Summer 2015 Roadtrip: Mornington Peninsula. Guest blogger: Ruth Pinczewski

Inspired by the insane heat in Melbourne to get out of town, I booked a quick three days in the Mornington Peninsula for me and the kids (Joel had to work).  I wanted to stay longer, but just like in days of yore, over Christmas Eve there was literally no room at the inn, any inn, within 50 km. of where we wanted to visit.  So three days it was.

As it turns out, the timing was perfect.  Australians love to travel and book holidays months and months in advance, especially during school holidays, but the few days before Christmas are the eye in the storm. All the attractions we visited were very quiet and rates were reasonable.

The Mornington Peninsula extends to the east of Port Phillip Bay.  It's known for it's lovely seaside towns, wineries, and great water activities.  We first drove to Arthurs Seat, where they have a state park and this awesome place for kids called Enchanted Adventure Garden.  The title does not oversell - this place was a dream come true for kids.  Ropes courses, flying foxes, mazes, giant slides, gorgeous gardens - we had a blast and it was very, very empty three days before Christmas.



 If it were as crowded as it usually is, I don't think it would have been nearly as fun.  The kids had time to do three runs of their tree-surfing ropes course, ran the slides almost continuously, and we had plenty of time to do all the activities without waiting in any lines.  We spent three hours there, and the kid were absolutely exhausted by the end.

Ruth asked if she could write part of this blog post, so the following (and anything else in bold italics) is from her:

My favourite part of the trip was when I went

tree-surfing in the Enchanted Adventure Garden.

I was scared to step off on the first obstacle and the first zip-line but after that I was not scared at all.

I also liked playing giant snakes and ladders I won twice!

About 5 m. in the air.  So brave!

The whole place was also a parent's dream come true because the kids got so tired running up the hill to slide, dragging their tubes, running through mazes, climbing up and down the trees - they slept so well!

Magic slides, too, because the kids actually got along while they were sliding together.

 Left:  artichokes left to grow forever, Center: snakes and ladders game in the garden, Right: one of many gorgeous rose bushes.

Fancy topiary all over the garden as well.

We stayed in a seaside town called Rosebud - gorgeous beaches, but we were too tired to explore much.  Our hotel was nice, and our kids get excited about the smallest things in our hotel rooms.  "Look mom, they have tissues!  And a fridge!"  We clearly need to get them out more.

The next morning we headed to the town of Mornington for their weekly market.  Mostly fancy baked goods but lots of Etsy-type goods.  Kids picked up some breakfast from one of the booths, and we headed out to Peacedale.

Peacedale is home to the Moonlit Sanctuary, which rescues and protects endangered or injured Australian wildlife.  We'd visited a sanctuary before in Healesdale which was much nicer, but Moonlit is more known for its nighttime tours more than day tours.  The night tours in summer don't start until 9 PM though, so we'll have to go back in the winter when sundown is at 4.  The day was okay, but it's so hot that a lot of the animals sleep during the day.  The Tasmanian devil was hiding in its log and most of the wallabies and kangaroos stayed hidden in the trees.  Still the kids found one hungry wallaby, and there were all sorts of birds around.  From Ruth:

Then we went to the zoo Isaac and I held a python and we saw lots of animals.

My favourite part was the wallaby walk because I got to feed a wallaby.

We paid an extra $5 for each kid to hold a python.  This particular one was a Carpet Python.  It was about 3.5 kg and about 3 m. long.

After the animal adventure we drove to Phillip Island.  Phillip Island is renown for its fairy penguins, who come ashore every night after sundown.  You need to buy tickets to see the event, and there are about 4000 people who attend every night.  We skipped this event, because again sundown is around 9 PM and the kids go to be around 8.  Even in winter, though, I'm not terribly excited to see this. Another family at our motel went the night before and said their kids loved it, but the parents hated it, said it was a crush of people, with everyone trying to sneak photos even though they were told photos disturb the penguins.  I think we'll head to St Kilda one night and see the penguins there for free, without the hordes of people.

Instead, we headed to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

Chocolate David and Isaac

On the second day of the trip

we drove to Phillip Island and we went to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

My favourite part of that was the chocolate-giving penguins.  

Ruth getting chocolate from a mechanical penguin.

Chocolate Zoetrope

Then we went to the beach and we found lots of shells.

Isaac found a ray he thought it was a rock and he almost stepped on it but luckily he saw it move.

Yup, that's right. little ray that came almost up to the shore.  What a different holiday this would have been if he had actually stepped on it!

 

On the last day of the trip we went kayaking for 2 hours.

It was really fun and really tiering. We really liked going around the island and I saw clamshells and weird seaweed. 

You can see how clear and the water was here.  Not another boat anywhere to be seen.