Playing Tourist

Last week, my parents came to stay for a visit. It was great to see them and spend some family time together here for a change instead of me going to Sydney for the usual Christmas thing. I think they had a nice, relaxing time too... I hope.

They drove down from Sydney with their dog, Tess. My dog, Venus loved having a friend (cousin?) to play with. The dogs both loved their ball chase on the beach at Venus Bay.

We did a few touristy things, went fishing at the rock wall on the Tarwin River and on the inlet at Inverloch. The weather was very nice the whole time and the afternoon at Inverloch was especially nice, standing in the cool water in the sun feeding the fish with our bait. We didn't actually catch anything, not even a cold.

The Penguin Parade at Phillip Island was a pleasant surprise too. I was expecting a distant glimpse of a few birds on the beach, and that's what it was at the start, then the little penguins came marching up the hill in between the viewing stands and you could get a real up close and personal look at these cute little creatures. The visitor centre was interesting too. I was amazed at the number of people there, given that it wasn't a particularly warm night and it wasn't in a holiday period. The "Great Wall of China" was an amusing distraction when a busload of tourists thought they should all stand up at the same time and block the view of everyone behind them until they got the hint from the "Sit Down!", "Oi!" calls from behind. The only thing I thought was absolutely stupid about the Penguin Parage was the ban on photography. I'm assuming it is to stop people using a flash and blinding/scaring the penguins, but I don't see how taking a non-flash photo or making a video without a flash would upset the penguins any more than having thousands of people lined up on their beach would be. Just another example of over-zealous regulation I guess. I suspect it's more a case of protecting the revenue from the postcard and "buy a photo" business they run from the visitor centre.

We also had a short day-trip down to Cape Liptrap to see the view from the lighthouse. Unfortunately, we went in the morning when it was a bit cloudy, so the view to The Prom wasn't as good as it can be. Still nice though. Coming back to Venus Bay via Walkerville and Fish Creek for fish and chips made for a nice, relaxing day out.

The week they were here went by all too fast, but now they've been here, they may make the 1,000km+ trip again.