After that we went to Hui Ping’s house for lunch, Hui Ping & Andreas were preparing lunch for us. Andreas really is a good cook where I miss the grill lamb chop.. yummy yummy.. We went to Mentone Beach for a short walk after lunch, then went back to Hui Ping’ house for high tea. really nice….

Here we finished our Melbourne trip & heading to Perth.

We departed from the Agency sharp at 6:30am. Again, impressed with the punctuality of Australian, there were 5 person been left behind as they didn’t turn up on time. . It was a long journey, I think about 4 hours from Melbourne City. Actually I was expect to experience the snowing as it was Winter. However, as you can see from the photo, No snowing that day. .  Since this is only a day tour, hence, we were not be able to attend the skiing session because the skiing session took around 2 hours for the training. Anyway, I know I will have chance to go for skiing some other time. 

We arrived around 10am & collect our boot @ the counter. Then, we jump on a chairlift & take a quick trip to the top. This chairlift is appropriate if you feel like taking in the views from the top of Mt Buller but don’t feel like exerting much energy to get there. The Horse Hill Chairlift departs from the carpark at Horse Hill and travels across some of the Resort’s northern slops to Spurs Restaurant.

We took the chairlift to the intermediate station & spend for about 2 hours there before we came down for lunch.

The moment we step on the snow. *_*

Again, aunty had prepared delicious lunch for us as well ~ some sandwiches & fruit.

After lunch, we took a shuttle bus to the Hose Hill carpark & took chairlift approach Spurs Restaurant Station. We left Mt Buller @ 4pm & got back to Melbourne City around 8pm. As we reached earlier, thus we spend some time shopping @ the Coles Supermarket.

May’s Wedding story should started on 22 Aug 2008 where Pre-Wedding Party was held @ Aunty House, 23 Aug 2008 ~ Wedding Day & 24 Aug 2008 was the Open Present Day where we were invited to Daniels house for hi tea.

On 22 Aug 2008, all of us woke up early in the morning to help aunty to prepare kueh (Malaysian Style) as well as Curry Puff for hi tea in the afternoon. This is the first time i did the curry puff & cai kueh. wow… is interesting actually.

Don’t ask me why I’m not in the photo.. because I’m the photographer.    ..

The hi tea session started around 3pm. May’s parent-in-law family were invited to aunty’s house.

Chinese tea-ceremony was held that day as well. They were very excited about the tea ceremony as this is the first time they experience it. For chinese culture, only elders will give red packet (we call it ang pow) to the bride & the bridegroom. But, I think they were confuse about the rules, thus, everyone gave the red packet to the couple. 

Next day ~ 23 Aug 2008 which is a memorable day for May & Daniel. We all woke up early in the morning because my sis & me need to get ourselves ready and also did some makeup for mum & aunty.

Here I dress up in Pink with Red coat. 

After that we went to the Montsalvat where May & Daniel had their ROM & legally as husband and wife here.

~ Congratulations May & Daniel ~

Then we went home to rest & went for wedding dinner @ 6pm. The wedding dinner was held @ Wattle Park. This is my first time attending western wedding ceremony, it was a great experience for me and I really impress with the punctuality of Australian (I don’t think Malaysian can do that). We had western dinner (we allowed to choose main course from the menu) and then had dancing session. Now only I realized May is really a great dancer. Even my parents join the dancing session as well. All of us were enjoying the night.

A song to share with you guys.

In the town where I was born
Lived a man who saled to sea
And he told us of his life
In the land of submarines

So we sailed up to the sun
Till we found the sea of green
And we lived beneath the waves
In out yellow submarine

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

And our friends are all on board
Many more of them live next door
And the band begins to play

We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine
We all live in our yellow submarine,
Yellow submarine, yellow submarine

As we live a life of ease
Everyone of us has all we need
Sky of blue and sea of green
In our yellow submarine.

We were invited to Daniel’s house on 24 Aug 2008 for hi tea session & witness May & Daniel opening present session

May & Daniel went to honeymoon the next day. hehe.. Don’t know when we will meet again. Miss them so much.

We spend few hours strolling through the Market & we had our lunch here as well before we proceed to the next stop ~ Melbourne Aquarium.

We arrived @ Aquarium around 1pm which located @ the central of Melbourne on the banks of the Yarra River beside the Flinders Street Viaduct and the King Street Bridge.This building is actually resemble as ship moored on the river.

There is a ‘oceanarium in the round’ located @ the center of the Aquarium where the spectators become the spectacle to the marine life swimming around them.

Summary

Melbourne Aquarium

Opening Hours :

• 9:30 – 18:00 (Last Entry : 17:00)
• 9:00 – 21:00 (Last Entry :  20:00)  ~ 1 – 26 Jan
  

Admission :

• Adult : AUD 31.50
• Child (3- 15 years) : AUD 18.00
• Concession: AUD 19.50
• Family (2 Adults & up to 2 Children) : AUD 85.00
• Single Family (1 Adults & up to 2 Children) : AUD 60.00
  
• Additional Children : AUD 13.50
• SENIORS TUESDAY: Every Tuesday at Melbourne Aquarium is Seniors Tuesday and seniors receive a 10% discount on entry.

Daniel & his bro ~ Cameron became our driver for today. Thanks .  Here we stopped @ the Geelong’s waterfront.

The weather was freezing cold today.. a cup of hot latte warm me up for the day. We had our tea break along the way too.

We continue our journey after a short break. We stopped by @ few stops that offers a good view along the way…

We had picnic lunch along the way as well. May & Daniel had prepared delicious food for us.. of course.. never forget the hot chip offered by Cameron.

We headed to Tweleve Apostles after lunch. wow.. it was an amazing scene. The twelve Apostles are a collection of natural limestone stacks standing just off shore in the Port Campbell National Park on the Great Ocean Road. This site was originally called Sow & Piglets where Muttonbird Island near Loch Ard Gorge was the ‘Sow’ and the smaller rock stacks the ‘Piglets’. The name was changed to the more majestic ‘The Twelve Apostles’. However, only eight left at this moment.

From Twelve Apostle, we proceeded to our last destination ~ Loch Ard Gorge which located about 10 mins drive west of Twelve Apostles. The gorge is named after the clipper ship Loch Ard, which ran aground on nearby Muttonbird Island on 1 June 1878 approching the end of a three month journey from England to Melbourne. All but 2 out of 55 passengers & crew perished – Tom Pearce, a ship’s apprentice and Eva Carmicheal, an Irishwoman immigrating with her family, both of whom were 18 years old. According to memorials at the site, Pearce was washed ashore, & rescued Carmicheal from the water after hearing her cries for help. Pearce then proceeded to climb out of the gorge to raise the alarm to local pastoralists who immediately set into plan a rescue attempt.

A lot of farms available along the way. We stopped by while on the way back. Here you can see the sheeps & moo.    . Thanks Cameron that purposely stopped  by @ the farm for us to shot some photo of the animal.

Delicious laksa was waiting for us @ home. Yeap… Uncle had prepared laksa for us as dinner.

Melbourne Zoo ~ Crown Casino ~ Eureka Skydeck

My uncle was our tour guide today. We woke up around 8 and had our breakfast at home. We brought some sandwiches that is prepared by my aunty for our picnic lunch in the Zoo. 

We took a train from Oakleigh Station heading to Flinders Street & transit to Royal Park Station. Melbourne Zoo is only a few steps from the station. The moment we entered the zoo is already lunch time, thus, we had our lunch before start our zoo tour. There are quite a number of animals been showcased in the zoo. Of course including those that can only be found in Australia ~ Kangaroo, little penguin, koala bear & wombat.

After the zoo visit, we took the train back to the flinders street & proceeded to the Crown Casino. Crown Casino os one of the largest & most dazzling gaming facilities in Melbourne offering an incredible array of gaming options in a vibrant & sophisticated setting. We enjoyed our dinner in one of the restaurant available in the casino.

After leaving Crown Casino, our last destination of the day was Eureka Skydeck 88 which is the tallest point in Melbourne where we were able to enjoyed the awesome city night views from the top. You can experience the fastest lifts here where you will arrive level 88 in less than 40 seconds. Skydeck 88 is the only observation deck in he world that can thrill you wuth ‘The Edge’, which is a glass cube which projects 3 meters out of the building, 300 meters up from the ground.

Summary

Melbourne Zoo

Opening Hours :

• 9:00 – 17:00
  

Admission :

• Adult (16 years and over) : AUD 23.60
• Child (4- 16 years) : AUD 11.80
• Adult Concession: AUD 17.00
• Seniors Concession : AUD 21.20
• Family (2 Adults & 1 Children) : AUD 53.90
• Family (2 Adults & 2 Children) : AUD 53.90
  
• Family (2 Adults & 3 Children) : AUD 60.40
• Family (2 Adults & 4 Children) : AUD 66.90
  
• Family (2 Adults & 5 Children) : AUD 73.40
• Disabled Adult : AUD17.80
• Disabled Child :  AUD5.80
• 3 years & under – No charge

Skydeck 88

Opening Hours :

• 10:00 – 22:00 (Last Entry:21:30)
  

Admission :

• Adult (16 years and over) : AUD 16.50
• Child (4- 16 years) : AUD 9.00
• Concession: AUD 11.00
• Family (2 Adults & 2 Children) : AUD 39.00
• Family (1 Adults & 2 Children) : AUD 29.00
• Extra Child : AUD 7.00
• 3 years & under – No charge

As you can see, this bus is very confortable provided with TV too. But, I didnt’t bring my earphone with me.. so sad.. .. No meal is provided, we only provided with one pack of  biscuit & mineral water.  The bus journey took around 5 hours and we reached SG around 1pm. hehe.. After that we took taxi to toapayoh where my family waited for us there… We stayed overnight @ Singapore &  we departed from Singapore the next day ~ 17 August 2008. Our flight departed around 6:15pm & reached Darwin @ 12:15am 18 August 2008 as this flight transit @ Darwin for 2 hours. Then we took the flight from Darwin to Melbourne @ 02:20am. We landed @ Melbourne 7am on 18 August 2008.

Wow… The weather is really cold. Maybe around 10 degrees. May & Daniel is already waited for us there. They already prepared jacket for us.  . We got back to auntie house around 8:30am & our journey started after we took some rest there. This whole melbourne trip is actually planned by my auntie. They brought us to dim sum lunch where we met up with Hui Ping & 2 of her lovely daughters ~ Fiona & Alicia there. The dim sum damn nice… really miss the dim sum

We started our trip of the day @ Rhododendron Garden. Rhododendron Garden is actually a botanical garden where you will be able to enjoy the native birdlife & brilliant floral scenery (of course not during winter).

After that, we proceeded to Mount Dandenong.

We visited May’s house after we went back from Mount Dandenong.

This trip has been decided since chinese new year (around 6 months before). We made the ticket reservation on 29 April 2008 which cost S$810.23 (Tiger Air). Well, my sis & me did a lot of research for the cheapest ticket to go to Melbourne. By default, this journey should be on 17 Aug 2008 ~ 27 August 2007 (SG -> Darwin -> Melbourne -> Darwin -> SG). However, they cancelled the flight from Melbourne to SG (Melbourne -> Darwin -> SG) on 27 August 2008. We got this news a month before our departure date.    Thus, we were given 2 options, we can either back from Perth on 28 August 2008 or back from Melbourne on 31 August 2008. After some discussion with my family, we selected the first option ~ Perth (SG -> Darwin -> Melbourne -> Perth -> SG). Anyway, this changes gave us a chance to go for Perth day tour. Yeah…

This journey actually took us around 13 days. Yeah.. long journey. ~ 16 August 2008 – 28 August 2008. We traveled in a group of 5.

This trip start from KL where my sis & me took a bus(First Coach) from 1 Utama(KL) to SG. At the same time, My parents took flight from Kuching to Johor & of coz go to SG after that. We met up @ toapayoh in the afternoon for lunch. We stayed over night @ SG (of course shopping as well). We took Tiger air & departed from SG on 17 August 2008 around 6pm. The journey took around 5 hours & finally we reached @ Darwin (around 0015 18 August). We waited for around 2 hours before depart to Melbourne. On 0200.. our flight departed from Darwin and ahead to Melbourne. We reached Melbourne around 0700 (19 August). We spend around 8 days in Melbourne before we proceeded to Perth on 27 August & spend another night there. This Australia trip ended by taking Tiger air from Perth back to SG on 28 August. We reach SG around 0300. We took FirstCoach bus on 3pm 28 August & back to KL.

Details :-

• Day 1 – KL ~ SG
• Day 2 – SG ~ Darwin
• Day 3 – Darwin ~ Melbourne
• Day 4 – Day 11 – Melbourne
• Day 12 – Melbourne ~ Perth
• Day 13 – Perth ~ SG ~ KL