Day 5: Philips Island

Finally the day to visit Philips Island.
This is a land of penguins or they called it noobies.
Btw noobies is a small little penguins that is ard the height of 0.8m I think.

Anyway to start off with the day, we booked a Day Tour with GO WEST again.
This time round our first destination of the tour is to go to a winery.
I think the purpose of this winery is to heat up our body before going to Philips Island.

Up next, a wildlife park along the way to Philips Island.

Look at the koalas and the kangeroos.

They are cute.

Also the wombats.

After which, we went for a helicopter ride.

This ride consists of an overview of Philips Island which looks small.

This is the first time that I and Reb took the helicopter.

Fun but I believe the helicopter view at the Great Ocean Road should be even more spectacular.

Btw this helicopter ride is not included in the tour package.

Enjoy the awesome scenery!!!!

The helicopter ride just took ard 10 mins and we are off to the Noobies Center.

Yes, we are at Philips Island finally!!!

We didn't manage to enter the Noobies Center as I and Reb went around to enjoy the breathtaking scenery and the wind is so powerful that it blows our hair in all sorts of directions.

Also, we even have difficulty walking since the wind opposes our direction.

Never did we experience anything like that before in our life.

After the Noobies Center, we are off to the Penguin Parade.

By paying an extra $11, we can even have an up-close moment with the penguins.

This means we will observe how the penguins come on shore and waddle back to their burrows.

They look so lost when they first come on shore.

However no photography is allowed but memories are erected in the back of our mind.

Okay That's all for Philips Island...........

Mel Day 4: Great Ocean Road

Finally the highlight of the trip -Great Ocean Road.

Basically this is just long winding roads along the coastline but the scenery over there is spectacular and awesome!!!

Together with all those rock formations but some of the rock formations have been destroyed.

Anyway this time round, we went for a Day Tour with GO WEST.

Their service is good and the tour guide James was entertaining too.

Some pictures when going round Melbourne to fetch other passengers.

At the Aboriginal Cultural Center.

See the boomerang and the long pipe.

The long pipe is their musical instrument.

A Bells Beach.

The scenery over here is breathtaking and you can even see surfers riding on the currents.

Had lunch at Apollo Bay.

The seafood over there is very fresh and delicious.

Simply worth the trip just to have their prawns and chips.

However no pictures is taken since we are rushing for time.

Finally, reaching the start of the Great Ocean Road.

See the signboard and also the treetop house.

The treetop house is worth millions but the location wise is so lousy.

Wonder why ppl will fork out money for that.

One of the beaches along the Great Ocean Road.
Isn't their beaches sparkling clean and the water is blue???
Wonder why our Sentosa beach is like that?


This is one of the programmes that I wish they could abandon.
Maits Nest Rainforest.
You simply walk thru' the forest and see those exotic trees.
The Koalas pictures are taken from other place, not in this forest.


The 12 Apostles.
From our view, it seems that 12 apostles isn't there anymore.
I think it left around 8 or so.
So if you intend to go Melbourne, must visit soon before all these natural formations are being destroyed.

Loch Arc Gorge

Actually supposed to have a picture of London Bridge but the camera bu zhen qi and goes flat.

And this sums up the trip of Great Ocean Road before we embark on a 3hr ride back to Melbourne City.

Certainly an eventful day with all the beautiful scenery.

Definitely a-not-to-be missed attraction in Melbourne.

Damage Done for this trip: lots of beautiful memories and $105aud gone.

Australia - Melbourne Day 1 - Day 3

Finally, got this blog starting. Just want this little space to be my memories of the things I had done since I had such a poor memory. First on my list, my aust trip with reb in July 2008.

Day 1:

Landed in Melbourne Airport on Qantas Airlines.
Took a cab to amy's place but the cab fare is so so expensive.

Imagine forking out $50aud for a 30mins ride.

Lesson learnt: Not to take cab in Melbourne

Reached amy's place at Swanston Street.

Her place is quite cosy as compared to the NTU hostel.

NTU should seriously consider building this kind of hostel, a small kitchen when you stepped into the house, a living room and toilets and rooms.

Up next, the famed Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne.

This place reminds me of a very big pasar malam as you can find any things you need from here. From groceries, to clothings, to soveniers.

You can even haggle the prices here.

Next, we went shopping at Melbourne central shopping center and sightseeing at the state library.

To conclude the first day, we had dinner at melissa place.

Reb had a wonderful time with Socks (the cat).

Day 2:

Reb wake up with the great anticipation of her life.

Essendon Direct Factory Outlet here we comes!!!
This place is basically a Takashimaya with all the boutiques inside.
And the interesting fact is the prices over here is dirt cheap.
Yes dirt cheap.
Unlike in Singapore whereby all the branded goods are throw inside a shop.
This place is a huge place for us to spend the whole day here.

Damage done to reb and me: Ard 4 tops for her and 3 Guess tops and 1 Puma shoe for me.

After the day shopping, we took train to have a a Vietnanese Food.

Food Delights!!!

More Pictures with the skiiny statue!!!

The fries at Nandos are unbelievably nice.

Can someone bring the franschise over to Singapore???

After that, we went over Mel uni to explore a bit and the sch itself is big but rather run-down.

Day 3:

The weather is not very good but still we decided to stick to plans to visit the Yarra River and the Federation Square.

Perhaps of the weather the Yarra River is not very nice and I think in a Mel trip, if you decide to give this a miss, it is perfectly alright.

After that, we went over to Federation Square and I would say the building is artistically done up.

And Chocolate Pizza.....

Is simply Delicious

Up next, brunch at a cafe known as MART.

If you haven't realise, when you spell MART backwards, you will get TRAM.

Interesting?

Why are the food so delicious????

After the brunch, we finally visit the botantic garden and the shrine of remembrance in Mel.

The structures are so beautifully crafted and thsi really makes me wonder there isn't there any interesting building in Singapore?

Btw Shrine of remembrance is to mark a sign of respects to those soldiers who died in the WW2.

Meet up with charles and derrick after the botanic garden outing at Rose Garden.

The food over there is just average and I seriously don't think that it is a good place for meet up.

Anyway off to Crown Casino after dinner.

The gals went to play jackpot while I went to play CASINO WARS.

That night, lady luck is shining on me and I managed to win ard $100 aud despite starting with just $10aud.

After which, we went over to Derrick place for a drink and this concludes the day.

Highlight of the trip coming soon.............