This weekend, I had the opportunity to go away with just a couple of friends, completely child free, to Phillip Island for two nights. It was more for my friend’s 40th birthday next week, but since it’s also Mother’s Day weekend, it was a break from our usual hectic life… away from the husbands and the kids. I feel truly blessed to be able to do this. A lot of moms tend to talk about doing something like this, but never get around to planning it, let alone actually go through with it and just do it. Things always come up – kids get sick, other obligations come up, or husbands don’t feel confident about being left alone with the kids, or the mothers themselves feel bad about leaving their families to go and enjoy themselves aka the “mom guilt syndrome”. Well, there were none of that for us this weekend. We went, we ate, we drank, we went for long scenic walks and we truly enjoyed ourselves because we know we deserved it. Thankful to our husbands for holding down the fort lol.
Our trip started on a Friday afternoon, our first stop was Cape Woolomai. We walked along the sheer cliff tops of Phillip Island’s most southerly point and was rewarded with superb panoramas of the island. Cape Woolamai is the highest point on Phillip Island and is also the largest shearwater rookery. We went up to the Pinnacles and back, and the view was absolutely spectacular! We got really lucky with the weather too (in fact, our entire weekend was mostly amazing weather) so we couldn’t be happier. Needless to say, I easily made my 10,000 steps daily target during this trip. Walking WITHOUT children is so peaceful. We enjoyed a steady pace, without little people complaining about being tired, hungry or needing to go to the bathroom.
Our next stop was Bang Bang Bar and Food also in Cape Woolomai. We pretty much found this place simply via a bit of research online. This place had great reviews and I loved the idea of their menu with all the Asian influence in their flavours. We were definitely not disappointed. This place had a great bar vibe, and we dined outdoors since it was such a pleasant night. The food was very well presented, and we were impressed by the quality of food being served up. We were there for Happy Hour so woohoo, $5 wine!
We stayed at Ramada Resort Phillip Island in a 3-bedroom villa, so we each had our own rooms. It was such a pleasant stay. The resort had great facilities and the villa was so cosy, modern and clean. I had the master bedroom, which was very comfortable and I had my own ensuite bathroom. My friend was obsessed with the calamari they served at the resort restaurant, so we went and had our “2nd dinner” that night. She was right about the calamari though, it was delicious. We also had cocktails – I had a margarita and a mojito at the restaurant, as well as a mojito “to go” which we brought back to our villa hehe. We also had dessert at the onsite resort restaurant – some delicious warm churros and a berry meringue which we fondly called “Eton Mess” because it was my friend’s favourite dessert but we didn’t order the actual Eton Mess from Bang Bang, so this meringue dessert which ended up falling apart very quickly became our pretend Eton Mess… lol.
The next morning, we showed up at our 10.30am breakfast reservation at The Cape Kitchen. What a stunning place! The view was absolutely incredible, and the restaurant vibe was simply dreamy. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast without kids, it was such a rare thing, and we embraced every minute of it!
After breakfast, we went down to San Remo to watch the 12pm Pelican Feeding. Always fun to watch these incredible creatures being fed. This activity has always been a popular one amongst tourists. Buses and buses of tourists from China used to overpopulate this activity, so it felt pretty weird to only be surrounded by only a handful of locals and people who are visiting Phillip Island for the weekend. After the feeding, we went on another long scenic walk down San Remo beach and once again easily hit my target 10,000 steps for the day!
Then, we made our way to Island Healing for our 2pm massage appointment. It was truly one of the most blissful massages I have ever had. We went for the Relaxation Massage, but this was no flimsy massage. My masseuse knew exactly what she was doing, and it was a truly satisfying massage. I literally floated my way out of there, and was ready for a good long sleep lol.
After the massage, we made our way back to the resort and had a little snack before going to the indoor health centre to use the pool and sauna facilities. There was also an outdoor spa, which turned out to be very popular so we didn’t get a chance to have our turn for a dip. The sauna and heated pool was enough for me though, I felt truly relaxed by the end of it.
After we got dressed to head out again, we went to Smiths Beach to catch the sunset. The view probably would’ve been a lot more spectacular from Cape Woolomai, but we were running out of time so we just went to Smiths because it was closer. We went for a little walk until it literally got dark.
Soon after, we went to Beach HQ Restaurant and Bar in Cowes for our entree. Yes, this whole “progressive dinner” thing was becoming a thing for us! We each had a drink and shared the Snack Platter which had crispy haloumi, salt and pepper calamari, pork belly with slaw and chilli glaze, hot sticky chicken tenderloins and thick chips. It was a great platter with very tasty choices, and perfect for sharing!
After that, we went for a little walk up and down the main street of Cowes in search for our next dinner destination. We went about this in a pretty fussy and hilarious way! One of my friends kept saying she wasn’t hungry, but had a craving for Hot and Sour soup, so we went to check out her usual Chinese restaurant, Wing Lock. Sadly, Wing Lock did NOT have Hot and Sour soup. So we walked up the street a little further and came across a restaurant in a little back courtyard area which looked busy and happening. Turns out it was “Thai on the Island” which used to be next to her regular Fish and Chips shops facing the beach. They must have moved, so we thought maybe Tom Yum or Laksa was a good alternative for her Hot and Sour craving. I was also sold by the idea of Thai by this point, but it wasn’t enough to convince my friend so we went walking to continue exploring our options. We then saw Wing Ho, another Chinese restaurant we never paid much attention to because from the outside, it really just looked like a dodgy little Chinese takeaway place. However, this time we managed to take a good look inside and was surprised to not only see that it was busy, but also the interior was spacious, modern looking and shiny! It looked a lot fancier than it presents from the outside! Well imagine that… imagine all the things you discover when you actually have the time and leisure to truly explore places at your own pace without being rushed by impatient children lol. Turns out Wing Ho DID have Hot and Sour soup, so my friend went in to order it to go, so we can go back and have dinner at the Thai restaurant with her soup in hand lol! She came back out after about 5 minutes, and said she did NOT order her soup, because there was at least a 30-minute wait… oh well, so off to the Thai restaurant we go… BUT this time we arrived and the window table that was previously available when we first walked past, is now occupied. The owner was going to create a little table for us, but we didn’t like how it was placed like a floating island where people are supposed to just walk past, and right next to the kitchen / reception. So we passed, and decided to DINE IN at Wing HO 😂😂😂 All the back and forth, but we were finally very happy with our final dinner destination. My friend was happy that she got her Hot and Sour soup, and we were all happy with the food that night, especially the Seafood Noodles and Spice Salt Chicken Ribs.
When we got back to our villa, we found some possum friends on our deck and decided to feed those poor starving creatures. I know we weren’t supposed to, but they definitely looked starving and we had plenty of food! After a long but very satisfying day, we didn’t have much energy to hang out that night and all just went to bed pretty soon after we got back to the resort.
The next morning was Mother’s Day. I woke up feeling quite emotional, and it was rather bittersweet. I feel blessed to have had this weekend, but was definitely thinking of my mother. The waves of emotion definitely hit me that day (still today, as I am writing this on Mother’s Day evening).
I got to sleep-in, as we pre-agreed. My friends were both up pretty early and apparently went out to Smiths Beach again in the morning, and back into Cowes for a little walk and morning venture. I didn’t get out of bed until around 9.30am lol and just showered, got dressed and packed up all ready to go by 10.15am. We checked out, and on our way out we stopped at the Chocolate Factory to grab a coffee and some chocolate gifts for my husband (to thank him for looking after the kids, even though I know I didn’t need to.. because it’s his job as their dad lol). Ok maybe I wanted some chocolate, and just used him as an excuse to buy them haha!
After that, we made a quick stop at San Remo Fisherman’s Co-op for some fresh oysters. I know, who has fresh oysters for breakfast?! Well, we do! Because why not 😂 It was so worth it, so good, so delicious, so fresh, and just the best way to end our trip. The weather was once again absolutely perfect and we almost didn’t want to leave, but was looking forward to going home to our families.
Once I finally got home, and my kids gave me their beautifully made Mother’s Day cards and my husband gave me my massage voucher gift, and I quickly threw all the dirty laundry into the washing machine because they totally did NOT do any laundry all weekend… and got all the cards and gift bags organised for all the various presents we were gonna take to afternoon tea with the family (my husband thankfully shopped for all the gifts, so I had to write all the cards and put them all in gift bags) – we finally made it out to Roast’d for a quick and easy but dependable delicious lunch.
We then met up with my husband’s family at the Ray Bastin Reserve aka “Rocket Park” to celebrate Mother’s Day for all the mothers including my mother in law, and 5 sister in laws lol. It was also my sister in law’s birthday, and one of my nephew’s birthday later this week. We also missed my brother in law’s 40th, my niece’s birthday, another sister in law’s birthday so they all got given their gifts today too lol. It was just good to finally be “up to date” with all the birthdays, until the next birthday.. in June lol. My husband’s family is so big, there’s a birthday pretty much every month!! It’s no wonder last year during the peak of Covid when we couldn’t see each other, no one got their birthday gifts so we just combined birthday + Christmas gifts for everyone 😂
Well, this has turned out to be quite a big wrap-up of my weekend. I guess I was just in the mood to do some serious documenting of special events. Time to head to bed, and get ready to start another normal week. Back to Earth, Kim! ❤❤❤❤❤
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