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| Day Three is a day to see animals like this kangaroo |
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| A trip to Australia is not complete without seeing the Koala Bear |
Continued from Day Two....
On Day Three of our Melbourne, Australia Self Drive Road Trip, we woke up later at around 8 am, had a nice relaxing breakfast on our apartment balcony watching the birds and the rabbits before we went out to visit Monash to give the kids a taste of what life at the university was like for their dad. After walking around at the halls of residences, lecture halls, nature walk etc, we had lunch at Monash university.
Then we proceeded to drive to Maru Koala and Animal Park. If the days before this was dedicated to nature, Day three is all about animals. The Maru park is rather small and may even seem disappointing at first but not after you get to feed the kangaroos. It is a good place for kids to get acquainted with all the animals from Australia including Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies, Dingoes, Wombats and more. You can get really close to the animals to pat and feed them.
After that, we drove to Phillip Island for lunch ahead of the tour groups. It was really nice and easy, no rush as we had pre booked online Penguin Plus tickets. Since it was still early, we walked around the shops before heading to The Nobbies. The Nobbies has splendid views you won't forget. After that we went on to wait for the sun to set to watch the Penguins Parade.
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| View from the Nobbies viewing platform |
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| We got the front row seats on the platform. Next to that is the Underground Viewing. Picture is from the internet as we were not allowed to take photos. |
We got superb front row seats for our Penguin Plus tickets to watch the Penguins waddle right pass us (close enough to touch) because we were early before the tour buses came. I think this is much better than the more expensive Underground Viewing tickets which can be stuffy and other than being able to see the penguins at eye level, the Underground Viewing ticket holders will miss seeing the Penguins come out from the sea. However, in Winter, you will probably feel nice and warm in there while the others freeze outdoors. It is very cold at night. Fortunately for us, the sun was out and the weather was good all day during the day time and it was not very windy. Even then, it was cold.
It was simply amazing and awesome to watch the penguins return to their home. They number by the thousands. Too bad we could not take any photos.
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| Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments picture from internet |
After the Penguin Parade, we had to drive back to Campus Clayton Serviced Apartments. One and a half hours of night driving with roads that were mostly not lighted which can be challenging for tired tourists. We managed to grab a late McDonald's dinner along the route back before reaching the apartments around 11 pm.
We saw lots of beautiful scenery on Days 1 and 2 and animals on Day 3. What will we do on Day 4?
