2010_01_01-02 Melbourne and Melbourne Day 11 & 12

The Last 2 days were spent just visiting Melbourne.

There's quite a lot to see for a first-timer 

And as I mentioned before, Melbourne is the city of Arts and Festival some even say Literature

Whatever it is, 

I like their NGV which stands for National Gallery of Victoria

There's two of them 

one the International which houses collections from the world, while the other is the National one

both buildings are located at different locations but within the city CBD.

The NGV national was good and houses many interesting arts 

below are some arts I fancied

Somehow I thought we are not allowed to take photos of them, but apparently we can, but without flash!!!

One of the "Impressionist" masterpiece that capture my eyes

"The Pioneer "

is a 1904 painting by the Australian artist Frederick McCubbin. The painting is a triptych; the three panels tell a story of a free selector and his family making a life in the Australian bush. It is widely considered "one of the masterpieces of Australian art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_pioneer_(painting)).

2010_12_31 Melbourne and NYE 2011 day 10

Well, finally I reached the last day of 2010!!!! Not 2011, haha. 

I know this blog is already outdated , well, can't you see that I'm trying to catch up???

Well, the last day of 2010 in Melbourne was TERRIBLY HOT like sauna!!! 

My friend just wanted to keep going into the shade and shops with a/c.

Oh well, it's summer!!!

Queen Victoria market was on my friend's to visit list,

well, to help friend get stuff??!!! 

and get macademias??!! They said it's cheaper here??!!

oh well, having frequent Adelaide central market, 

this Queen victoria market does not really appeal to me

all I can said is that it's bigger, more stuff for sell ranging from cheap souvenirs to groceries to clothing to art

Melbourne City bath 

open to public

Lunch/snack?? at Brunetti, 

One of the famous Italian restaurant!!!

http://www.brunetti.com.au/OurHistory.aspx

It's located at the famous Lygon st,

where a crime scene happened 2-3 months before we went, haha.

Their food was so tempting!!!

2010_12_30 Melbourne Gaol and University of Melbourne Day 9

Back to the City

Although I have been to Melbourne twice or thrice 

Still there's quite a lot that I have not explore due to all my previous trips was short ones

The melbourne Gaol is one of the most famous tourist spot of Melbourne wining many awards...

so we thought we pay a visit

Second on the list is

The University of Melbourne

This University has earned its reputation on my list to visit due to its fast climb in the University rankings

In addition, there's a lot of good work/research done here that become probably the best university to study in Australia other than ANU

So the day was jam packed with walking, Walking and WAlking....

One of the attraction of Melbourne Central, that house a shopping mall and train station 

Wished I can bring that Clock back!!!

It look so elegant!!!

Our brunch

at a tibetan food restaurant

not bad, pretty nice

2010_12_29 Mt.Buller day 8

From sea to mountain

It's definitely good to have a change of views

Mt.Buller is the closest and the biggest skiing resort to Melbourne

and takes ~3hr to get up here.

During Winter season, it's a busy place due to its close proximity to the city

but it's a very quiet place outside winter

Most people came here for a quiet escape with family/mountain biking and hiking

The best of all, the accommodation prices is a far cry from the expensive prices during winter season which makes it a very affordable place to stay with such great view around you.

Of course most accommodation here cater for winter only as running them with so little visitors outside of winter is high. So only a few lodges are operating making the choices limited, luckily they don't charge rocket high prices.

Oh and it's a perfect place to escape the summer heat, it's so cool here, other than the UV, haha.

Some of the bigger lodges (no, we didn't stay here) with awesome view

Ski run stations and chairlifts

2010_12_27 Along the Great ocean road day 6

Another day to continue our GOR exploration

One of the "maybe 12 apostles??" (below) is one of the amazing rock feature along the GOR carve into a unique rock shape and a thin slice

You have to walk down the Gibsons step to the beach. From here if one continue walking along the coast, one will eventually get to the twelve Apostles, however, be warned to watch for the tide to avoid getting trap in between. 

2010_12_28 Along the Great ocean road day 7

OMG, so pai seh, this blog grow mushroom dy...

Not even sure if I remember much of the details or not, LOL!!!

A beautiful morning and a great lookout point near Lorne!!!

So many dandelions!!!

2010_12_26 Around Mt.Gambier and along the Great ocean road day 5

Woke up to a cloudy morning!!! 

And we had a good exploration of the old Mount Gambier gaol which is small but quite interesting!!!

This Gaol cum hostel is definitely one of the highlight of the our trip to Mt.Gambier!!!

The sinkhole and cave garden were the other highlights of Mt.Gambier!!! A garden in a sinkhole was certainly creative and unique!!! 

I was pretty happy that we made our way to Portland and to Cape bridgewater.

The big long stretch of beach was simply breathtaking!!! Wished we could stay longer, but the time was ticking, All the time we were racing with the clouds, trying always to stay a step ahead. The petrified forest was on the other hand so so, if no one said it's a petrified forest, I would have thought of them as weird rock or land formation, haha. I love Cape Nelson lighthouse too, haha, I guessed by now one can tell I'm a fan of Lighthouses!!!

There's many town to stop by on the Great ocean road, and my colleague has been bragging bout how she enjoyed Port Fairy, a quaint fishing town which was once a whaling port. So we visited this township though we kinda really didn't spend enough time there to perhaps appreciate the town much. But it's definitely a relaxing place and an ideal place to retire with your own yacht here. 

Warrnambool was just another bigger town where we stopped by for lunch and fuel. 

Pretty much from Warrnambool onwards, is where the Great Ocean Rd gets interesting!!! It's a long winding drive snaking along the coastline. We made our way all the way to Port Campbell and then camped at a caravan park in Princetown. 

Highlights??

Well, contrary to many beliefs and the great promotion, the twelve apostles was a bit disappointing. Maybe the sun light wasn't enough, but it was definitely not in its glorious days anymore. What you saw in most pictures and postcards were old pictures reprinted before more and more of the rock stacks collapsed. However, the Victorian tourism did a GREAT job in luring the crowds to come and see them!!! There were so many people and cars that evening we were there. I really wondered what was on their mind??!! 

Most people only join the tour or drive to see the twelve apostles and a bit around the area from Melbourne (~5hrs drive one way along the coast), which I reckoned is definitely great but the Great ocean rd has a lot more to offer than just the twelve apostles!!! Of course, you can't do it in a short time you are here unfortunately. 

However, we did saw a lot of other cooler attractions least promoted along the drive which my friend and I agreed is MUCH better than the twelve apostles!!! LOL. 

Among them are

Bays of islands, the Bay of Martyrs, the grotto and the London Bridge.

Don't miss these places if you visit the Great ocean road which are just a little bit further down than Port Campbell!!!

Oh, I must say that my pictures really don't justified well the beauty of the Great ocean rd as well as our JOY when we saw these spectacular coastline!!!

One of the smaller courtyard in the Mt.Gambier Gaol/hostel. At the far end is the entrance to a bigger courtyard which is used by the women.

The living room next to the little courtyard, free internet access which is just what we need to read the weather forecast. Here after dinner, I met a girl from Victoria?? and chat a long time...she was a bit of a troubled girl and her ex-bf in jail in Mt.Gambier.

Interestingly, here I learned tea can mean dinner too from her!!!

The GREAT preparation of 2010

The GREAT long road trip of 2010. 

Preparation and preparations before hand!!! 

Stay tune ^.^

TITANIC in Melbourne!!! 2010-10-13

 
Here on another mission again…

This time my mission finished way earlier than what i expected, so i have ample time till my flight back to Adelaide. Hence i walked around the CBD for some photo shooting, it’s a rainy day, something new for me, as i have not seen the busy Melbourne CBD in rain particularly in the morning where commuters were scurrying to their work place to avoid the rain.


It’s a foggy morning…without the right light, everything appeared dull, haha. Nothing really worthy of shooting.


Went back to the laneways famous for graffiti, in the overcast day, the colours of the graffiti stand up evenly and pretty well, hence a few shots :). Quite like the contrast of the pure white old scooter in front of the red demonic like graffiti of the shop, haha.

Melbourne!!! 2010/09/21-22 Day 2

 
An early overcast gloomy weather greeted me when i set out for my official mission. The place i’m heading to is just near this magnificient victorian style bluestone building, now the Victorian college for the deaf. Since i was at the place i’m supposed to visit WAY earlier than i thought, in the cold i went around to explore this building.


What a contrast!!!! haha


I wasted ~1-2 hrs waiting because… anyway, happy to see some faces on the same mission too. In fact one of them was from Adelaide too, haha.

Finally we got to wait inside the hall. It’s a pretty big hall with many rooms and kitchen, 2 living rooms. As seen on the far left pic, the hall was extended to accommodate more people.



After all the waiting, ….etc. I’m finally released, haha. I have been eyeing what to see along the way in the tram, so i decided to walk partially on the way back which is one of the best way to explore. And luckily i did!!! Saw this strange building with a big dome on top (left pic), which look attractive to me and thought it was some sort of administrative buildings because many of the victorian/edwardian/english buildings usually housed government work place or some sort of museum etc. However, it turned out to be a jewish church call a synagogue!!! I was quite surprised to find that, it’s the 1st time i came upon a jewish worship place!!!

Melbourne!!! 2010-09-21-22 day1

MY first official visit to Melbourne!!! Pass by this city twice before this but only got a glance. Of course, the first impression was that it’s a lot more alive than Adelaide, heaps more skyscrapers. The CBD is bigger too of course :) Though i really didn't knew that Melbourne was listed as one of the UNESCO city of literature!!! haha.

To a brand new city on my own was ALWAYS fun & exciting, I really like this kind of exploration like a backpacker though i’m here on an official mission. First off, to find my backpacker hostel from the Southern cross station, the interchanging hub of public transport in Melbourne.

On the way to the hostel, behind me was a splendid sunset. There’s many old Victorian style buildings among the many new modern buildings too. The old buildings looks really nice which kinda remind you that you are in a western country, while the newer buildings all comes with different architectural designs, afterall Melbourne is the art and festival city of Australia.

 
Along bourke st, the second busiest street in Melbourne CBD after Collins street, which is home to two major luxury department store – Myer and David Jones.

Great major mitchell plateau hike 2010.07.08-11

Woke up to a refreshing morning at Borough’s campsite in the Grampians after a long night of driving (reached at ~1-2am)!!! Had breakfast and enjoyed the surroundings, we had a bit of a hard time deciding the route we wanted to use – clockwise or anti-clockwise because of the weather. Luckily in the end we agreed on doing it clockwise which is what i pretty much wanted, haha because that way we get to be on the Mt.William summit (the highest in the Grampians) in a good weather, where as the followings days were predicted to be raining!!!!

 
Some of old remaining (pic on right).

 
The stream that ran behind the campsite which is good for refilling water (left pic).


Click for enlarge size!!!


We had to head down to Horsham because some people need to buy rain jacket and some food. Couldn’t do the trip without the proper gears because the weather on top of the plateau is very unpredictable and wind can be so strong that it can pose risk to anyone.


Finally we started off our ascent through this little path up to the Mt.Williams car park. So the plan was to do a grand loop trail which roughly involved 3 days of hike, up to Mt.Williams, than to the Major Mitchell Plateau, camp then continue hike down, camp , and then another hike  which is more or less flatter.

The Grampians (Gariwerd) 4D3N – the Fortress loop & Mt Thackeray 2010march5-8th

      
As if camping next to a road is not very ideal, try camping next to an operating railway line, LOL!!! Not too long after we all tried to get into some sleep, we suddenly realized we were actually camping not too far away from a railway line!!! The sound of the train crossing pass us was sounded as if the train was going to ran over us (worst for Alex because he camped nearest to the railway line) !!! Still, after a while, we got use to it and I think there was another one near dawn, haha.

Woke up the next day and continued our drive to the Grampians!!! The photo above captured the beauty of different colour and shape of tents just few minutes after we all woke up :)

The Grampians!!!! The famous escape for lots of Adelaidians & Melbournians because of its location in between South Australia and Victoria!!! Heard from my colleague before that it a nice place to visit especially when it’s green. Thanks to Alex again for I got the opportunity to to visit the Gariwerd (Aboriginal name for Grampians national park)!!! The NP span a big area across the western north of Victoria state and attracts heaps of campers, bush walkers and climbers each year for its renowned rugged beauty and spring wildflowers. Aboriginal people have lived in the area for thousands of years and it is one of the richest Indigenous rock art sites in south-eastern Australia.

Passed by Horsam for some stock up and then all the way down to Manja Shelter.

Note: The photos here are a mixed of Anton’s, Nick’s and my camera with majority theirs, lol. My camera died very early along the way and i left the new batt in the car, cry :(!!!! Luckily both Anton and Nick were so kind to lend me theirs for some irresistible shots!!!


Weather don’t seem seem to be on our side as forecasted!!! But luckily it didn’t rain!!!


Reached Manja Shelter and prepared ourselves.