and healthy... but that didn't last.
We drove to the centre of the island in Cowes. What a cute little town with shops, cafes under a canopy of stunning, golden cyprus trees right. Cowes is located on the beaches of Bass Strait. We walked along the main street and got some bargains as there were many end of summer sales and then we walked to the pier hoping to find vacancy signs on any of the accommodations. We realized it wasn't wise to spend more money by staying overnight and made a decision to just enjoy the day. We took a long walk along the beach and on a couple of side streets. It appeared to be the 'cottage country' of Melbourne. We determined that, by watching the families pass by as we ate a lovely lunch of $17 hamburger and $10 salmon sandwich. The prices seemed a bit better than in Melbourne. A few weeks ago we heard on the news that Melbourne is the 4th most expensive city in the world ahead of Paris and New York but following Sydney.
After our lunch we gathered information about what we should see on the island and decided to go to The Nobbies on the western side of the island. We are scouting out the best things to do and what to save for when our wonderful friends and family come to visit us, Janice and Bob - July, Ramzi and Rosie - September, Matthew-November and  BTA (Brad/Tran/Ainsley)-Date to be determined...insha allah!!!
The Nobbies was as spectacular as the Twelve/Eight Apostles that we had seen a few weeks ago with Lisa and Tyler but it only took an hour and a half to get there as opposed to 5 hours. ...bonus, we didn't have to pay to see the penguins as Norm spotted a couple hiding under the boardwalk that led to the look out..that was after he spotted a slithering poisonous copperhead snake!
After our walk along the tourist beaten path, we ventured on the 'less travelled' path away from the crowds in hopes of seeing some wildlife! We didn't see any, but we did find another empty lookout. It was nice to enjoy the view with no one else there....we started to walk back and then we picked up our pace to a slow jog...on our jog back...we saw our first wallaby!!!! we took a few pictures as it stood there observing us. We returned to the visitors' centre and  decided to drive the long way home on that isolated gravel road in hopes of seeing more wildlife and we were rewarded with many more...cute...wallabies!!! From what I've seen at the Melbourne Zoo, wallabies are much sweeter looking than kangaroos...so we're happy with our find!
Ok...sorry this is kind of long, but we are so proud of our accomplishments today...it may not seem that thrilling to Aussies, but it certainly is to us!
We went to RustyWater Brewery right next to a Koala Reserve...but din't see any koala bears.
We shared appetizers and tried the local beer...everything was delicious!!!
We hit Cowes on the BEST night because it was the last night of the Cowes Night Market until next summer! It was so festive filled with quality vendors and stunning views of the setting sun on the beach!
Overall, it was a fantastic day!!!