Food in Melbourne (2)

Day 2
- Apollo Bay and Ballarat
Our breakfast at Apollo Bay. The grilled tomatoes were good.

We stopped by this town (forgot which one) on our way to Ballarat. I remembered we had pumpkin soup and toasted turkish bread with chicken.

This was where we had dinner at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat. Totally forgettable, the dinner and the 'spectacular sound and light show' - "Blood on the Southern Cross". Please skip this!

Day 3

- Bacchus Marsh and Phillip Island

We had brunch at this town - Garlic Prawns Rice and Salad.

We were the first customers of the day so the rice was piping hot. Very nice.

Our dinner at this restaurant in Cowes, Phillip Island before proceeding to the Penguin Parade.

We didn't order this -- too expensive!

We had seafood platter for two ($27).

Lots of birds (sea gulls?) hovering over the dining tables.

After penguin parade, we had supper at Harry's Restaurant (or something like that) along the Esplanade. S has spotted an advertisement on this restaurant on the Phillip Island map and apparently it has won some awards. But the food was not good. Our seafood risotto had prawns that were mushy and smelled bad. I returned the dish and the waitress scrowled. haha.

In place of the risotto, we ordered stewed beef. More palatable but nothing fantastic.

Food in Melbourne (1)

Day 0

We had just arrived in Melbourne and were a little disoriented, being in a new city and not sleeping much on the seven hour flight. Thankfully, when we arrived at around 10am at our hotel, we were allowed to check in. We completed the paperwork quickly, lugged up my bags and headed back into the cool air of the Melbourne streets.

I had wanted to find some nice restaurants to have a good main course but could not find any satisfactory ones. So we had vietnamese beef noodle soup or pho at a shop along Russell Street.
The soup was nice and hot with a tinge of sourness from the lemons. It tasted exceptionally good, possibly because we were very hungry. I would later return to this same shop before flying back to Singapore.

With some food in our stomachs and with more energy, we took a 20 min walk up to Lygon Street to look for the pastry shop Brunetti which my friend MK recommended.

Indeed, Brunetti was very impressive stocked with unbeliveable varieties of pastry, cakes, chocolate, sandwiches and a bistro. I had something called a lobster tail which was very good. The latte was $3.50 and comes in a small cup. A little too small for me.

Dinner was at a small joint along Swanston Street. We had seafood platter, entirely fried (forgot to take photos of the food). Very sinful first day.

Day 1
We were going to start our driving journeys today. After collecting the car, a Toyota Camry, from Hertz along Franklin Street, we went to the nearby Queen Victoria Market to pick up some fresh fruits and also some nuts for the next 5 days.

We bought strawberries, grapes (both green and red), peaches, passion fruits and a rock melon. We also bought honey roasted macademia nuts, cinnamon toasted cashew nuts, toasted almonds and some chocolate.

Here, we stopped by a small beach at Torquay to take a rest and enjoy the very fresh and sweet strawberries.

We spent the night at Apollo Bay.Our dinner was at the Great Ocean Road deli. The board in the photo lists the specials.

View of the main road in front of the deli.

We had a clam chowder and a special which was the Roasted Barramundi Fillet on a Mushroom Risotto with Rocket and mature Parmesan, drizzled wuth a Caper and Lemon Oil ($30). All specials came with a free glass of house wine.

Finding ourselves not satisfied, we ordered another special. This time it was the Sauteed Scallops and King Prawns with Cream, Basil and White Wine tossed with Linguini and topped with Rocket and Parmesan ($28).

That was a fine dinner.

The 12 Apostles, Great Ocean Road

The 12 Apostles, a cluster of limestone formation is THE reason to visit the Great Ocean Road, even though only 6 (or was it 7) of the formations still stand. It is a work of nature.

We woke up early at Apollo Bay for the drive to Port Campbell, where the 12 Apostles was located. The drive from Apollo Bay was not far, but we had a long day of driving from that point on to the Grampians onward to Ballarat.Morning in Apollo Bay.

Loading up our Camry which was parked right in front of our motel unit.

We arrived first at Gibson Steps which had er..steps for accessing the beach. Unfortunately, the Steps were closed for repair.

This was as far as I was allowed to venture down the Steps.

So we left Gibson Steps for The Twelve Apostles which were originally called The Sow and Piglets (!) according to wikipedia. The name was changed in the 1950s to the current one. Good move I must say. Try telling someone you are going to see the sow and her piglets.

There is now a well constructed visitor centre.

The boardwalk extends all the way to the cliff on the right side of the photo.

Well, at least now I can claim to have visited the famous 12 Apostles.

Click the video below for a 180 degrees view.

Ashcombe Maze, Mornington Peninsula

Welcome to Ashcombe Maze, the sign below reads and which is the

• The oldest & largest hedge maze in Australia
• More than 4000 lavender plants in our lavender labyrinth & display garden
• 1200+ fragrant roses in our Circular rose Maze
• 25 acres of beautiful woodland gardens
  

S in the Circular Rose Maze

I am in the centre of the Maze. Now, how do I get out...

Pond in the middle of the garden.

The lavender labyrinth.

Me and the hedge maze.

Video: Koala Conservation Center, Phillip Island

(Click to enlarge this photo of the signboard)

Phillip Island (Victoria) is a must-visit for any tourist to Melbourne. About 140km away from Melbourne, it is home to the world's smallest penguin and the Australians have built an attraction, The Penguin Parade, for animal lovers to observe the penguins in their natural habitat, doing what they do everyday -- coming home!

Penguin Parade

According to the center's guide, the penguins' nest are in the bushes on land (near the beach), but they hunt in the sea. After a day (or days) out at sea hunting in a group or as a 'raft', the penguins will return to their homes or land at dusk.

The interesting part comes now. When the penguins reach land, they do not immediately cross the beach and head back home. As we sat on the platform along the beach witnessing the spectacle, the penguins waddle to the edge where the stones nearest to the water edge stop. Then they wait. Only after 5-10 mins or more, when more of their friends maybe family has joined them, then they undertake the ardous task of theirs, waddling unsteadily, hurriedly, occasionally falling over and picking themselves out, to cross the 10m of beach to reach the safety accorded by the bushes. But it does not simply end there. Some whose homes are further inland, have to take another 20mins or so. It was really a most amazing sight, to see the penguins so close, sometimes less than a metre away.

Koala Conservation Center

Koalas are only found in Australia so we had to visit this attraction which we were (later) informed to house 30 or so of these mammals. In any case, we bought 3-in-1 tickets which included this attraction. So entering the sanctuary, we spent a hopeless first 20 mins hunting for koalas and they were no where to be found. The signs "Stay quiet and you will spot one" were merely sarcastic.

Then finally I spotted one, then two then the third one all in these positions. Quite difficult to spot, aren't they?

Then we met this grumpy looking koala that looks like an old man dressed in fur. He was not shy to see us, and kept on munching on his eucalyptus diet as we kept clicking the cameras away.
Click on the video below to see more of his breakfast moments.

Melbourne Itinerary (旅行日程)

My draft itinerary was reviewed many times by my good friends and Melbourne experts MK and Linda. Many thanks to them for their time and patience.

Day 1
Explore Melbourne City (墨尔本)






Day 2
Via Great Ocean Road (大洋路) to Apollo Bay (阿波罗湾)







Day 3
12 Apostles, Grampians (格兰屏山区) and Ballarat (Sovereign Hill 疏芬山)









Day 4
Phillip Island - Penguin Parade (企鹅岛自然生态保护区), Koala Conservation Center (树熊保育中心)







Day 5
Mornington - Ashcombe Maze (迷宫花园), Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm (阳光屋脊草莓农场)


Day 6-7
Melbourne City

On reflection, although my plan was to reduce the length of driving time (from our New Zealand holiday experience), I felt that we still spent too much time on the road and hence had less time to enjoy each town although I much say driving in our rented 2.0 litre Toyota Camry was quite enjoyable. Perhaps, like my badminton khaki Kim Hoo said, I should not have booked our accomodation in advance and therefore would not need to make sure that I reach the next destination on the allocated day.

Back from Melbourne Holidays

S and I have returned home from our week long holidays in Melbourne. Besides spending some 3-4 days in Melbourne city, we also drove around the Victoria state areas along the Great Ocean Road, saw the 12 Apostles, visited the national park Grampians, suffered through a draggy and touristry re-creation of a goldmine show in Ballarat, saw cute little penguins in Phillip Island and witnessed an uncharacteristically energetic koala munching on its eucalyptus leaves in the morning. Of course, and gaining a few kilos eating all that angmoh food and not being able to sweat it off in that cool, sometimes cold Melbourne autumn.

I will be sharing more photos of these attractions in subsequent posts but here we are at the 12 Apostles (十二使徒岩) and at Melbourne's Queen Victoria Market (维多利亚女皇市场).