Ashcombe Maze & Lavender Gardens

More pics from Melbourne!

On we drove to Ballarat and visited the Sovereign Hill, which is an outdoor museum where you get to see live presentation of how gold is found, processed blablabla in Ballarat. The admission fee isn't cheap but if you look at the entire recreation it's not difficult to understand how much maintenance is needed to keep the place running nicely.

I've visited the place in winter 2008. Honestly, for places like this, it's worthwile to see it once but not another time. We decided to go again because his family hasn't been there before.

 

Wearing a winter jacket during summer =.=

And exploring the museum took up pretty much the whole day. Can't remember what else we did.

The next day which was also the last day we had the car, we drove around the Mornington Peninsula. We didn't get to do much since we had only one day and most places close at 5.

We wanted to visit a strawberry picking farm but it was not opened due to bad weather conditions. So we visited the Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens which was beautiful! It was quite fun too because once you get in you'll be given tasks and challenges. Of course it is completely up to you whether or not you choose to accept and do them. Honestly, it'll be a lot more interesting to do it than to only stroll along the entire place looking at trees and flowers. 

The moment we entered we were asked to look for little gnomes and fairies in the place. If we could find all of it the reward was a lolly. The whole point is of course not to get a lolly but the fun of exploring every coop and corner, having an objective while enjoying the beauty of nature.

Yes, this is a maze, like the one you see in Harry Potter. 

Apparently the Ashcombe Maze is one of the oldest existing maze in Australia.

Lavender! I've never seen a freshly grown lavender like this in my entire life!

There's this Rose Maze which is one of the oldest circular rose mazes in the world. The challenge here is to get to the centre of the maze.

:)

Then we reached the most beautiful part of the garden, the Lavender Labyrinth!

I was too excited when I saw the lavender and couldn't wait to take a picture with the shrubs. And I accidentally tripped over the fencing =.= If you look at my hand you can see dirt. Wk quickly came over and took a picture before helping me up lol.

Speaking of falling down, I don't know why I always face misfortunes whenever I am in Melbourne. 

The first time I was at Melbourne in 2007, I fell down from a chair in the public while laughing too hard. In 2008, I had ketchup splattered all over my face because I didn't know how to open that shit, yes in the public. In 2009, I slipped and almost landed with my butt in the public again but I was lucky that Wk was right next to me and I managed held on to him. But the public still saw me slip.

This time when I was there, I tripped and fell onto the floor hard when I was trying to chase some seagulls away while we were having a break at Seal Rocks. Oh how could I have forgotten about this?! Some fucking stupid/inconsiderate Chinese couple who were sitting near us fed them for their own amusement. They were throwing potato chips everywhere and laughing at the seagulls fighting for it. 

It's totally fine if they want to be stupid but please do it far away without affecting others. When they fed the seagulls, more and more flew over and surrounded them and at the same time, surrounded us as well and I find it terribly irritating cos seagulls are not afraid of people, they will snatch your food and they are very noisy. That stupid couple then moved away to another table when the amount of seagulls became intimidating, but the seagulls won't leave just because the couple left. The seagulls knew we had food so they stayed and stayed irritating as everrrr. And that is why I got really annoyed and wanted to chase them off before landing on my elbow and knees, which of course still did the trick but in a more painful way T_T STUPID CHINESE COUPLE GROW SOME BRAINS LAH.

By the way everyone, PLEASE DON'T FEED THE SEAGULLS. If you want to do it, do it without affecting the people nearby. Your consideration is very much appreciated. Thank you.

Ok sorry I digressed. Then, fell another time at the Lavender Labyrinth.

=.=

We had lunch at the cafe inside the garden where of course, they serve lots of lavender infused dishes such as lavender scones... ... ok that's all I know wtf. There's also a home made lavender ice cream but we didn't try that. The lavender scones were alright, I still prefer their original unflavoured scones.

Before heading home we dropped by a random park :)

We had dinner at one of my favourite Korean restaurants there, Oriental Spoon :)

Seafood pancake, not very nice.

BBQ meat, best!

Crispy Chicken and Crispy Chilli Chicken, best!

Such...

... is the wonders of Adobe Photoshop!

How's school?

It has been... *counts with fingers*... half a decade since I last stepped into school to study. If any of you are still schooling, please appreciate it and have all the fun you can there because you will miss it when you're done with it I can promise you. 

Be a rebel now or you'll never have the chance to because when you grow up, it's not the things you did which you often regret but the things that you didn't.

I didn't obey all school rules and I've never regretted one single bit doing so.  As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, as long as it makes me happy, why not? I did all I can and I want so I'm proud to say I've had a happy school life :)

My best advice to school-goers is, choose who you befriend with wisely because they are the ones who will reflect most of your life. Real talk. Be yourself and never try to fit in. If they cannot take you for who you are, leave. Don't let others influence and affect your thinking. If you think it's wrong, do not be afraid to repel.  If that costs you friendship, so be it. There's absolutely nothing wrong with having no friends, but it's absolutely wrong to let friends take control of your actions. 

I've lived my life being a very reserved person most of the time, I don't and I can't anyway, talk much to people I'm not familiar with. So what? Nothing bad comes out of it... except for the awkward silent moments when you don't know what to say to the new friend.

Ok ok... suddenly become Doctor School Advice pulak lol.

***

On the 2nd day of our road trip we headed towards Philip Island and dropped by a couple of places before arriving at the Penguin Parade. During summer in Melbourne the sun sets at around 9pm, and that's usually the time when the penguins will come onto shores and march towards their burrows.

First stop was the Maru Koala Park.

It may look fun feeding the kangaroos but actually they're quite filthy. Almost every ground has their poop. You see that brown small 'balls' on the floor in the picture? Yup, that's it. And I don't know what's wrong with the kangaroos the way they eat it felt like they haven't eaten for years. Not just this time but every time. And they have 'claws' so I had to make sure my hand was at a suitable height so the kangaroos won't have to reach for it and have their claws scratch me. Eww.

Of course, there're koalas too but all they do is sleep sleep sleep eat and sleep. They're only active at night so nothing much too see during the day. Also because they are soooo fragile (and maybe endangered? I dunno) they're usually kept too far and high within human's reach. We couldn't even cuddle them :( I think need to pay to do so.

That's the bridge to get into Philip Island

@ Churchill Island Heritage Farm

The Seal Rocks, where you need to PAY AUD2 to use the binoculars to see the seals. Unfortunately there weren't any... or maybe there was but I was too kiamsiap to pay to see.

There were penguins even around the place we view the Seal Rocks!

A close shot of it.

Damn hard to get a picture of it ok.

And then we went to the Penguin Parade which there after, photography was disallowed so no pictures of the cute flightless birds parading onto the shores into their burrows.

This was my second time visiting the Penguin Parade. The first was during winter in 2007. We paid for a day tour and because it's winter the sun set at 5-6pm, everything was quite rushed. After the watching the penguins we had to rush back because otherwise it'll be too dark and too late.

I enjoyed it a lot more this time because it's not as cold and we get to do everything at our own pace. We left the house at about 9.30am and we managed to cover 5 places.

I highly suggest renting a car and driving up there. Its far more relaxing and comfortable cos obviously you're traveling with lesser people and they are people you personally know. Of course, you'll miss having a tour guide telling you stories. With GPS and Google Maps, it's not difficult to navigate  around by yourself. We bought the 3 parks pass which includes the Churchill Island Heritage Farm, Koala Conservation Centre and the Penguin Parade, it's obviously more worth it. Just be sure to find out when's the right time to be at the Penguin Parade because the earlier you are, the better seats you get to view the penguins.

Last post of 2010

I am finally back from my 25 days vacation in Melbourne and Gold Coast, Australia. Feels both good and bad. The good? There's always nothing better than being home. Trust me, I miss home every single time I go away. The family, the friends, the convenience. The bad? Work, what else.

The flight home wasn't too good, wasn't quite well-piloted in my opinion.Wasn't too bad either cos I had my newly acquired Bugs Bunny cushion to rest my head and a shoulder to lean on :) Wk's back for a little more than a month before he goes back to Melbourne to start working.

Still not in the mood for work so I shall reminisce on days in Melbourne.

We rented a Toyota Tarago (8 seater van) for 4 days to drive around.  On the first day we drove around the Yarra Valley. First stop was a cherry-picking farm. We paid about AUD7 for entrance and we get to eat and pick all we want! But at the end of the day the amount of cherries taken out will be charged, about AUD10 for a kg.

I like this picture :)

Then we  visited the Domaine Chandon winery.

Swimming in champagne gloop gloop

:)

We went out slightly late and by 5pm everything was closed already so we had to head home after that. We had a delicious dinner at Peko Peko.

Wantan Noodles and Pork Chop Peko Box. Noodle wasn't amazing, the rest of the Peko box meals were. 

Crispy Honey Chicken and Pop Chicken Peko Box

 Wasabi Mayo Prawn and Spring Rolls

 Unagi Fried Rice

Serving's pretty small for the price but the taste was worth it.

***

The year is coming to an end tonight. I can't wait for 2011. If all goes well something amazing's going to happen. Don't wanna jinx it so I won't say anything yet but when the time comes, I promise I'll share. 2010 isn't the best year for me but I believe with enough perseverance, determination and all the positive attitude, things do fall into its right places.

Happy New Year everyone. Have fun but please be safe.