Panny's Chocolate Factory

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.