Friday night of 18 Nov 2016. I made my way to the airport for my Scoot flight departing to Melbourne. My heart wasn't really anticipating anything. I've been to Melbourne twice before: first was via a tour with my family and we stayed for 3 nights without having to explore much of the city. Second was during my uni days (around 10 years later), also for 3 nights with not much significant memories. I was very hesitant to consider Melbourne but because I had to clear my annual leave and I knew I had a few friends there, I made a rather last minute booking to fly down (a month in advance) for a 6 nights' stay. Maybe I'll eventually find something to do there? If not, I could always laze in my room and go exercising in the provided gym? I had to start exercising after my 2 years hiatus.
So on board my first every over 5 hours red eye flight via Scoot. Even with the sleeping pills and added luxury items such as vibrating eyelash and massaging neck pillow, I still could not trick myself to sleep. The 7 hour flight felt a long long time to pass. The seats were actually alright, felt a but of a squeeze but this is Scoot so could complain. I did upgrade myself to the Scoot in Silence seats, which were really good as they came with adjustable headrest. Also, I got to be amongst the first few to disembark the plane! That felt good!
Melbourne is probably one of the few major cities without a direct train service to the city from the airport. But luckily the airport bus was frequent and smooth (since it was off-peak hours).
After the approximately 45 min ride, I reached Southern Cross station where I caught up with Edward who flew down specially from Sydney! I've been meeting him every year for 3 years in Australia! A few minutes later, Yufei arrived. Boy, what a happy occasion! The last time the trio of us met was back in 2004! And that was during graduation day prior to my departure from Brisbane!
We quickly moved to put our luggages into Yufei's car before heading to South Beach for lunch. As expected, eating out with Edward usually cost higher than my usual traveling budget. But since this trip was about catching up, is prepared myself sufficiently. Lunch was good ole' Italian seafood at the Waterfront Restaurant and it did not disappoint! We spent 2 hours at the table slowly eating and chatting and left very little time to travel down south to our actually destination: Phillip Island.
We briskly walked back to the car and began our 2 hours' drive. Our accommodation was a nice apartment jus within minutes of walking from the beach. It had a rustic look, both inside and out. However, the furnishing were rather good and new. It did bring us back to our frugal uni days though, and that was something we loved.
After settling down, we headed out to the Penguin Centre, but not before dropping by a beach for some snapshots!
We selected the Aboriginal Heritage Tour and it provided us with a guide to explain how the aboriginals used to survive on this island, and what they ate. The weather turned rather cold and very chilly very quickly as the sun began to set. We were almost at the point of shivering! But it was fortunately that that was a rather windless evening.
After the guided tour, we were ushered to the beach and were given front row seats to view the arrivals of the penguins! We were told that the penguins would bypass humans 99.9% of the time. However, 2 little ones came up right to me that evening, and one even had its flippers touching my shoe!! What excitement!
This was followed by another group tour access only Parade of the Penguin trail where you get to see them waddling on the beach and into their nesting holes. So adorable!
Did I mention we had dinner at the Penguin Center? It was so unmemorable but convenient that I wanted to forget it. Anyways, on my ride back, we stopped over at Coles to pick up some ingredients for late night supper. We really were transported back to the good ole days as we started cooking instant noodles and eating big bowls and chatting into the late night. It was a day to remember.
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