This is the last day of the Australia Winter Trip, time indeed flies so fast when you're having fun. My partner went to Queen Victoria Market after breakfast to buy souvenirs for his family. Then we left the hostel together as soon as he returned to hostel. We went to buy packed lunch at Queen Victoria Market before heading for Docklands. For your info, this famous market is not only home for souvenirs, fresh vegetables and fruits, fresh meat but they also sell cooked food. We bought roasted chicken with fries and Kangaroo meat marinated in red wine and garlic and they offered us to roast it for free. We waited around 5 mins before we were able to get our food.


Then we boarded the free shuttle bus on Stop 8 - Queen Victoria Market to Stop 9 - Harbour Town, Docklands. Docklands is unique to Melbourne. The huge area is a short trip from the inner CBD area and is surrounded by stunning water views. There's lots to do at Docklands  - wandering around the shopping area, watching the Southern Star Observation Wheel being mended! You can get a free cup of tea or coffee here in the Tourist Lounge before about 3pm - it's a great place to relax for a bit. 

Walk a bit and look at the great modern architecture, see statues of famous Australian showbiz people at Waterfront City and find art exhibits. Look for the inverted cow outdoor art exhibit, it is the icon of Docklands Park.


Opposite Docklands Park is Etihad Stadium. Etihad Stadium is one of Australia’s leading multipurpose venues, designed to cater for major sport and entertainment events hosting up to 55,000 fans. In the heart of Melbourne’s Docklands precinct, the stadium was formerly known as Telstra Dome and is the only football stadium in the Southern Hemisphere with a fully retractable roof. All up, it takes only eight minutes to close. Etihad Stadium not only hosts AFL, cricket and rugby, it’s also staged shows by some of the entertainment world’s biggest names, including U2, Robbie Williams, Barbra Streisand and Bon Jovi.


Next we rode free shuttle from Stop 10 - Etihad Stadium and Victoria Harbour to go to Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). MCG is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, Melbourne, Victoria, and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. It is the tenth-largest stadium in the world, the largest in Australia, the largest stadium for playing cricket, and holds the world record for the highest light towers at any sporting venue. Unfortunately, Stop 3 - Sports precinct wasn't part of the bus route that day since there was a scheduled match that day between the Brisbane Lions against the Richmond Tigers. Instead we were asked to alight at Stop 2 Federation Square, from there we walked to MCG. It wasn't hard to find as group of people were walking towards the same destination to support their favorite cricket team, with the Lions fans wearing red and Tigers fans wearing yellow. There were statues of famous players outside the stadium but we are not fans of the sport, we don't even know the rules, so we don't have idea who those people are. Cricket is more famous on Commonwealth countries around the world.

From MCG, we walked towards Stop 4 - Chinatown precinct to ride free shuttle to Melbourne University. Along the way we passed by Melbourne Museum, the Little Italy, then finally Melbourne University.  

Melbourne University is an Australian public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Commonly considered to be Australia's most prestigious university, Melbourne is currently ranked as Australia's best university by Times Higher Education, Academic Ranking of World Universities and National Taiwan University Rankings. Times Higher Education currently ranks Melbourne as 28th in the world, while the QS World University Rankings places Melbourne 31st in the world. I like the ambiance of this university, it should be inspiring to have group study session inside the campus. The buildings of the campus have very unique classical designs, it looks like you are being transported back in time.

From here we took shuttle back to Stop 8 - Queen Victoria Market, with that we were able to took full circle of the free shuttle bus. Basically this was shuttle tour day. We rested a bit in the hostel before visiting Aldi Supermarket to buy some local snacks for souvenir. Little did we know that this supermarket is so environmental friendly that they won't provide you with any plastic / paper bag. So we tried to put as much of them in our backpack and some we hand carried.

The most unique food we bought was the lamington. It is a dessert of Australian origin. It consists of squares of sponge cake coated first in a layer of traditionally chocolate icing, then in desiccated coconut. Should have bought more of it.
This is our last night at Australia, so we drop by the hostel lobby to book for Starbus shuttle pickup to airport, unfortunately Starbus office is already close. And just to let you know, we  weren't able to book shuttle the following day as it is full. So please note for all of you to book the shuttle days before. As it was our last night, we visited the rooftop to enjoy view of the city...
Till our next travel adventure!!! Hope you had enjoyed spending time with us! :) Do leave us comments or share anything :)

Have you ever witness snow fall from the sky? Have you ever hold snow flake in your palm? This is one of the things a person may dream of once in his life...
 
It was around 5:15 AM, we left the hostel and walked towards 260 Swanston St to meet our tour group for Mt Buller Trip. The sky was very dark, there was rain and the wind breeze was very cold. The weather was unpleasant but we tried to be optimistic. We hoped if there is rain and if temperature up in Mt Buller falls below 0, then definitely I shall have my first snow experience.

By the way, we booked this tour online with Extragreen Holidays. The online rate for adult 1 day tour is 69 AUD which includes transport to and from city to Mt. Buller, entrance fee and sightseeing chairlift - NORTHSIDE EXPRESS.. Rental of jacket, pants, boots, ski, snowboards, and others could be done online too. Meals could also be pre-booked online.

At 5:45 AM, we boarded the tour bus and left the city. There was nothing scenic to see while traveling since the streets is covered by darkness. Then after an hour, we made 15 minute stopover for those who needed toilet break or snacks. Then we resumed the trip once everyone was inside the bus. The sky was still gloomy and rainy by this hour. Looking out by our bus window, landscape includes green fields with flocks of cows or sheep.

It was this whole stretch of fields and trees for more than an hour and we made another stop to get our boots and equipments before entering Mt. Buller. Around 10AM, when we finally saw the surroundings were covered in white. I got really excited, "Alas! Mount Buller we are almost there!!! :) "

When we reached Mt. Buller, our tour guide gave us some tips on how to go around Mt. Buller and requested that we return at 3:00 PM. So we just have 4 hours to enjoy. Luckily, we didn't book for Snowboarding or Ski else there was not ample time to learn and enjoy. From bus stop, we placed some refundable deposit to leave our things in their locker, then we headed to Northside Express. 

We happily hopped in to the Ski lift as we didn't want to wait minutes for the Gondola. It was a very thrilling ride, not to mention the chilly temperature and the height! Luckily, we braved ourselves for this ride before snow fell.

Then we reached the place where people were happily Snowboarding and Skiing. We took few photos then seek shelter because our  hands and body were starting to get numb. So we went in Spurs restaurant...

After a few minutes we decided to take the 20 minute walk towards the shuttle bus stop. It was worrisome to walk in the path covered with snow and destination that seems obscure, yet we took more photos. Well, we love to capture moments so no objections!!! ;) Alas we rode the shuttle that brought us to the village. 

Once we reached the Mt Buller Village, we were scouting for restaurants to dine in. The meals are pricey because visitors will need to eat. We decided to eat at Pats Italian. We shared one pizza and ordered 2 hot choco drink. The couple besides us offered us their pizza as they had leftover. We were grateful but we were already full.

When our bodies recovered from coldness and hunger, we went out and took more photos. I felt happy and fortunate to experience snow for the first time, but snow turned to hail in a while. 

Then we rode shuttle bus again to where our bus is. But we were an hour earlier, so we decided to head back to Northern Express and ride the Gondola. 

Sadly, we weren't able to make our own Snow Man. But anyways, we boarded the bus and slept for 4 hrs. Then we reached the city around 8 PM and ate at Nando's Peri-Peri Chicken because my friend said the portion is bigger in Australia, nevertheless it was a satisfying meal...

Tomorrow will be the last day of our City Tour, hopefully it won't be as rainy as today.

Welcome back everyone! The Day 8 half-day trip was only a preview, today we officially begin the tour of Melbourne. Nobody visits Melbourne without dropping by one of the it's most famous place for shopping, The Queen Victoria Market, lucky for us the hostel we were staying was just 5-minute walk. It started its operation since 1878, the Market's seven hectare site is the largest open air Market in the southern hemisphere. It has variety of items for sale like fruits, vegetables, meats and also souvenir items like T-shirts, hats, jackets, magnets, keychain and many more. The market also sells exotic animal meat, but this is a story for another day. (Day 10 to be uploaded soon)

Do note of its schedule and plan accordingly:

9.00am to 2.00pm Tuesday and Thursday,
6.00am to 6.00pm Friday,
6.00am to 3.00pm Saturday,
9.00am to 4.00pm Sunday.

Not to be outdone by its bitter rival Sydney, Melbourne also offer tourist a free shuttle bus ride around attractions inside the city. (Update: Bad news guys, starting Oct 1,2013 it will now cost $5 for one day ride all you can. Visit the website for more info: http://www.thatsmelbourne.com.au/visitors/transport/shuttle/Pages/VisitorShuttle.aspx) The shuttle operates daily (except Christmas Day), departing every 30 minutes from 9.30am to 4.30pm and the full trip takes 90 minutes. What makes it better than the one is Sydney is that the buses here includes on-board commentary with interesting trivia of places you pass by.

The Shrine of Remembrance was built between July 1928 and November 1934 in remembrance of those 114,000 men and women of Victoria who served and those who died in the Great War of 1914-1918. 89,100 of them served overseas and 19,000 did not return. It is open from 10am to 5pm daily, except on Good Friday and Christmas Day. After arriving, we took several photos of the Shrine. We see several statues on the sides. We then went inside the Sanctuary, and on the center we saw the Stone of Remembrance which has the inscription "GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN". This is actually part of a Bible verse from John 15:13 which says "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". We also went up the Sanctuary to see the top view of the Shrine. Some parts are still under construction for redevelopment plans by Melbourne government.

Now, we then proceeded to our next stop, the Royal Botanic Gardens. Are you seeing the trend here? Melbourne also has its own Royal Botanic Gardens, just like Sydney. Both are really competitive because they want to be the best Australian city. Established in 1846, the gardens extend over 36 hectares and display an amazingly diverse collection of over 50,000 plants from around the world, including rare and threatened species. Considered one of the finest examples of Victorian-era landscaped gardens in the world, the Royal Botanic Gardens hosts year-round events, picnics, weddings and tours. The garden is open 7.30am – 8pm everyday. Due to time constraint, we were only able to see 1/4 of the Gardens, and we decide to proceed with the next stop, the National Gallery of Victoria.

Founded in 1861, the National Gallery of Victoria is the oldest public art museum in Australia. Its collections range over European, Asian, and Australian art of all periods. The NGV Collection contains over 68,000 works of art and approximately 87% of its records are available for viewing. During our visit we were able to see Asian and European artworks. 2 artworks really caught our attention. Just near the entrance was a beautiful artwork of a deer made in diamonds - PixCell-Red Deer by Kohei Nawa. On the center of the hall is the artwork, clinamen by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot. It composes of porcelain bowls floating in a pool of sky blue water. The bowls float in circular motion and produces nice sound when it hits each other. Better to see for yourself when you can visit.

Up next for today's tour is a visit to the oldest station in Australia, Flinders Street Station. Constructed on 1910, it is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere and its 700 metre main platform is the longest in the country. The term "meet me under the clocks" would refer to the clocks above the main entrance which is a famous meeting place for locals.

Just across Flinders Street Station we can see one of Melbourne's most famous tourist attraction, the Federation Square. It is a unique cultural precinct which brings together a creative mix of attractions, museums and galleries, and the finest of dining with its many restaurants, cafes and bars. We also entered the nearby Melbourne Visitor Centre (MVC) and got ourselves free brochures and maps of tourist sites around Melbourne. On the Square is a big TV screen that shows video of people walking around. We can't help but take pictures of us starring in the TV since this is our only chance of fame!

Just across the street from Federation Square, is St. Paul's Cathedral. The Cathedral is built in the neo-Gothic transitional style, that is, partly Early English and partly Decorated.  It was designed by the distinguished English architect William Butterfield, who was noted for his ecclesiastical work.  The foundation stone was laid in 1880. More recently, and completed in 2009, extensive restoration works were carried out.

If you are a fan of street arts, we recommend you guys to visit Hosier Lane. It's just walking distance from Flinders Street Station. The whole place is covered with colorful works of art by different people. We were really amazed at the details of the paintings that covers the walls, windows and even garbage bins.

We then took the free tram ride Elizabeth St-Flinders St to South Wharf to get to our next destination, the Southbank. We started our walking tour at the Melbourne Exhibition Center. Just nearby was DFO, it's a mall that sells clothes, shoes, bags from different brands. Since it was winter season, summer fashion styles were on sale. Walking along the Yarra river, we took pictures of several brightly colored buildings and watched the sunset. We also passed by several steel statues along the bridge.

That is it for day 8, join us tomorrow for adventure in Winter Wonderland!

Yesterday, we have arranged shuttle pickup via the receptionist and informed them that we shall check-out early this morning.

We woke up early, checked-out and waited for shuttle to fetch us at 7:00 AM from hostel to airport. The shuttle fare is 13 AUD which is cheaper than taking train or taxi. We could have saved on fare, however we forgot to claim our key deposit :( This is another lesson learned, next time we will need to add reminder.

Today we bid Sydney goodbye and hello Melbourne. The plane departed 10:00 AM and arrived Melbourne at 11:35 AM. After claiming our luggage, we proceed to Bus Zone M, where we took Starbus. It took around 30 minutes and will drop you us off at Discovery Melbourne. Tickets are 13 AUD per person however it was refunded on check-in since we stayed for more than 3 days. Don't forget to ask the bus driver for receipt. :)

Discovery Melbourne is a large international youth hostel conveniently located right in the heart of the city. They offer free guided tours, some events and parties. I love this hostel. They give FREE breakfast which is available every 7 to 11 in the morning. There are bread, cereals, spreads, coffee, milk  and tea. Our daily breakfast favorite was toasted bread with peanut butter and strawberry jam. I completed it with fresh milk, while my partner preferred coffee. Another nice feature in this hostel is their swipe card key for our room, toilet, bathroom and to any doors there is in the hostel. 

After we checked-in and settled our things, we headed out and looked for something to eat. The Borek Bakehouse caught our attention since a lot people were buying. It is located at 481 Elizabeth Street. They serve traditional Turkish breads and snacks, including lamb gozleme, spinach and cheese borek, and Middle Eastern dips and sweets. Borek is a family of baked or fried filled pastries made of a thin flaky dough known as phyllo (or yufka). It can be filled with cheese, often feta, sirene or kasar; minced meat, or vegetables. We ordered 2 Lamb & Zucchini Borek and 2 Chickpea borek which costs 10 AUD and is delicious and filling.

From here we passed through strip of mostly Asian restaurants until we reach the #35 free city circle tram stop. The City Circle tram service operates within Melbourne's central business district. It operates in a circular route passing major tourist attractions, as well as linking with other tram, train and bus routes in and around Melbourne. Trams run in both directions approximately every twelve minutes between 10am and 6pm Sunday to Wednesday and extended hours, 10am - 9pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Clockwise service: Flinders Street > Harbour Esplanade > Docklands Drive > La Trobe Street > Victoria Street > Nicholson Street > Spring Street > Flinders Street.

At 2:00 pm, we took this tram to Parliament Station (St. Patrick's Cathrdral). St. Patrick's Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, and seat of its archbishop. The building is known internationally as a leading example of the Gothic Revival style of architecture. 

From here we can walk towards Fitzroy Garden > Old Treasury Building > Parliament House > Parliament Station. Let us guide you...

Head east on Cathedral Place towards Lansdowne Street and Fitzroy Gardens awaits you. The Fitzroy Gardens are 26 hectares located on the southeastern edge of the Melbourne CBD. The gardens are bounded by Clarendon Street, Albert Street, Lansdowne Street, and Wellington Parade. The gardens are one of the major Victorian era landscaped gardens in Australia and add to Melbourne's claim to being the garden city of Australia. Set within the gardens are: an ornamental lake, Conservatory, Cooks' Cottage, Sinclair’s Cottage, Model Tudor village, Fountains and sculptures, Band Pavilion, the Rotunda and the fairy tree

From the gorgeous flower filled conservatory, head south, turn right toward Treasury place and Turn right into Spring St.then you shall reach The Old Treasury Building. This is a famous building, designed by a 19 year old and housing the original Melbourne gold vaults. There's a lot to see here including seeing a copy of the biggest gold nugget ever found in the world (found here in Victoria), and there's also a lot of history about Melbourne. The Old Treasury Building closes at 4pm by the way and isn't open Saturdays so plan accordingly.

Walk few meters north of Old Treasury Building towards Macarthur St. and visit the Parliament House. It has been the seat of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia, since 1855 (except for the years 1901 to 1927, when it was the seat of the Federal Parliament of Australia). There is the Queen's Hall where you can find statue of Queen Victoria, Legislative Council, Legislative Assembly, Library and more. They offer free tours, just join the queue or walk right in if there isn't a queue. Tours are available 9.30am, 10.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.45pm........ Get to experience the virtual tour here.

 

Then we headed towards Parliament Station and met a friend and his wife. It was raining!!! Well, as they say, they experience four seasons in a day in Melbourne. From nearby there is free circle tram stop, we hopped in towards Flinders St. but we were asked to alight the tram at Docklands. It was raining and it was freezing, and we were anxious whether there was still tram service as it was already 6PM. We waited quite a long time before the next tram arrived. We alighted at Flinders Street Station and walked towards Swanston st.

We had dinner at Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam at 241 Swanston Street. We had Chicken Special, Beef Special and some Spring Rolls. Dinner was perfect for winter season and we walked out very full.

It is time to head back home and have a good rest! Till tomorrow :)

Today is the last day of our Sydney tour and we feel we haven't had enough of the city. Our itinerary for Day 6 is another popular beach here in Sydney, Bondi beach. After our bad experience in taking bus from Spit Bridge going back to city in Day 5, we now have fear of taking another bus ride. However the only way to travel from CBD to Bondi beach is via bus so despite our new fear, we still push through with our plan.

Before leaving the hostel, we first asked the hostel receptionist where to take the bus and how to buy tickets. Most of the bus stops in CBD area are prepaid so we need to purchase tickets before boarding the bus. We now proceed to look for a convenient store near the bus stop to buy tickets. After we bought our round trip tickets, we looked for the bus stop and waited for the bus that will take us to Bondi beach. If from CBD, the bus to take is 380 or 333. This will pass by Bondi Junction which has a mall nearby.

It took us approximately 30 minutes to reach Bondi Beach. Upon arriving, we went directly to the beach to take lots of photos. Bondi Pavilion is where you can hangout for free WiFi.
 


Comparing to Manly, Bondi beach is smaller from end to end. Just beside the beach is the Bondi Park where we see people jogging, eating their lunch, reading books and sunbathing. We also saw alot of birds, that we think are seagulls. They were just walking around looking for food. When one girl offered them food, they flocked to her like a piranhas eating their prey.


Time check it's 12 noon. We decided to try Australia's local fastfood chain Hungry Jack's. Wikipedia says,  Hungry Jack's Pt Ltd is the exclusive Australian master fast food franchisee of Burger King Corporation, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. No wonder it tastes similar to Burger King and seems like Jack is always hungry huh! Since it was a Tuesday, they were offering a buy one get one burger deal! We had really been wondering why alot of restarants and fast food chains in Australia are offering this kind of deals during Tuesdays. If you guys have any idea, please share by commenting below.


 After a very tiring trek yesterday, we decided today is going to be a relaxed one. We took a stroll on nearby areas along the beach. Then, we saw the Bondi Icebergs. This was actually a swimming club which origin dates back to 1929 and owes its origins to the desire of a band of dedicated local lifesavers who wished to maintain their fitness during the winter months. It has a swimming pool, restaurants and bar facilities. Full club membership can only be attained by swimming 3 Sundays out of 4 from May to September (winter) for 5 years! (O_o)



Just ahead of Bondi Icebergs we sighted beautiful rock formations and on the edge of the land mass is Mackenzies Point. The view of the South Pacific Ocean is amazing. We also viewed Bondi Beach from a different view. 


Just above is a small hill, and on top we found Hunter Park. It's a very peaceful and tranquil place, very good for relaxing and meditating. We just sat in the grassy fields under the tree. After sometime, people started arriving with their dogs, and one dog even tried to tackle us.
 


It's now 4pm, time for us to go back down to the beach. Before going home, we tried to look for the Bondi Market. After looking around for 10-20 minutes, we weren't able to find the place. We decided to ask for directions and we were told that it's only open on weekends. With no place else to go we took the next bus back to the city and started to pack our things for the flight to Melbourne the next day. We also arranged shuttle bus pickup with the hostel receptionist.

We woke up 8:30AM this morning and prepared to spend the day walking at Manly island. We walked towards Circular Quay via Macquarie Street and we passed by these landmarks: The Mint, Sydney Hospital, Public Library of New South Wales, Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

When we reached circular quay an hour later, we bought one way tickets to Manly Wharf as we planned on taking bus back to city from Spit Junction. The ferry ride is more or less 45 minutes and costs around 7.20 AUD. It is just thrilling and energizing to be at the harbour, as we glanced at Opera House, Harbour bridge, and the island as you approach Manly Wharf on a glorious cool day.

And we also encounter different types of ships as we drew closer to Manly Wharf. When we reached the Manly Wharf, we visited the information centre to get some maps and information. The lady advised us to buy bus tickets from Spit Junction to city at convenience store. And now we are ready to visit the Manly Beach first.

The beach was named by Capt. Arthur Phillip for the indigenous people living there. He wrote about them, "Their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place". The Corso, a pedestrian plaza and one of Manly's main streets for shopping and dining plies between Manly Wharf and Manly Beach. I strongly suggest you to stroll here before you reach the beach paradise. Do you know that Manly beach is best known for being the surfers' paradise? Well, we envy the people who are swimming and surfing and the waves are great. Unfortunately, we came here on winter and we don't have the guts to swim on cold waters. Instead, I took this chance to walk barefooted on the fine sand, it is relaxing!!! My partner missed half of his life for being a killjoy..hehe ;)

Within walking distance of Manly Beach along the oceanway is Fairy Bower and  Shelley Beach. There are shops, restaurants, night clubs, and dive bars in town. An aged man approached us and shared us trivia on dragon lizard that could be spotted in Manly, actually this man is doing this friendly act while waiting for his date. We also asked him some dining tips and requested him to take our photo.

As we are walking towards the dining region that he suggested, we decided just to choose any resto near the Manly Wharf because my feet are giving up and it was out of our way. So we had Fisherman's basket and Seafood Basket at Seafood Sensations.

Then we went on and visit our last 5-in-1 combo pass attraction which is Manly Sea Life Sanctuary. It is actually a small sanctuary which aims to give awareness on what they are doing to help the endangered marine life. We enjoyed the lady giving us info on the different sharks species and other sea creatures.

Time check is 2:00PM, we shall now start our hike. Based on internet research, "The Manly to Spit Bridge Walk" is one of the most beautiful walks in Sydney, it is around 10 km. The hike is categorized as "Medium difficulty" and lasts around 3 to 4 hours. It will take you past magnificent harbour beaches, luxury homes, through windswept heath, rainforest and woodland. There are a number of aboriginal sites along the way as well. Unfortunately, it didn't meet our expectation and even harmed my knees, but I'm partly to blame because my footwear is inappropriate for hiking :( So make sure you are well prepared with food, water, protective clothing and good walking shoes. For more info on the track, visit here.

The walkway is really just a series of paths connecting all of the little bays and beaches along Manly to the northern coastline within the harbour. We took it as tiring instead of leisurely walk and covered the distance in 4 hours are more. The walk alternates the sandy beaches with walks through the bush and the occasional view point looking out over the beautiful blue water of the harbour.  

And here we are when the sun had already set and have yet to look for the bus stop. Buses to the city will have the destination "Wynyard" displayed and a number between 169 and 190. The bus stop for these buses is about 200 metres over the bridge. And finally we catched a bus from The Spit Bridge to the city.

The last stop for the bus is Wynyard station, and we need to walk to home. :( Here is the photo of St. Mary's Cathedral at night. Good night and see ya tomorrow...