Phillip Island / Melbourne / Breamlea

The kids had fun at historic Churchill Island farm (adjoining Phillip Island). The kids got to feed all of the farm animals and watch a cow getting milked and Josh got chased by this Cape Barren Goose. Josh almost trod on a very venomous copperhead snake. Lucky he is quick on his feet.

Just near Melbourne is Phillip Island. Although we went there mainly to see the march of the penguins we had plenty else to do!

Every evening hundreds (maybe thousands) of fairy penguins return to roost at a beach on Phillip Island and people get to watch them at close range. Chloe was most excited as she had just watched the movie Happy Feet for about the 5th time. The penguins raft in by the dozen and waddle up the beach with a belly full of fish to feed their chicks. We had front row seats on the beach to see the penguins. No photos are allowed at the march of the penguins .

We are not always eating bush tucker and managed to dine out at this restaurant at the Barwon Heads Surf Club. Surf Clubs in Victoria often have a bar too, which we have been known to frequent in the evening.

We have shrunk Victoria to reduce the food bill.

Strange foods in strange lands.

While in Melbourne we caught some trams (to nowhere in particular) and went to the Australian Open Tennis. Next time we go it will hopefully be to watch Josh in the Juniors. When we went it was the hottest day of the tournament. Although we spent most of the time eating icecream and only watched about a set of tennis in total (as we were on the outside courts in the full sun) it was fun. We watched J. Wilfred Tsonga play a Spanish guy and watched some doubles and womens singles. Good matches but couldn’t tell you who was playing.

We caught up with lots of friends and Chloe and Josh made another new friend – Lexy. Thanks heaps guys for letting us stay. We also caught up with Karina, Tom, Jack, Henry and Oli which Chloe and Josh much enjoyed.

Gippsland

The Lakes District





We made hay while the sun shined.
Dont worry folks, not much traffic in this part of the world!
Lakes Entrance




Swannies
I thought Ned was dead
























We stayed in the car this day






















Wilsons Promontory









Wilsons Promontory is amazing!










Camping heaven.











It can get cold though.



























We left our mark here




























































90 Mile Beach






We found a shipwreck at 90 Mile Beach - but no pieces of eight.

Sea monsters

The Gippsland coast (Mallacoota to Wilson's Promontory) is on Bass Strait. This became apparent every time we went in the water, as it was freezing - in the middle of summer too! We were also reminded of this when we heard that a whitepointer shark "the size of a stationwagon" scared some surfers very near to where we were. But the Blounts toughed it out and spent long hours on the Gippsland beaches.

Team Blount

The Motley Crew

NSW South Coast

With very bad weather up north the Blounts made the right call to head south (bad luck Sawtell crew). It was a week of visiting and staying with relatives and friends (thanks Kerry, Dave and co., Uncles & aunties, Miles, Jan and Lincoln, and the Sayces).
So far it has been a week of beach time. Josh has been brushing up on his surfing and snorkelling, Chloe on her swimming, Victoria on her tan and Craig is still waiting to catch a fish. Josh has also found a new mate and Chloe is working on her bug collection (more on this later).