For our trip to Phillip Island we hired a car and hit the road again. First up was Churchill Island, an old turn of the century farm where we got to milk a cow. Somehow I must have milked a cow before because I was able to discuss technique with the farmer, although I can’t think where. I preferred the rolling technique where you roll your fingers down the teat. Brandan was a novice but managed to hold his own. Other things you can being done at Churchill Island include ironmongery and sheep shearing. This was also the site of my very first encounter with Wallabies. There not like anything else so I can’t really describe them, perhaps part bunny rabbit and part rodent would work but either way we had a lot of fun trying to make them jump.

In the evening it was on to the penguins and I can highly rate that too. These aren’t your traditional Emperor penguins, these are tiny little penguins, a bit like the Blue Penguins we saw in New Zealand. At dusk you can gather on the shore and watch them come out from the sea in groups and head to their nests on land. There are no cameras allowed as it scares them (although this is probably a ploy to get you to buy the green screen photos on your way out) so we don’t have any to show you but they are very cute. Although it was freezing it was worth it to see these little things come out of the see huddled together and then shuffle off to bed.

The next day was a massive day in my life with my first game of Putt-Putt. Obviously I’ve inherited the golf gene because I blew Brandan away, either that or he let me win. This was followed by a trip to some vineyards for some excellent Riesling and cheese platters in some very scenic locations.

On our final day we headed to the Koala Reserve. Brandan found it a bit disappointing because you didn’t get to play with them but I thought was still good. Koalas are quite lazy but I can empathise with wanting to sleep all day and didn’t mind observing them having a snooze, plus more Wallabies and Kookaburras so another good day of wildlife spotting. An awesome weekend was topped off by a cream tea on the way home and picking up some homemade lemon butter at one of the Gippsland dairy farms.