A day out at Phillip Island

On my second day in Melbourne, I got the pleasure of exploring Phillip Island with Katrine. Annemie didn’t feel well, so Katrine and I decided to wait with the sightseeing in Melbourne and instead, Katrine suggested that we should drive to Phillip Island, where she and Annemie had been a few days earlier.

Phillip Island is a 100 km² island, which is located 140 km. Southeast of Melbourne and is connected to the mainland by a bridge. The island has over 97 km. of coastline and is a popular holiday destination, especially for surfers, who come to enjoy the many beautiful beaches that the island offers.

The drive to the island was long, but with the company of a good friend, time flies really fast. Soon we were driving onto the bridge to the island and heading west to the most beautiful place on Phillip Island: The Nobbies. Just as we had arrived on the island, Katrine spotted a cute little wallaby, which was the first one that I’d ever seen! He just stood there staring at me, while I took millions of photos of him. He was really great at posing.

The Nobbies is an ecotourism place that is well known for the Seal Rocks, where it’s possible to spot some seals. There is a network of boardwalks outside the Nobbies Centre, which overlooks the Seal Rocks. It’s such a breathtaking view!

We didn’t see any seals, but we spent quite a while there just enjoying the view, watching the penguins, trying to spot some movement on the rocks and taking a bunch of awesome pictures. I really loved The Nobbies and for some reason, the place reminded me of my beloved Faroe Islands, so I felt right at home.

While we were walking on the boardwalk, we saw loads of different birds; we saw Cape Barren Geese, which is an Australian species. They are grey with light green beaks. We also saw a ton of seagulls, which is not a very special sight, as they can be found all over the world, but we also saw a little baby seagull! It was the cutest and fluffiest thing I’ve ever seen.

On the grassy areas beside the boardwalk, some small wooden boxes have been put up for penguins to use as their home. We were lucky enough to see quite a few resting in their homes!

After exploring The Nobbies, we went to the only place that Katrine hadn’t seen before on the entire island; Cowes, the main township on Phillip Island. We decided to go there for lunch.

Cowes surprised us both because of its quite decent size compared to the size of the island. It’s a very lively city that seems like a great place to stay in and live in. One thing that I really loved about Cowes was the Golden Cypress trees on Thompson Avenue. We had borrowed a convertible car and it was a great experience to look up at the beautiful trees above us, blocking the sky and the sun.

We bought a really cheap take-away pizza and drove to the beach and ate it on a bench on the pier in Cowes, before driving back to Ferny Creek once again.

I had a really fun day exploring Phillip Island. It was very liberating to have a car and be able to stop everywhere we wanted to. Phillip Island is a gorgeous place and I could’ve stayed there much longer, but I really appreciated the things that I did get to see there on our day trip. Phillip Island is a great place to see, even for a short day trip, and I would recommend it to anyone with a bit of spare time in Melbourne.