more Melbourne moments: Great Ocean Road

this should be my last batch of Melbourne trip-related photos. all that i have posted here were taken with my iPhone. the rest which were taken by the digital camera are in the other laptop, and i suspect they will not see the light of facebook or here. because i am too lazy to want to do it. :D

typical Aussie motto: recycle ALL the things!! old fishing line included. this bin was found near a pier. 

the first kangaroo we saw. it was a relatively small-sized one, as were all the ones we saw.. i wonder where the huge ones were. in the zoo perhaps.

 

the emu looks camouflaged eh? :)

i found the candor of this sign amusing, hilarious even. hehe... 

taken at the Twelve Apostles.

at Lorne, one of our many many many stops. :) the grass was so green and inviting, so i tried rolling on it. but erm it wasn't as easy as i thought it would be. not as fun either. so i stopped very soon after i started. :D 

baby acorn. i think.

at port fairy. sigh. i'm missing GOR all over again.

this is a direction marker for hikers. it was a circular route and at the starting point, you can choose to go from left or right. these markers are found along the way to guide you. 

i took this pic because i find the "face" amusing (yes, i'm easily amused). it reminds me of the Easter Island head statues.

this is another amusing photo. it's like "suddenly, mountain!" 

i think this is the first photo of us from that trip that i posted here. there were very few of such photos, primarily cos the husband detests having his photos taken (-_-") this was taken atop the lighthouse at Aireys Inlet. we paid AUD12/pax for a 30-min guided tour. i think it was pricey, for what the tour was worth. gorgeous view of the ocean though. :)

since he doesn't like to pose for the camera, i have to resort to taking his photos without his knowledge. win-win for the two of us. :) 

this was back in town, at the botanical garden. sorry for digressing from the post title.

i love what autumn does to trees. bereft of leaves, what's left of a tree is a sight to behold. :D

this could have been my favourite photo of myself, had i not "lost" my left arm. i love that striped top (from Esprit), and when i bought it, i knew i was gonna wear it specifically during this stretch of the trip. hehe. this was taken at Port Campbell, our lunch stop for the day after spending a couple of good hours at the 12 Apostles. 

it wasn't always the coastline allll the way along the GOR, sometimes we were greeted by longgggg stretches of grazing fields. Aussie farm animals must be the happiest of the lot. so much space for them to roam about. 

sheep! they are so cute! i giggle every time we drove past them. tee hee.

baa~ baa~ white sheep, have you any wool?

yes sir, yes sir, many bags full!

psalm 23, naturally. :D

the Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

he makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul.

he guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

even though I walk through the darkest valley, 

I will fear no evil, for you are with me;

your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

you prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

a bronze statue of a shearer and his sheep, right in Melbourne airport. this was the last photo i took before we flew home........ awwwwww, i miss Melbie so muchie! rarely does a city so this to me. so to end this series of picture, i would like quote a famous Austrian-accented cyborg: 

I'll be back! 

miscellaneous Melbourne moments

the capricious Melbourne weather, the week we were flying in. thank God it was sunny for most days ^^

saw this on the wall of the airport when we touched down. i wonder if anyone could use this, or only trained professional. i hope no one would have to use it though.

we took the Skybus from the airport to the city. it's a non-stop shuttle that ends at Southern Cross station. AUD17/trip is quite steep methinks. for two of us, it's comes out to be only slightly cheaper than taking a cab straight from the airport. 

the tourist shuttle is one of the best things for tourists in the city. it's regular (there's a bus every 30mins), the driver also acts as a tour guide (there's also the pre-recorded tracks), and it stops at every major tourist attraction in town, making it very convenient. definitely a must-take for 1st time tourists like us! :)

i've no idea what the greatest show on earth is. was just struck by how striking this mosaic piece is on that gray wall.

this shop is full of Matryoshka dolls. my mom has been wanting a set so i went in and checked for the price. they were going for about AUD120+ per set. too pricey for my pockets, but still nice to look at. :)

street art, literally. that's a fish he was painting. reminds me of the street calligraphy by Chinese men in China. 

somewhere over. my phone was not able to capture it, but this was a complete half arch, over River Yarra. we were walking home from town. nicee.

i read in the papers that elizabeth hurley was visiting her Australian fiance the same week we were there, and she visited this exhibition on Napoleon at the National Gallery of Victoria, with her son. we pass by the gallery each time we walk home from town.

here comes the tram. we took it once, to town. it was quite pricey (about AUD4/ride)(but there was a 2-hr ticket for around AUD8, which is still expensive)(thankfully, i had Adrian's monthly pass and rode this for free)

Queen Victoria Market has everything, from food to clothes to souvenirs. i was enthralled by the food selection, from the freshest of meat cuts and fish and vegetable and fruits to dried foodstuff like salami and cheeses and what-have-you-not. it was here at QVM that i decided that i HAVE TO move to Melbourne. hehehe.

why anyone would become a vegetarian is beyond me. the eyes of the cave woman in me practically lit up at the sight of this. om nom nom.

get free parking at QVM before 9am.

the Yongs' abode at 88 park street south melbourne. i had this memorised by heart, cos it was the starting point of all my google map searches. :)

it wasn't the butler.

i love whodunits. i like page turners and detective stories excel at that: making you stay up all night just so you can find out who bumped who and what and why and how. Agatha Christie must be the queen who ruled over 'em mystery novels (she's said to be the best selling novelist in the world). her books gave me one of my fondest memory of being a librarian in Form 6, getting my hands on the entire series of AC's books available in the library.

anyways, anyways, anyways... guess what we chanced upon that first afternoon in Melbourne, as we were somewhat lost while looking for a Vietnamese restaurant? the Comedy Theater, that's what! and guess what was their next show? Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, that's what!! haha! my heart leaped outta my rib cage and did a little dance, right there on Exhibition Street, while I just stood there, not believing my fortune. i've read about this play before, as it has the "longest initial run of any play in history, with over 24,500 performances so far"" (wiki) and never thought that i'd be able to catch it this side of the globe :). as I walked closer to the theater to make out the show dates on the banner, I prayed that I would still be around in Melbourne to catch it.

and I was!

the show was scheduled to open on the Thursday of that week, the day after our trip back from the Great Ocean Road. do i need to tell you how excited i was? tra la la.. anyways, that night i went online to check out the tickets, and goodness, there were only two price tiers: AUD75 and AUD85. that's RM248 and RM280. and there weren't even that many seats left. i was kinda torn, cos that's A LOT OF MAH-NEH, so I spent a good half an hour rationalizing it. happily, the darling husband gave the green light to get the tix. whee! tried purchasing the tix with my mastercard but the transaction was rejected (could it be that i can't use a Msian card to make purchase from an Aussie computer?) so i ended up using cassie's card instead and paid her back in cash. it ended up costing me AUD82, incl of processing fee. ouchie!

thankfully, the show was good. it was a solid performance by the cast. at one point, although not very confidently, i could kinda guess who the murderer was (after reading too many of her books, you pick up on things like this) but it still made for a nice twist. at the end of the play after all the actors take their bow, one of them would request that the audience do not reveal the identity of the killer to anyone outside the theatre, so that future audiences would still be able to enjoy the twist.

passing by the theater on the tourist shuttle bus the day after the performance.

uncle adrian and the hubby dropped me across the street from the theater. seen here are people who were milling about waiting for the show to start.

the online ticket. i should have opted to collect the ticket from the box office - i would have loved to keep the stub, instead of this self-printed copy. ah well.

the moon was humongous that night! i thought it was an Aussie thing haha.. but the moon also appeared to be about the same size when we got back to Msia. it was the time of the month i guess. :D

the souvenir booklet cost AUD20 which i couldn't afford. so i brought back the promotional leaflet instead. heheh..

driving miss crazy

the best part about our Melbourne trip, for me, was the driving experience. that fact is indisputable, i wouldn't give it a second thought, hands down everyone, and i'll say it again: driving along the Great Ocean Road (and then some) tops my list of best vacay moments. and i would fly back all the way to Melbourne just to do it again. have i convinced you enough just how much i love.. okay, i'm sure you get the idea by now. :D

i was behind the wheel for about 400+km (basically from Geelong all the way to Halls Gap at Grampians National Park)(see map below)(we did the whole red line journey, also known as the Great Southern Touring Route), and the joy of being behind the wheel for the entire was indescribable. i was already gushing about how happy i was even when we were still on the road. hehehe..

for more about the car rental, check out my earlier post. all together, we spent about AUD600 (apprx RM2,000) for this whole journey, including food, accom, and car rental. if we could stay the extra night at the Grampians (which i would totally do the next time), I guess it would cost around AUD700 (apprx RM2,300) for two pax for a 4D3N trip. this figure is for budget travel (it could go slightly lower, if you stay in a hostel)(this cost also assumes that you eat out only once a day, and cook the rest of your meals).

blue sky, blue sky everywhere.

the weather was gorgeous for most part, thank God! :) the sun was out every day, and the temperature was between high13-low6, which was just loverly. we didn't have to switch on the aircond, which saved us quite a bit in petrol money. i gather Sept would be the best time to go, because Spring would have just begun and the weather gorgeous, and there won't be the Summer crowd to annoy or distract you -- we practically had the road to ourselves for most part of the journey. :)

most stretches of the roads were sheer pleasure to drive. the roads are in good conditions, with hardly any potholes, coupled breathtaking scenery outside the windows that seamlessly change from trees and shrubs to vast grazing land and then miles and miles of shoreline. love it! 

me at the wheels B-)

this wasn't on a main road. we had taken a detour into Tower Hill Reserve (about 10mins from Warnambool town), a supposedly dormant volcano. we parked and hiked up the hill (needless to say, we were rewarded with a gorgeous view of the surrounding area -- see below). here we also saw our first kangaroo here, and some emus too. :)

atop Tower Hill Reserve.

leaving Port Campbell, with the sea behind us. 

it had just rained, and we were making our way up to Beroka Lookout Point at Grampians for a view of the valley. unfortunately, a heavy fog caused poor visibility and we could hardly make anything out. boo. the rain also thwarted our plan to hike up to the Pinnacle, and we were caught in about 10 minutes of it, which left us drenched and freezing.. thank God for the heater in the car :)

it was 6 degree outside the car, after the rain. the wind made it feel like it was zero degree, but we braved the cold and was outside chatting with a pair of old couple who was spending their week at the Grampians. the man said that every year, they load up their caravan with food and wine to last them a week, and they just spend their days there. i want to do the same when i retire!!

it gets dark quickly. by this time i had return the control of the wheels back to the husband, who is a much safer driver at night hehe. good thing too, cos there were at least three times that some kangaroos decided to dash across the road at that hour. there was even a pair of mother-kid hopping from the left to the right side of the road, prompting the age old riddle we all know so well: why did the kangaroos cross the road? :P

this was probably taken around 6pm at Ararat (hello, Noah :D)  

took this pic just before we returned it. i had half a mind to drive around the block just so the meter would stop at 888.8 :D