Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia
Monday, December 5, 2011
It's been a strange Christmas – barbecues followed by mince pies, surfing, sun and campervans. Phillip Island is an hour and a half drive south of Melbourne. It’s a pretty place with great walks, surf and swimming beaches and a lot of wildlife. In the summer there’s a great influx of people to the island on their holidays. We came to the island as temporary summer workers at the penguin parade and the nobbies centre. The penguin parade is a grand stand area where tourists pay to see thousands of the little penguins come back to their roosts at dusk. We worked in food and beverage and shared our break with the cute baby penguins. Some of them were losing their baby fur and had fur left in funny arrangements on their heads looking like mo-hawks and mullets. We also worked at the nobbies where there’s a restaurant area over-looking a large fur seal colony. The job was ok. We learnt how to use a coffee machine like a true barista and went through the frustration of serving hundreds of tourists who didn’t have a clue how to speak English
. The great perk of the job was the view and also the wildlife, dodging wallabies on your way from work, spending your breaks with cute baby penguins. Sometimes you forget these perks when working though. We hired a campervan as we needed travel and accommodation. The island is patrolled by the park rangers who didn’t allow freedom camping and campsites during summer were very expensive. We didn’t want to be constantly fleeing from the rangers like yogi bear and booboo so we camped outside of the island, using public barbecues and toilets to wash and eat. We were lucky to be offered a place to camp on the island by a co-worker, who also offered the use of her bathroom and kitchen. We made the most of the beautiful walks on the island and I managed to get some surfing in at Smith’s beach.
