Weekend away to Philip Island

We seemed to pack so much in this weekend on our little trip to Philip Island. After going there for the Moto GP in October I was desperate to get back there so we could see the penguins.

You won't see any photos of the penguins because there is a strict no photography rule, but take it from me that there were so darn cute with their little waddle and the way their wings flapped about.

It was a bit cloudy on Saturday morning when we left Melbourne so I switched around the itinerary and we headed to the pelican feeding at San Remo, I was amazed at how huge those birds are! Next stop was a picnic on the beach, and we happened to stumble upon a surfing competition. It was so windy though we only lasted about 10 minutes before we went and sat in the car to eat our lunch!

After that we visited the Nobbies, had a game of mini golf, had fish and chips (and some amazing gelato) in Cowes followed by a late night out at the penguin march.

On Sunday we spent most of the day at the Moonlit Sanctuary and saw loads of aussie animals. But the highlight was definitely feeding the wallabies and kangaroos. We even got a great photo for our Christmas cards!

We drove the Great Ocean Road

After a few failed attempts due to bad weather we finally managed to drive the Great Ocean Road this weekend. It's supposed to be one of the best ocean drives in the world, but  it was up against some steep competition following the Pacific Coast Highway.

And while I don't think it was comparable to the PCH, it did have one exception...wild koalas!

 

It was two long days of driving, and probably a bit ambitious for a weekend, but I think we saw all of the major sights, and we even snuck in a helicopter ride over the 12 Apstles.

Neighbours Tour

Well this had been on my bucket list since we found out we were coming to Australia - visiting the set of Neighbours.

I haven't watched Neighbours since I was about 11 years old, so pretty much all of the storylines and characters that the guide was talking about went straight over my head...

We won a preview of The Block

Now when Dan and I moved here we soon became hooked on The Block - it's a renovation TV show where teams of two are each given an identical apartment in the same building and renovate a new room each week. At the end the apartments are auctioned off and they get to keep all of the profits. The show was on pretty much every night, so it became quite addictive very quickly.

Anyway, each year they hold an 'open for inspection' where the general public can walk around the apartments and see the finished designs before they are auctioned off. Dan and I had been planning to go for weeks when one of our friends messaged me to say that we could win preview tickets - we just had to submit an entry with a compelling reason why we should be allowed to tour the apartments before the general public.

So I got to work and came up with a little poem…

We flew into Melbourne just two months ago,
Without many buddies and nowhere to go.
So one cold Sunday night, we turned on the TV,
And met 10 new friends, covered in brick dust and debris.
For four nights a week, as we sat down to dinner,
We watched all the reno and picked each week's winner.
We love the Scandustrial, oh yeah it's true,
And still can't get over Whitney's bidet with the loo!
So just to sum up, we can't get enough of The Block,
And not sure what we'll do once they've auctioned off each lot.
We planned out November around Open Inspection,
But to get a preview...well, that would just be perfection. 

And we won! IT. WAS. AMAZING. I loved getting to see in person everything that we had watched of the past couple of months.

All the way out to Philip Island for some motorbikes

Dan decided that for my birthday he would like to go and watch the Moto GP...I tagged along.

Road Trip: San Francisco to LAX

And here we are, after three weeks on the road, we’re sitting in the departures lounge at LAX waiting on our flight to Melbourne.

We’ve had our fill of Panda Express and Panera Bread, travelled I don't know how many miles.

Since leaving San Francisco we’ve driven the entire length of the Pacific Coast Highway. There was a lovely stop-off in Santa Cruz to see Heather and Bob (my mum’s cousin and her husband). We had a great tour of their beach house and the whole of Santa Cruz – I think Bob is in training to be the official ambassador and town tour guide. He had a whole day planned out for us and I think we saw all there is to see of the beautiful little town.