Easter Weekend

Had a rather busy weekend this weekend for Easter. As Conor had four days off we said we would make the most of it and keep ourselves busy! Aswell as that it one of our roommates birthdays so he has christened it his 'Easter weekend birthday bonanza'!

Friday it was a lovely day so we headed to the beach with the roommates and went and got some lunch in Branch afterwards! The food is great and you can not argue with a $5 pizza on offer on Fridays! They have some great deals on a daily basis! :)
Lunch was nice, however we had a bit of a scare when as we were sitting chatting we heard a car screech around from Barkly and hit into a cafe! I only heard the bang of the car hitting the wall and the screams from people who were sitting and standing near-by though. Fortunately no one was seriously injured but one person did have to be taken to hospital, but the woman very narrowly missed the people eating outside of the cafe and it was an extremely busy day. I hate seeing stuff like that, not that anyone does like it, but it makes me extremely uncomfortable.

But yes once we finished our lunch we headed back to the apartment to get stuff ready for our BBQ later. (Yes, I know on Good Friday! Don't tell my grandmother!) So because it was Alex's birthday his friends all came around we had some food, some drinks and played a beer pong tournament! I can officially say that I suck at beer pong, and can reconfirm that I do not like beer, of any variety! Bleugh! Conor is also pretty bad at it so ended up pretty merry with himself by the end of his turn!! It was lovely to meet some more people who live in Melbourne, although we were most definitely a minority with eight English and only two Americas, two Australians and us the only Irish!!

So Saturday morning we headed off to Phillip Island for the day. (I love having a car!) We booked our tickets on-line for the three places as it was cheaper that way! So first we headed to Churchill Island, which is pretty much a big farm on its own island! It's very pretty and there's loads of animals there (obviously) including these super cute chicks, to keep in theme! The old house built by the man who owned the island was there and had been refurbished to look as it would have done originally. It was cool to see that. They had a lot of children's activities on  for the weekend that was in it, including Punch and Judy, which Conor watched a lot of, and they had a table where children could built their own wooden cars and things! It was very cute and everything was like the kinds of things that I did when I was younger which was nice! With the wooden toys there was a man working on a laid, to say Conor was mesmerized is an understatement! They had lots of things to see here like watching dogs round up sheep, working horses, which were beautiful, an animal nursery, where  we found the chick, a calf and some guinea pigs! they also had old cars and caravans which were pretty cool!!


Next stop, Koala reserve!! You get to walk in around the area where they are up on boardwalks or else on a nature trail. One cheeky little chappy decided to put on a bit of a show for everyone and came down around to the railings for a look see!
They look so cute and cuddly but my oh my those nails!! 

Out for a stroll

As we walked around the nature walk we saw kangaroos and some birds that I do not know the name of too. And of course, lots more koala's! I found out as well that they sleep for 20 hours a day, simply because their diet is so low in energy! Craziness!


We headed to the Nobbies centre next, which is free to do I may add! It's an beautiful part of the island which is where the seals gather, unfortunately there were none about when we were there however!! But the view was so worth the drive over! We also went some kind of back road along the coast which was amazing to see! And it was where we saw this little guy who struck a pose for us!

View from Nobbies centre

By this time we were starving so we headed back into Cowes to get some grub but there wasn't very many places to go that we could see so we grabbed a quick pizza and headed back to the Phillip Island Grand Prix Track, which I know my Dad would have loved as it is where the Moto GP is held in Australia! We went into the History of Motor Sport Museum for the track which was cool, we got to see some seriously old leathers and a Mercedes worth $1.4 million!! I was afraid to breathe near it!! From there we also got to go out to a view point and see the actual track which was cool!

$1.4 million car!

Next we headed to the penguin parade, our main attraction for the day, which we had to join a massive queue to get too! Was so glad we had booked our tickets as it had actually sold out for the night! We weren't able to upgrade to a better viewing point but to be honest I think we had the best seats in the house. We ended up sitting right down on the beach and could see them all coming out of the water and wandling their way up the beach as if they were fighting against a big wind! They are so cute and soo little. I think the guide said that the biggest they get is one foot! One foot! Adorable! You're not allowed to take photos of them as the flash from the cameras can damaged their sight so if you want to see what I mean you'll just have to go and see for yourself! After we had seen a few come up the beach we walked up around the boardwalk where you could be a foot or two away from them as they headed to their burrows! Two little guys waddled the whole way up to the visitors centre pretty much beside us!! The penguins come in just after sunset so if you are going bring hoodies or blankets, it gets cold but it would definitely recommend it!!! Easily one of my favourite things that we've done so far! :)

Sunday we had a decidedly chilled out day, only venturing out to get some lunch in a place my cousin recommended called Iddy Biddy's! True to form with everywhere she recommends it looked like an old fashion kitchen!! The food was lovely howsever and the place is very cool looking! They even had Disney and fairytale stories books as there menu's! Loved that!!

Considering it was Easter Sunday, I didn't get an Easter Egg from Conor, we kind of forgot about it being honest but my lovely Mammy sent me over some goodies including dairy milk bars and mini eggs cakes! Yum! So we tucked into some of those Sunday nigt as we Skyped home!! Then we watched a movie called the Devils double which was actually pretty good! A little horrific but good!

Monday we decided we were going to go and watch an AFL game but the weather was absolutely miserable! It was raining on and off and so cold that we said we'd rather watch it in a pub and get some grub! So Joyce and Aaron joined us in Federation Square and we watched some of it, in between chatting!! We will definitely have to catch a game properly the next time, once we've invested in some winter clothing! Ha!!

So that was our weekend, hope everyone had a nice, and chocolate filled weekend!! 

Amy :)