I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t even know this place existed, we
pretty much stumbled upon this hidden dream. Our intention was to see
the ‘Penguin Parade’, so while we were traveling towards Nobbies Ocean,
we noticed this huge sign on the right-side of the road ‘Phillip Island
Chocolate Factory, Come Explore Pannys Amazing World of Chocolate’.
The
sign looked deliciously inviting, it’s like we were under a trance and
before we knew it, we paid for our self-guided chocolate tour! The
prices were at an affordable price range. Adults - $17, Children (4 – 14
yrs… under 4 yrs, it’s free) - $11 and Family (2 Adults + 2 Children) -
$50.
At first, I was hesitant because it’s self-guided but the lady
where we purchased our tickets reassured us that we will have fun and
it’s worth it… and it was, so let me tell you my story.
To begin with,
you will receive a complimentary chocolate plus your ticket entry is
made of chocolate inside a wrapper – so I saved mine for later. As we
entered the room, the introduction was “what, where and how” chocolate
is discovered and made.
It was rather fascinating to see the cocoa trees
(of course not real, a replica) what the cocoa bean looks like (closed
and opened) to the stages of making cocoa and the machines they use to
make cocoa into that delicious ‘end product’ that we know affectionately
as “chocolate”. I thought that was a great introduction to the
chocolate tour.
As you progress along, you will be amazed with old
chocolate advertisements, some I did recollect and others were new to
me. Their art work made of chocolate was mind-blowing! There was a
statue of David made out of chocolate, a HUGE picture of Dame Edna
Everage made out of truffles and their chocolate village – remarkable!
What was the cutest of all was seeing ‘Panny’s Family’, an animatronic
where you get to see these little figures busily making chocolates and
wrapping them in a glass window display. But what surprised me the most
was the 3D chocolate animation that looked pretty ordinary, in fact… you
have no clue what it is really, spinning round and round until you
press a button on the side where you activate this strobe light and
that’s when I had this “WOW” factor happening! The penguin characters
come to life, where you see pouring chocolate into penguin moulds and
then the penguins pop out of their moulds and jump off the carousel only
to start all over again – phenomenal.
But what about the children?
Don’t worry, there are stacks of activities to do. There are interactive
games to play and win these little wooden balls for prizes, where at
the end of the tour, you hand it over to the staff and they will
exchange it for chocolate balls – pretty neat eh?
There are signs at
these games to be considerate of others, you shouldn’t spend excessive
amount of time on the game, once you get a ball token, then you should
move on to the next game in all fairness. Or there’s this other section
where you lift the lid to sniff, try and guess what the aroma is, then
slide the draw open to reveal the answer – that is fun to do, you would
be amazed how hard this game is.
There is a machine where you get to
design your very own chocolate, it then travels along the conveyor belt,
drops off your chocolate in the box below that has already hardened and
ready to eat. Or simply visit a friendly, robotic penguin in a glass
cage, where you get the opportunity to choose and press the button of
which chocolate you want (dark, milk or white chocolate buttons). Once
you press the button, the selected chocolate drops and the penguin
twirls around, picks up the chocolate, twirls back into position and
drops it down the hatch for you to collect – too easy and delicious!
They also have an amazing 400kg chocolate waterfall (the world’s largest
chocolate waterfall) that falls every three minutes – it’s just so
spectacular to watch. Oh… they even have a $10,000 chocolate challenge
for you, only if you dare. I didn’t go for the dare, I just took their
word for it.
As we were nearing our exit, you see chocolatiers hard at
work – very fast, talented staff they have and fascinating to watch. We
probably took at least an hour to read and appreciate their chocolate
history, art collection and their interactive games and yes… self-guided
tour was the best option to do this because you didn't have a time
limit and was able to achieve all activities in your own pace.
Once you
exit your tour, you enter their café and shop. You can either buy
chocolates to take home or gifts for family and friends or simply relax
with a cuppa with your choice of sweets or do both! As for parking, they
have plenty of free parking available for all visitors.
This place is
truly family friendly with guaranteed smiles on their faces after this
amazing experience, regardless of your age! I felt like a kid in an
adult’s body. If you want to know the challenge, then you best get
yourself there and find out.
No comments:
Post a Comment