A two part video special! Huzzah! But only the first video is up now.

Our little trip (back in October '10) to Phillip Island started out with driving a car through the misery of Melbourne weather. Both the excitement in our hearts and the enchanting tunes provided by Tim's playlist kept us going, as rain clashed down onto the car. Unfortunately the media delivering Tim's music died pretty fast after our departure from Flinders Lane, thus we were doomed with the disaster that is radio.

There is a lot of exaggerating in the opening paragraph but, that's only because I felt like doing so. Tony, Val, Tim, Amanda and myself rented a car and went to Phillip Island for the day.

Oh, Sasha

On Sasha's recommendation, before we hit Phillip Island, we visited an animal shelter... sanctuary... farm... zoo... what ever. Apparently, when Sasha visited Phillip Island with a uni trip, they stopped by there and it was absolutely amazing. A "must see" if you will. Figuring it couldn't hurt, we checked it out and it turned out to be rather anticlimactic.

In the video you will hear us complaining rather harshly about the place and I do feel that I should correct that a bit. It wasn't as bad as we made it out to be, it just didn't live up to the vision that had been sold to us. Especially since this visit prevented us from visiting the wildlife park on Phillip Island (schedule wise), we were quite displease with the outcome.

Feeding kangaroos, koalas (bears), emus and other dangerous animals is of course always a pleasure. Breaking the rules by videoing everything is just a perk. (Surprisingly photography wasn't allowed - really odd when they do that for touristy things)

After playing with talking birds, poking the wombats (not really, of course) and pretending to be worms we were a good $13 lighter in the pocket and finally set off to Phillip Island.

Yummy in my belly

Designed specifically to get women out of their panties faster, you could say that I should have little interest in chocolate. Luckily the initial design is flawed and chocolate is getting everyone naked. A little trip to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory proofed this non the less. Filled with people eager to find out the secrets of making but, mostly, eating chocolate.

The tour, as most do, combined education with getting naked afterwards. And with getting naked I mean Tony drawing chocolate penis and the rest of us giggling at it. We're so mature.

The chocolate penis was drawn using a very simplistic hand operated router, that poured chocolate onto a conveyor belt. After it cooled down, the chocolate was collected and eaten. We managed to create all sorts of shapes and sizes (chocolates, not just penises), all to be overshadowed by chocolate drawing master Tony Brown and his endless chocolate string of doom. He pretty much set the record and broke the machine with that one.

After chocolate

After the chocolate haze settled, we moved on to more amazing things. Or should I say "A Maze 'N Things"... yeah, as amazing as it sounds, it wasn't so much. I find it hard to beleive that $30 is money well spent on visiting a maze. Thus, we did not. We enjoyed other free things, like swings.

Missing Hootie

With Tim showing off he hasn't forgotten how to drive (something with a missing licence) we drove to Berry Beach. Apart from the already wonderful view, we had the pleasure of spotting a completly random kangaroo in the grass, all to discover he had disappeared as soon as we'd reached the sandy surface. Our disappointment was briefly compensated by an array of dead blowfish, some squid remains and the dangers of climbing slippery rocks in flip-flops. Of course the latter mostly counts for Valerie, as the rest of us were smart and wore normal shoes.

Our stop at Berry Beach was ended in style with me beating Tim, as he futilely attempted to tackle me. Honestly, he didn't succeed.

And so... the flash packing

What else can you do but enjoy the free wine tasting as Phillip Island's vineyard? Pretending you know something about wine, that's for sure. Unfathomably followed by us sitting, surrounded by the peaceful landscape with more glasses of wine and a grand selection of overpriced cheeses.

Sitting in the sun, discussing how we could possibly afford any of this but, loved it anyway, this is where we stopped pretending to be backpackers and acknowledged we're officially flash packing. No one complained...

Sea...gull, sea...l

Embracing Michelle's ultimate nightmare, we braved the cold wind and visited the seal gull invested Nobbies by the Seal Rocks. To be honest, there was not really anything exciting about any of it. Just a collection of boardwalks stretched through a breeding ground for winged rats. To top it all off, the extra touristy attraction of seal watching was closed for maintenance. This too did not look like anything impressive though.

We managed to catch some cute baby sea gulls and to all of our surprise, penguins. These penguins appeared to be very much lost and confused, as you would be, hiding under a boardwalk.

They're just birds!

In Dan's epic summation, penguins are just birds. The only reason that people like them is because they are called penguins. - While Dan has a valid point, that penguins are indeed just birds, they are much better than normal birds. For starters they are constantly wearing a wetsuit, shaped like a fancy dress suit! Well, sort of anyway. Also, they waddle! And have sex in a very loud manner.

Phillip Island's Penguin Parade is the most touristy thing I've ever done in my life. Paying people to sit in stands and watching penguins walk by, in their natural (though now ruined) environment is about as justified as a group of penguins sitting in stands, watching people passing on their way to work. Though the latter scenario is something I would find significantly more impressive and pretty wicked.

The addition of the no filming and photography rule was just unfair. Apparently these penguins are so stupid (or smart), they are frightened by cameras... even without flash... the mere visible presence of a camera will frighten the penguins. The fact that over a hundred people are watching you is no problem, it is of course the small little box that they are holding. SCARY!

Yeah... shambles.

Good times

Phillip Island was a good road trip. Despite the fact that no one got insured, we didn't get any penguin pictures (except for Val - ahem) and we spend way to much on wines and cheeses. Good time, all round.

Up next on Just Like Ed

The Moonie Valley night races and halloween! Losing money and scaring people. Not on the same day but, possibly in the same video...

Love!