day 3, melbourne trip

day 3 was a touristy day. aunt and me joined tours for the entire day, since it was the only day that we could join the tours.

at 7am in the morning, we started out day waiting out in the hotel lobby for the bus to pick up us. We had melbourne city tour in the morning, and philip island tours in the afternoon.

The melbourne city tour was the one i sorta regretted doing, because it meant that i won’t have any shopping time left for the trip. and guess what?! i bumped into fiona on swanston street! all the while, i was trying to meet her for dinner but our schedules crashed and i ended up getting a fright because someone jumped on me from behind. who else would it be other than fiona?! i had thought it was my aunt initially but i turned my head only to find her standing beside me.

Melbourne city is very interesting in some ways because everything is divided into precincts. the city tour had us going to the following attractions (not in sequence), other than driving into the main districts of the CBD area…

(1) Cooks’ Cottage in the Fitzroy Gardens
Fitzroy gardens had this very interesting carved fairies’ tree that i wanted to look at, but it seems the directions aren’t very clear and i didn’t had the time to find it eventually before we had to head for the bus before we got left behind.

(2) Royal Botanical Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance
This place is huge and it reminds me of the botanical gardens that we have in singapore, the only difference is that, there were a lot of interesting flora that i think were not possible in singapore’s climate.

(3) Sports & Entertainment Precinct
I think we saw the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Olympic Park, Melbourne Park and Yarra Park from the bus. To be really frank, i was so tired i think i dozed of this portion of the ride.. because the commentary was a little dry…

(4) Legal Precinct
I saw a lot of judges with their wigs crossing the streets within the legal precinct. because all the legal buildings were clustered together, all they needed to do was to walk from one building to another. this section of the city is also pretty much black and white since everyone else is dressed in that color code.

(5) Financial Precinct
This is where my cheap hotel (kingsgate) is located. Also, the stock exchange building and all the banks. A lot of them are housed in historical buildings with high ceilings.

(6) Federation Square
this is an arty farty building with many colors and because i didn’t go in at all, which is ironic.. because it is where the melbourne visitor center is housed, together with a various mix of attractions.

(7) Flinders station
this is by far the biggest and prettiest train station i have ever seen. i guess you could call it grand as well. I was very much attracted by the many clocks placed at the entrance of the station and this station allows you to travel pretty much to the other states. with the number of people it has hovering around the vicinity, there is never a dull moment in this bustling place.

errrm.. there were also other places that we travelled to, but i konked out on several parts of the tour and that was all i could remember in my waking hours.

lunch was a quick affair in some random building. funnily enough, i had the chinese wantan noodles with duck meat!

the philip island tour started with a 1 hour journey on the bus before we reach warrook cattle farm. It was drizzling when we got there and i was feeling kinda cold with my thin sweater.

i saw my first wombat and a white peacock on this farm. the wombats are so lazy so they are hiding and sleeping! The funny thing is, i didn’t see a lot of cattle on the farm on the areas that we can roam freely.

the weather got colder and colder and i realised that my thin jacket is not going to last me for the day.. so i bought a cheap and thick jacket for 25 bucks that says australia to keep me warm. there weren’t any pretty ones around and that was the nicest of the lot so i had to make do.

we then popped over to the koala conservation area, but the koalas are so sparse! saw less than 5? i could easily find more in the wild. funny how there aren’t much pictures of me here.. i think my aunt didnt take any picture for me!

we moved on to the beach area to load up on fish and chips dinner. the funny thing was that i ended up eating pizzas instead. the sea gulls sure do stick to you if you are holding a bag of fish and chips!

nearing the penguin parade, we stepped out of the bus to check out the sea view. gosh, it was SOOOOO cold and windy, everyone popped back into the bus almost immediately. i had to struggle in the cold to take some peektures… i also caught some pictures of the wild wallabies hopping around in the greens while the bus is moving.

and then finally, we reached the long awaited penguin islands..

the signages are so cute. check for penguins under your car before driving off. i cannot find my pictures taken at the pengiun island on my flickr. not sure where they went. it’s either i forget to group them together or the upload failed on me. anyhow, it’s the end of a friday!

hope everyone have a great weekend! i’m off to a party at my ex-boss’ place!

Share this:

• Share

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)