cookiesncreamy

Day 7 was a wine-y day. booked a day tour with activity tours. read good reviews of the tour, with special mention to Nigel, one of the guide. and it so happened that he was with us that day. hahaha.


our guide and the bus. although i couldnt make out what Nigel is saying 1/4 of the time, i could sense that he's a really happy man who enjoys sharing what he knows. and he doesnt make u feel like you are just one out of the 10 thousand tours he led. he doesnt introduce like he was reading off a script, but more of spontaneous sharing. of coz the main bulk of it have to be factual and it's probably something he repeats every day. but as and when, he will share some personal stories, or talk abt anything that came to his mind if smth along the way triggered him. like i rmb how he linked to the economy, the aboriginals, and how an australian typically spend their vacation as he saw 1 car towing a camper van behind.  otherwise he would play some old country music. damn old school.


our 1st stop, ernest hill.


wine tasting!


the presenter. 


酒鬼!


we liked the dessert wine.


and we bought them!hur hur.


at the 2nd winery, brokenwood, for 2nd wine tasting. 

we decided to skip the session and walked around ourselves instead.



attacked by flies bahahaha!


they refused to leave pork alone wahahha!quack quack quack.


lunched at a village or town or whatever u call it.




quack quack quack.


smelly cheese and olives tasting! eeeuk!


just when we thought the day trip was ending, Nigel gave us a bonus! hahah.
as he foresee that the traffic back to sydney will be smooth, we could afford to take a longer route back past the countryside. everyone voted for the go-ahead and we set off on the countryside-kangeroo-spotting tour.hehe.


we did spot kangaroo, or maybe wallaby, im not sure. hahaha.
yeah it felt like a lazy afternoon, country scenery accompanied by old country songs, with a happy old man sharing his thoughts  occasionally.


lunar spark and silver moon!
we dropped the wines back in the hotel before heading out again. there was boxing day sales so the stores were opened till later than usual. the stuff were not dirt cheap so we didnt get much. but at least we didnt waste the night there!

it's christmas!we expected all shops to be closed so the day was planned outside city.

started the day with complimentary xmas brekkie in the hotel =)
we took our own sweet time and didnt realise that we were actually quite late for blue mountains.


arrived at central station only to realise that the train departs at an hourly interval and so we had lots of time to kill.


we found the correct platform out of the 20 plus platforms. ahaha.


while waiting for the train to depart. the ride took 2 freaking hours and we fell behind schedule.
didnt really sleep on the train though. we became chinese teachers on board instead! hahaha we gave an ang moh a chinese crash course because she was gg to visit china the next day on her own. admirable courage! hahaha. and she told us the train in aussie is almost half the speed of that in us. ROARS. so it means our ride could have been 1 hour and i could have gone to echo point. hahaha.


finally at katoomba!

was supposed to purchase the xplorer bus tickets which gives us unlimited hop-on-and-off. but was stopped by our new friend made on the train. and so in a state of confusion, we were ushered up a public bus because the bus driver was shouting "JUST GET ON THE BUS I'VE GOT A TRAFFIC BUILDING UP BEHIND ME" and we got a free ride!hahahah. and from then on we acted blur, tried to camouflage in a group of tourist and took free rides around katoomba. saved us 36 aud!!

we decided to drop off at Scenic World instead of Echo point. hmm i kind of regretted it though.
we wasted too much time q-ing for the rides which was just so-so.

q-ing for the skyway.

the queuing took up too much time and we had no time to go to echo point to look at the 3 sisters up close. boo. if only we had xiao lan, we didnt have to worry abt the last bus which is at 5 plus!freaking early.


katoomba cascade.




the blue mountains, with part of it chao da because of the bush fire a few months back.

this looks kind of sad.


part of the park lost to the bush fire.


then we took the scenic railway down into the jamison valley.


the ultra steep slope from which we came down.


 
the bush walk took about an hour. basically a nature walk plus an open-air coal mine museum as there were some 'artifacts' left behind by the coal mine which used to be there.
the queue to take the skyway up the valley took probably another half an hour.

we decided that we should take the bus to echo point to look at the 3 sisters, even though it would mean that we have to walk back to katoomba train station after that because we would miss the last bus from echo point. and we have to reach the train station by 7.30pm because if we miss the last train back to sydney we are dead!
but for some reason, the bus did not stop at echo point BOO.either we took the wrong bus or the driver skipped it, we ended up at katoomba without knowing. sigh..walking back to echo point and back to the station was kind of risky because it was already 5 plus. so we went to katoomba without visiting the 3 sisters. SAD.


we had an early dinner at katoomba as we reckoned that most of the restaurants in sydney would not be opened. 



back in sydney with nothing to do at night. except to take a walk in hyde park near our hotel.
indeed a very quiet christmas. in fact a disappointing one. i cant stop lamenting that i did not visit the 3 sisters even though i was at blue mountains. BOO. hahaha.

so that concluded day six.

day 5 was our last day in melbourne =(


checked out of pelicans motel, my favorite hotel/motel throughout the trip.

we had brekkie in san remo.


indulging in the peaceful surrounding and the slow pace there. some locals popped by the shop to grab some brekkie before heading to phillip island for surfing. some walked their dog. relaxing.


the view from the breakfast place, overlooking the bridge that brings us to phillips island. pelicans are said to feed there, but we were not in luck to witness it. probably too early. haha. 

drove back to south wharf in melbourne where the direct factory outlets are. got some stuff there, not too shabby.

and then we went st kilda.

quite of number of traditional-looking cake shop which sells self-baked cakes. looks good but i thought it doesnt taste as good.


i got too carried away and ordered too much hahaha.
that marked the end of our melbourne adventure and we drove back to the airport. SOBS.


our last journey with xiao lan.

final goodbye to xiao lan at the return point. she had been good. having her around was so convenient. we realised her importance in sydney.



and we made our way to SYD. byebye MEL, you were great!

first thing we did when we touched down at SYD was to buy the train ticket.

shocked to find out that a 10-min ride from the airport to city easily cost us 15 AUD. that was when we started to worry that we might end up with zero cash before the end of the trip.



our 1st hotel in SYD was near the museum station on the city circle line. very old-sch and retro.

it was christmas eve so we thought we should stay out late. dropped our bags in the hotel and walked to darling harbour. we were surprised to see so many koreans and chinese along the way to the extent that i totally felt like i was in korea.


darling harbour was unexpectedly quiet when the clock struck twelve. no count-downs, no one wished us merry christmas along the street. i even thought clarke quay was more happening. christmas was a quiet affair there, surprisingly. either that or we were at the wrong place. 


that was my first christmas spent overseas with pork.

we started the day with queen victoria market. checked out of our melb city hotel. collected xiao lan and drove our way to queen v.


queen v! the more exciting city day. 
it felt like another chatuchak, without the heat that is.

There was a rather clear distinction. Most of the souvenir and clothes stall were manned by asians while the seafood and diaries section were runned by australians or prob europeans. i won't know hahaa.


in the section where they sell cheese, olives, nougats and coffee. They had different dips for the olives and we got to taste it subsequently in sydney. It was farrrrr too salty for my liking.

Seafood!

and how can we miss out on this! highly recommended by loom. i stuffed down 3 doughnuts by myself, including loom's share, and got a cup of coffee to wash it down. impressed by myself. even pork almost exploded.


I LOVE THIS!


and we hit the road once again to phillips island. PENGUINS. 
finally got a pair of sunnies each else we would either get cataract or go blind in aussie.



checked in at the cosy pelicans motel at san remo, which is a bridge away from phillips island. apparantly it was privately run by a family who lived just next door. a very well-equipped motel!
the owner (i believe) was very helpful. she equipped us with all the maps and info we need for phillips island. she even prepared blankets for us to bring to the island while we wait for the penguins coz it will be very cold. how sweet of her. 

since we were still early, we drove 20 mins to Cowes on phillips island, the only town on the island.



had an early dinner at the faaaaaaat seagull.


at the pier nearby. 

drove to the nobbies which was 5 mins away from the penguin parade.


the seal rock. it was said that you can spot seals on the rock. either we were there at the wrong season of the year, or we didnt try hard enough, we didnt manage to see any.


the ultra scenic boardwalk. i miss this place!


this was damn apt - relax, you are on island time now.



rocks!

we chilled (again) at the cafe at the nobbies centre before going over to the penguin parade.

sadly, no photography was allowed.


i secretly took pictures of the penguins home before they came back. hehe.

instead of spotting penguins, i spotted a wallaby! hahaha.

some penguins were already home. probably they didnt go out to sea that day. hahaa.
anyway we all sat by the ocean, waiting for the penguins to come home. we were so glad that we had the blankets with us because it was so warm and cosy to snuggle inside while waiting. 

everyone was damn excited when we first spotted the 1st grp of arriving penguins, little penguins to be specific, which are the smallest among the penguin species. they took 10 million years to finally get out of the water because they kept jumping back into the water after a few steps on land. they needed a brave leader to finally lead them out of the water totally. and u see them waddle across the sands and into the grass. sooo cute. we went on to the boardwalk to see them waddle waddle waddle to i-dunno-where. they just kept walking and walking and so we followed hahaha. some went home along the way while some just continued walking. we even found 1 penguin at the carpark when we left hahaha. sooo freaking cute. i must say we were really quite lucky coz there were alot of penguins =))

learning point of the day: penguins are a very talkative lot. they chirped/bitched/squeaked non-stop. hahaha.

we ended the day with cup noodles (for the 2nd time) as supper. hahaha.

 



 

started the day with breakfast at pie face.



chillax while watching the morning streets.


popped by the library to enrich our souls. hahaha.


visited the old melbourne gaol.


The art of hanging: Is not a man an artist who can painlessly and without brutality despatch another man? - Interesting....

the gaol visit was followed by a watch house tour. 


the day was spent in city subsequently and we travelled via the free city circle tram.

this saved us on the hefty city parking fee and a little bit of petrol.hahaha.

roamed the city and was quite bored actually.

The Royal Arcade with a nice victorian feel.


we spent the lazy afternoon in a cafe playing monopoly.i won btw. hehehe. back then i thought it was a waste of time to chill out in a cafe while u travel. then again on hindsight, the australian culture is all abt chillax and a slower pace of life, so that forms part of the whole aussie experience as well. hahaha. 



flinder street station. My thought was: ok nice, full stop, what next.



Federation Square.
That place was quite happening. They had an event there so we all had free music. Lots of bars/pubs around and they were all exploding with ppl at 5 plus. A perfect example of work-life balance.


all we did was just sit around and people-watch.


got a drink from nearby and chilled on the ledge.


chill max these people.

we realised that australians like to lie on anywhere that is grassy and just chill. be it read a book, or catch up with friends. doesn't matter if it's in the middle of the city, as long as it is grass.

so we decided to experience it ourselves.

we got bored after a while though. we just need to do something.

we decided to save some dinner money and did some grocery shopping at coles and woolworths, which is the equivalent of our ntuc. so we had cup noodles and soup for dinner.


and not forgetting this =)