Phillip Island: Penguin Parade & Koala Reserve Day Trip

4.85

(701 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I didn’t really expect the bus ride from Melbourne to Phillip Island to be so quiet — maybe everyone was saving their energy for the penguin parade later. Our guide, Dave, kept tossing out these funny facts about Melbourne’s coffee obsession and how locals argue over the best bakery in Cowes (I still don’t know who’s right). When we finally got to the Koala Conservation Reserve, it hit me how eucalyptus has this sharp-sweet smell that clings to your clothes. We wandered those boardwalks with our necks craned up like tourists — which we were — hoping a koala would move. They mostly just blinked at us, looking way more peaceful than I ever feel on a Monday morning.

Lunch was a bit of a free-for-all in Cowes, and I ended up with chips and a weirdly good pie from some bakery Dave recommended (he was right about that). The wind off Westernport Bay had this salty bite — not cold exactly, but enough to make you zip your jacket. At the Nobbies Centre later, it got louder: waves smashing rocks below, gulls fighting over something shiny. A couple of us tried spotting penguin burrows along the boardwalk but mostly just saw holes and tufts of grass. Still fun though.

By the time we reached the Penguin Parade area, the light was starting to go gold and pink. There’s this hush as everyone waits — even kids get quiet for once. Then suddenly there they are: these tiny little penguins popping out of the surf and waddling across sand like they’re late for dinner. You can’t take photos (they tell you about ten times), so you just watch and try to remember it all. I still think about that moment when one stopped right in front of us and shook off water like a dog. The ride back felt slower somehow; maybe because nobody wanted to talk over what we’d just seen.