Canberra, Australia Trip (Day 8)

23rd Feb 2019, Saturday

Last day of holidays....my dad gave us a morning call today and got us up for breakfast. By the time my sis and mi went down for breakfast (included in hotel stay), my dad and step mum were already downstairs eating. So we took our time to have our breakfast there. After breakfast, we went back to the room to watch TV first as it was still early to leave. We checked out the hotel around 9.30 am and my dad decided to head down to the airport (but the flight was around 1 plus) in case there was heavy traffic. Luckily, the car's GPS was able to route us correctly to the airport this time, so we did arrived at the airport earlier than expected. So we parked the car in the allocated lot and went to the rental car office to return the car (Finally off-work as navigator).

Hot Chocolate & Mee

After that, we went ahead to check-in our flight and luggage. Then there was nothing for us to do except to wait in the airport. We waited for around half an hour before we went in to the boarding gates. There was only one shop and three restaurants around, my dad said he was hungry and wanted to eat Thai food there. So we ordered some dishes to share while waiting for boarding. It was quite boring wait there, so i went ahead playing my pokemon go game (need to park pokemons in gyms). We boarded the plane to fly to Melbourne and it was about a hour plus journey.

Once we touched down at Melbourne airport, we had to run to the international airport and we had to pass the customs and security checks. My dad kept on chasing us to walk quickly, if not, the plane would fly off. We did managed to reach the gate without having the leisure time to shop around. But we did managed to grab two big bags of Nougats as the shop was just beside our boarding gate. There was a slight delay in boarding the plane and there were quite a lot of empty seats around. So mi and my sister went ahead to sit at those empty seats after the plane took off. We landed back Singapore safe and sound....and our family adventures ended with some good memories...^_^

Places visited:
Canberra Airport

Hotel Stayed:
The Canberra Rex Hotel
(Car park free)

Last Day in Melbourne, Melbourne Trip (Day 15)

29th March 2016, Tuesday


Woke up @ 7 plus today and prepared to check out of the hotel. I pulled my luggage down to the lobby and left my luggage in the hotel storage room. Then i walked towards the nearby post office but it was not open yet. So i walked to Queen Victoria Market. This time round, the stall owners are getting ready to sell their stuffs. There were a lot of things that you can buy to give as souvenirs and they were selling quite cheap, as compared to the shops outside. There was a section selling fresh veggies and a section selling all kinds of meat and seafood. All the meats looks soo red and fresh and the seafood also big in size and fresh too. They even sell kangaroo and rabbit meats there.

Fresh fruits

Meats for Sale

Red Meat

I spent my morning walking around the market and saw a van selling US doughnuts (small small ones). It was nice and very sweet...hohoho....the inside was added with jam too. There was a small corner where kids can sit there and play and there was even a story telling session. Bought a few more items to bring home, then i walked back to the post office and finally posted my 2 leftover postcards. After which, i walked slowly to find a nice place for my last lunch there. I came upon a restaurant named Errols, which i ordered a seafood risotto and a hot chocolate. I still prefer the hot chocolate drinks that i had in Tasmania and Hot Poppy.

Seafood Risotto

Anyway i just sat there until it is time to go back to the hotel to pick up my luggage. I packed the items in the luggage and waited there for the skybus transfer bus to come pick me up. I was thinking what am i going to do with my can of coke. In the end, i put inside the hotel's fridge and leave it there..hohoho....Then the bus arrived and it was time to go to the airport. I arrived in Southern Cross Station first before transferring to the bigger bus to the airport. I reached the airport @ around 2 plus, which was still early for my check-in. There were only a few shops (maybe 3) to walk around while passing the time.  The check-in counters were opened at around 4 plus, so i finally did my check-in and proceeded to the gate.

Fried Calamari

Luckily there were more shops inside and places to sit to watch tv. So i just sat at one of the sitting areas and watched TV to pass time. Bought a plate of calamari to eat too, to kill time and had my last snack in Melbourne...hohohooo....Then i walked to the gate to get ready for boarding which flew off back to Singapore...I got the whole row to myself on the plane, chiong to watch 4 movies again before touched down. I reached Singapore Changi Airport @ 11.50 pm, where my dad and sister came to pick me up. Can feel the heat once i touched down..... :(

And this ended my Australia trip.

Melbourne City Walk, Melbourne Trip (Day 13)

27th March 2016, Sunday

Coffee beans from Merlo

Woke up around 7 plus today and it is Easter.  It is still holiday mood in Melbourne, wanted to go visit the yearly Easter event but the hotel staff told me that the place is quite far away from Melbourne. So i just headed out to the nearest free tram bus stop, which is located at Queen Victoria Market. When i reached there, the market was not fully opened. Went in a coffee shop as it was having a nice coffee smell and bought 2 cans of special coffee beans there (my friend said they were nice after i gave her....).  Later, walked back to the tram bus stop and was trying to figure which side i should take to Flinders' Railway...hohoho...so I just missed the first tram.

Flinders' Railway

Breakfast

St Paul's Cathedral Church

I managed to get on the correct tram and travelled down to Flinders' Railway station. I just walked on the outside to view the exterior as it will require a valid ticket to go inside. Noticed there were a lot of people sleeping outside the stations too. Then i walked towards McDonald's (Macca) to have breakfast and ordered a sausage muffin's meal but i find the beef taste is too strong. They are having all day breakfast service too. After breakfast, i went opposite the street to St Paul's Cathedral church. It was quite small and it requires a photography pass (which costs $5) for visitors if you want to take photographs of the church's interior. After walking for some time, i went off to take the tram to Harbour Esplanade. The tram took a quite a while to arrive and it's free as long as it is within zone 1.

I arrived in harbour town and walked around the place. There were many branded shops there and it also had a big Ferris wheel. Quite a good place for shopping lovers, then i walked out to the dockside and there was a Sunday market. Not many stalls around, saw an Easter bunny giving sweets to the kids running around. I also noticed many people wearing football jerseys walking towards to Etihad Stadium too. All of them were soooo excited to their coming match for the day. After lunch there, i took the free tram back to Crown Melbourne. The casino was very big and grand, there were a lot of tables and jackpot machines. Spent at least 2 hours exploring the casino and got $10 free of credit to try my luck on the tables and jackpot machines. Saw many groups of china or hong kongers playing at the tables too. There was one table playing banker and player, it was crowded and everyone was so excited on the table too. In the end, i only won $0.10 out of it. The redeem machine also rejected my wining voucher....hahaha...It got jammed inside the machine and i had to get one of the staffs to help to remove the voucher.

After playing in the casino, i walked out to the streets and i realized there were many people walking. I just walked back to Flinders Street and onto Swatons Street, peeking at the souvenirs shops along the way. There was also some performances on the streets for Melbourne International Comedy Festival along the streets i walked past. I even walked to Chinatown and tried to look for a famous Vietnam restaurant named Mekong Vietnam (highly recommended by my colleagues).  As it was still early for dinner, i went exploring in the Chinatown but didn't find interesting things. However, there were a lot of Chinese restaurants. I went back to Mekong Vietnam and ordered a prawn pop piah and a bowl of chicken pho. The food was nice, having the authentic taste of Vietnam. After dinner, i just walked to Woolworths supermarket to buy more tim tam biscuits and took the tram back to the hotel. Ended up reaching back the hotel around 5 plus to rest....super early...hohohoho.....

Hotel Stayed:
Miami Hotel Melbourne

Last Day in Tasmania, Tasmania Trip (Day 12)

26th March 2016, Saturday

Raining again when we woke up. My friend helped to prepare breakfast for us, then we all packed our luggage and loaded them up to the car. Then we drove out to buy some breads as it was a long long way back to Hobart Airport (about 4 hours plus ride). Quite sad, it was the last day in Tasmania. We passed by a few smaller towns and many mountains and fields along the way. We also passed by many creeks and each of them has a name to it. We also saw a wild wormbat along the roadside when we passed by burney lake. After 2 hours plus, we stopped by a power station at nive river for toilet break. My friend's husband was "chasing" her to get off the car quickly as he wanted to go to the toilet urgently...kekkekee....After 5 mins break, we continued on the road again until we reached  Bascilla Bay Oysters for lunch.

Fish & Chips

Seafood Platter

This time, we ordered a big seafood platter and a fish & chips to share (our last Tasmania lunch)..hohoho....After the nice lunch, we drove to the petrol station near the airport to fill up the oil tank and headed to the rental car park near the airport. We reached the airport at around 1 plus, which was still early for our check-in. So we just find some seats to sit around the airport, the airport was very small too. I noticed that the luggage trolley requires to pay for it too. We were thinking whether to check-in through Qantas counters or Jetstar counters for our flights as we booked through Qantas website, however, the flight stated was Jetstar plane. By 2.30 pm, there was no flight number displayed for check-in whereas Jetstar counters were opened for check-in. However, there were a couple of passengers who went to Qantas counters and were successfully checked in. So we walked towards Qantas counter and checked with the staff where we should do the check-in. She told us to go over to check-in with Jetstar counters as it was a Jetstar plane.

So we went over to Jetstar counters and we decided to check-in separately as i will be stopping for another 3 days in Melbourne whereas my friends will be flying back to Singapore. My friends went ahead to check in first and my friends were asking them if Jetstar can help them to transfer their luggage to the flight to Singapore when they land in Melbourne for stopover as they only have a 50 minutes stopover grace period. (It's a bit troublesome to do a transfer in Melbourne as it requires passengers to check out, including passing the customs from the domestic terminal and cross over to the international terminal and check in again, including passing the customs). The staff took a look at their fight route and told them the 2nd flight was Qantas flight, therefore will require to check with Qantas staff whether it is possible. He came back and told my friend that he will need to direct them to his colleague on this. So while waiting, he did my check-in. I was able to get mine done quickly as mine was just flying to Melbourne.

Later, the other Jetstar staff told my friends that they cannot help them as the 2nd flight was under Qantas. Then we went over to Qantas counter to see whether the staff can help them. The staff also told them she cannot do anything and asked them to call their customer hotline instead. (Quite frustrating when they tell you to call their hotline instead of helping passengers to resolve the problem on ground). Oh well, so we tried to call Qantas hotline (Australia) but it was on hold for long long time. Meanwhile, my friend tried to call the customer hotline (Singapore) using her own phone. Luckily, someone picked up her call in Singapore and tried to help her out. However, the call was also put on hold for more than 15 minutes while she did the check. And the check-in counters for Jetstar were closing in another 20 minutes and I had to go in to the gate soon too. We gave up waiting for the Australia side to pick up our call.

Flight to Melbourne

In the end, I went ahead to proceed to the gate and they had to wait outside still as the customer service staff (SG) told them not to check in first. I managed to meet them again at the gate when it was boarding time. Then I was told that the customer service staff (SG) had helped them to book an accommodation in Melbourne for the night as the first flight out to Singapore will be the next day. And so we boarded the plane but were seated separately. I was seated with another young lady who was alone. There was a couple with a baby seated on the next row beside us and the baby screamed from volume level 1 to 8 to show his displease. The dad had to use his ipad to keep the baby entertained. Wondered why the flight back to Melbourne was not Qantas Link, at least we will have free snacks on plane... -_-?

I moved to the back seat after the plane was on the air and i got the whole row to myself. But there was nothing to do except to sleep or watch the clouds. We landed in Melbourne airport @ 6.30 pm and we went through the customs and waited for our luggage. And I also missed the 6.30 city bus out to the city too. After everything settled, I bid bye bye to my friends and went to take the city bus to Southern Cross station. It took 20 to 25 minutest to the station and I bought dinner to eat in the hotel too. It was rainy heavily too, so i took a cab to the hotel. But the driver didn't know the hotel's location, so i gave him the address which he keyed into his GPS.

Double bed

Single Bed

When we passed the hotel on the opposite side, i told him that that's the hotel i was going to. However, he just said ya and he turned to the left side which he stopped to let me off. I told him it was not the hotel is located. He said this is where his GPS's end point is. I still told him we just passed the hotel on the other street. He still insisted it is the correct place... -_-"... Pek chey!
Anyway he still drove out to the street that we passed earlier and finally, he saw the hotel and said "ooo..it's here.." I paid him the fare ($10) and took my luggage to check-in the hotel. I was thrilled when the staff told me i got a free room upgrade. After settling all the check-in stuffs, i carried my luggage up to my room, which was on the 2nd level. So happy....my day finally ended!!! Seems like a long day today. My friends also checked in to their hotel safely and had a very nice dinner from the hotel room service. I only had Hungry Jack meal as my dinner...hohohoo....

Hotel Stayed:
Miami Hotel Melbourne

Great Ocean Road, Melbourne Trip (Day 14)

28th March 2016, Monday

Sandwich

Nice Hot Chocolate

Woke up @ 7.30 am today and took my time to prepare as the tour to Great Ocean Road is 11.00 am. Still left hotel early, thinking to go Queen Victoria Market for breakfast. However, it is not opened for the day...Then i walked back to somewhere near the hotel area, saw 2 cafes side by side. One was having more customers than the other, so i settled for the one having more customers. The cafe name is Hot Poppy. I ordered a hot chocolate and a sandwich for breakfast. The food was nice but the portion was big for me. Anyway i just asked to pack up my other half of the sandwich and went back to the hotel for the tour bus to come pick-up. The bus came @ around 10.50 am and went off picking up the rest of the people at the tour office, which we waited for about 15 minutes or so.

Then we drove off and started our road trip. Our driver is our tour guide too, and he gave us a list of 5 items to choose for our lunch. In the group, there is 2 ladies from US and a guy together, a family of 4, a china couple, a old couple and one Spanish guy and 3 Japanese guys. The mum from the family of 4 was quite nagging, nagging on everything and on the son too. As it was a long long ride, we stopped by Angelsea for a short toilet break before we continued the route.

The Great Ocean Road is a 244km road built by the returned soldiers from WWI as a permanent memorial to those who died in the war and it goes along the coast of the ocean. The soldiers had built it by using just simple tools like shovels and dynamites and with their bare hands. After 3 hours or so, we reached the start of Great Ocean Road which had a memorial arch built. The driver let us off to take some photos there too. After that, we drove off again. The bus driver told us there was a big fire on Christmas Day in 2015 when we passed by a town named Lorne. The fire caused so much damage (many homes were lost) until that the Great Ocean Road had to be closed down for the town to repair. This cost the Australian Tourism Board to lose millions of dollars (as reported in the news).

Chicken Burger

Parrot

Sleeping Koala

The bus driver let us off somewhere along the road for photo-taking on the ocean. Then we set off to have our lunch in Kennett River, in a small cafe called Kafe Koala. We all sat down on separate tables and waited for our lunch (giant burgers....hohoho). After lunch, we were free to roam to the nearby to look for koala bears in the trees. Managed to see 2 sleeping koala bears on the trees and there were many wild parrots too. Everyone was trying to get a nice photo with the parrots and koala bears. There was a outdoor camp located there too. Later, we drove off and continued on the ocean road, which we passed by Apollo Bay and stopped at Maits Rest Rainforest. The bus driver was telling us to go ahead and tried the 30 minutes circuit walk as there were many nature to see inside.
So some of us went ahead to walk while some stayed near the bus. Of course, i went ahead on the trail.

After the trail, we continued on the road again and we finally reached the 12 Apostles (it was like around 4 plus). Once we alighted, there were a lot of people there and a long queue was formed for the toilets too. There was helicopter service too, to see the 12 Apostles from above the sky. I just went ahead to walk to the Apostles lookout and take photos (So many people...-_-"). However, the location did not show the total 12 Apostles, only can see 4 or 5 of them. Then I walked towards the bench area using a long walk trail which leads to Gibsons Steps. When i reached there, the bus driver had stopped by to drop the old couple there. He informed that he will come back and pick us up at a later time and said need to go down to beach to have a look. So i went ahead, climbing down the Gibsons Steps....very tiring to climb up and down on it.

Few of 12 Apostles

Path to Gibons Steps

Gibons Steps

The wind were very strong and can even feel the sea water "flying" in the air. So i just stood there to feel the wind for some time. Not able to see the sunset too as it was too cloudy!! Then i took my time to climb up the steps and waited at the car park for the bus to come. While waiting, i saw the china couple trying to take a jump shot. The gal was fussing about the jump shot was not taken good enough and going to cry out. Then the guy told her to jump another time to take for a 2nd shot. And they really did to take 2nd shot...hahaa). The bus came at around 7.30 pm and the sky was getting dark. Then we were on the road back to Melbourne, at one point, the driver told us there was a bunch of kangaroos behind the bushes. So he stopped the bus and went down, think he whispered to get the kangaroos' attention. I didn't went down as i was getting tired, heard from the rest of them, they did saw the kangaroos.

Red Roaster as dinner

Then the bus driver continued on the road back and it was a long journey too. The bus driver was driving very fast too. He stopped by a town which was having some fast food restaurants to let us go for a half an hour dinner. I went for Red Rooster for dinner (think i had it during my Perth trip too). After dinner, it was a continuous ride back to the individual hotels, with mine the last 2nd in the list.
I reached back the hotel @ almost 11 plus and i packed my stuffs for return flight to Singapore tomorrow...(Holidays ending...)

Hotel Stayed:
Miami Hotel Melbourne