Great Ocean Road & Penguin Parade
Two top day trips from Melbourne are the Great Ocean Road and the Penguin Parade. With almost 6.5 days to explore Melbourne, we opted for both day trips. Plus, one day was January 1st when everything would be closed, so why not hop in a van with some strangers and explore the world?
When you visit the Great Ocean Road, the first thing people tell you is that it will be a long day. The out and back drive is around 300 miles, so throw in all of the sites to see and food breaks, you’ve got yourself a 14-hour day. But it’s not called the Decent Ocean Road. It’s great for a reason.
In addition to seeing beautiful beaches, koalas in the WILD, and a walk through the rainforest, you visit the iconic Twelve Apostles. The walk around this park area is so beautiful and provides so many viewpoints to see these rocks. I’m not sure you would have convinced me a few years ago that ROCKS ARE AWESOME but I was changed by Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, Oregon, home of The Goonies and scenes from Free Willy.
After a great day exploring the Great Ocean Road, we had to gear up for another 10-hour tour for the Penguin Parade on Phillips Island. The afternoon starts at the Koala Preserve, where you see so many adorable koalas! They live here so they can breed.
After a stop for an early dinner, we headed to The Nobbies to see wallabies in the wild and look out at these views. I mean - does this not look like a default background image for your computer? Insane!
So what is the Penguin Parade of Phillips Island? The Little Blue Penguin (official name) is the smallest penguin in the world (aw so cute) and they are easily hunted by land predators. Mom & Dad Penguin stay in the water all day hunting for fish to give their babies. The babies are hiding in their little homes off the beach. That’s right - forget saving up money for that 2nd home friends - Little Blue Penguins already have beach houses!
When the sun goes down, the penguins emerge from the water to waddle back home and feed their kids. These penguins are that friend that when the party says it starts at 8, they arrive right at 8. The penguins start peeping out of the water around sundown, which was 9PM. Then, in groups of about 5-20, they start to make their way to the sand.
They march up the beach in these groups and then start finding their respective homes, sometimes yelling. You can’t take pictures of them because the flash hurts their eyes and they can go blind. This is actually a picture of one of the babies waiting BEFORE sundown, when you can take pictures.
You sit on the beach in bleachers and watch this little parade happen for about 20-30 minutes before moving up to the docks to watch the penguins find their babies! We heard one kid tell his parents that he saw two penguins wrestling! You can guess what wrestling is I hope.
There were a total of 833 penguins that paraded that night! I am not sure if I’ve sold you on this tourist attraction, but it is a must. You watch nature at work. The penguins come out of the water as soon as the sun goes down. And they know how to find their way home, even if they get a little lost on the way.
If you have the opportunity to visit Australia, don’t be turned away by the fact that this tour is from 2PM-Midnight in summer months. It’s one of the best vacation days I’ve ever had.
