Being a lot closer to nature was just awesomeeee.. and taking a road trip was prob the best idea for the trip! I didn't quite enjoy the city bits as much as the outskirts of Melbourne, but you know you just gotta go see what the cities are like.
First stop - Sydney.
Of course the first thing we did (as Singaporeans always do) was to EAT. I made sure to get a good list from friends who've lived in Sydney so that I could taste all the good food in Sydney. Check out the line outside the bakery... it's not just us Singaporeans who to love to queue for food man!
Sorry that I can't judge the coffee because I'm not much of a coffee drinker! But the pastries (esp the savoury ones!) were amazing!
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| Bourke Street Bakery |
We also checked out a couple of flea markets. We only had two days so we headed for the most convenient one for our plans. Shopping wasn't fantastic (I think it was cos it was winter), but boy was the food gooooooood! There were just random stalls of diff types of food - mexican, spanish and more that I couldn't identify :/ but man the food was good O_O. So we got us some food and sat down and chilled with everyone else. Gotta love that they have good live music at all these fleas too!
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| Glebe Market |
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| Live music at the Aussie flea markets |
SYDNEY FISH MARKET!!! A must must must must visit for the freshest oysters you will ever eat in your life! This was so awesome that I craved oysters through the Melbourne part of the trip but sadly could never find anything to match up after our visit to the fish market :/
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| Food was too good so we didn't have time to take a proper shot. And & is looking very sian cos a seagull stole his calamari! |
Of course, we also did the usual tourist stuff.
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| Sydney Harbour Bridge |
You could say we were there at the right/wrong time because Vivid Sydney was happening. The tourist areas were insanely crowded, like you could barely move kinda crowded. But the atmosphere was amazing - lots of cool light displays and street performers and people dancing.
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| Vivid Sydney, look at that crowd! |
Great Ocean Road :)
This to me, was the real highlight of the trip! We had lots of good chats in the car - for me, mostly about the cows, sheep, horses and 1 huge kangaroo that I saw and for Jiayan.. I can't even remember what she was talking about hahahaha. And as usual the guys were quiet.
We had to start driving very early in the morning because we didn't want to be driving in the dark (it was very dark!) so we made sure to load the car with groceries to feed us along the way (Milo pudding and cheesesticks!!!). We also stopped a tiny bit too much to take photos at every scenic spot.. until we realised we might not make it to our destination before it got dark haha.
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| Along GOR :) |
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| Aireys Inlet/Split Point Lighthouse |
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| Tea at a quaint little cafe at Aireys Inlet |
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| My psuedo Nat Geo shot! |
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| Wah lau.. check out the blues. |
We stayed the night at Apollo Bay where I had my first bbq in winter! It was a really fun experience although I had to bear with bbq smell in my winter clothes after.
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| Winter bbq! :) |
Next day we continued the drive to Port Campbell. Too bad it was a gloomy day so the 12 Apostles were not as beautiful. I actually think that the Loch Ard Gorge is much more amazing. And it helped that we met a little bird hunting for food. Was amazing to watch it!
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| Loch Ard Gorge-ous! |
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| Birdy hunting for lunch |
Then we had a lazy Singaporean dinner with Indo Mie and ham and eggs! :)
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| Everyone was upset cos they were so hungry but I wanted to take shot (everyone but Jiayan, hers is fake angry one). |
Dandenong & Marysville
After Great Ocean Rd we took the long drive inland to the other side of Melbourne. We rushed to take Puffing Billy, a still running steam train, up the Dandenong Ranges. It was erm... way too cold with nothing much to see, but how often do you get to take a steam train with a captain that really looks like that???
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| Puffing Billy's conductor |
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| Puffing Billy at Belgrave |
Then we drove to Marysville/Lakeside Mountain because I wanted to ski so badly. Too bad there was only fake ice kachang snow for us to go tobbogganing on :/ Still fun nonetheless!
It was at Marysville that we had the most amazing western country dinner though O_O If, for some reason, you ever go to Marysville, please please please eat at Marysville Patisserie. Everything there was just SO GOOD. And shucks no photo, again, too busy eating.
Yarra Valley stopover
On our way back to Melbourne, we stopped at Beechworth Bakery for breakfast (yummsss!) and Innocent Bystander for wine tasting. I'm also not much of a wine connoisseur so I can't say much, but I do know that the pink moscato sorbet is to die for! So fluffy and not too sweet - just wonderful! :)
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| To-die-for pink moscato sorbet at Innocent Bystander |
The rest of the trip back in Melbourne was less memorable compared to the countryside :) But I think it's just me cos I tend not to enjoy city holidays as much.
Till next time beautiful Australia! :) Oh and let me leave you with some tips below!
Tips for saving money when travelling Sydney, Melbourne in Winter
1. Try renting a car from Apex Rentals - we wanted to go with the usual trusty brandnames, but a friend introduced us to Apex and we had a great experience and saved almost $400 in car rental expenses! Only thing is that you can only pick up and return your car near the airport, so plan for this properly, and check out parking rates near your accommodation to make sure you don't end up spending the savings on parking.
2. Watch out for coupons on Hotels.com - we got really decent and inexpensive accommodation along Great Ocean Rd. One of our places was newly renovated and was so nice and awesome. We also managed to get a couple of coupon codes off Hotels.com Facebook page so that we could save save save! The other thing you can do is to cross-check reviews on TripAdvisor.com to make sure that the places you're getting are as decent as they seem to be.
3. Check out if you can take the public ferry instead of the train, because it's free!
4. So this one isn't really for saving money, but use the TripAdvisor City Guides mobile app to move around on your own. This app works without internet connection and helps point you (it literally points with an arrow) to your destination. It also comes with free walking tours!
Before I go, I must say that the photos here (the awesome ones at least) were taken by Andrew and Dennis :) not me haha.
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