It was a good holiday, with scrumptious food, cool weather and plentiful fun and sunny days. And it was a great family trip including Andrew's initiation into the Toh family. All was missing was just Imny and JE.....
Melbourne city was not very impressive, but then, perhaps it just goes to show that Australia is not all about skyscrapers and malls. We stayed in Prahran the first night. Then headed on to our farm stay at Lavender Farm in Healesville, Yarra Valley. 2 nights there. On our mission to the Great Ocean Road, we stayed at Torquay for 2 nights. And then the last night was back at Melbourne in Swanston Street.
The farm stay was magnificent. Reminded me of New Brunswick with the warm fireplace, friendly dogs, lemon trees and lavender everywhere. Breakfast was our loot from Coles, lunch and dinner at Healesville town. We went to GiantStepsInnocentBystander, which was a winery that carries Innocent Bystander and Giant Steps wine. Fine food and great cosy place.
We did made our way to Healesville Sanctuary so that the pesky kids can see koalas and kangaroos. Also to the Dandenongs that was most impressive.....but that was till we got to the Great Ocean Road...
Torquay was the next destination, tourist-y seaside haven, sis found a great bungalow to stay and i half-believed Andrew when he said that it looks like the place from those mags we see. But migosh, it was modern, fuss-free, patio, spacious 4-bedrooms....place to die for. It got my brother-in-laws to check out the classified, and found out most of those properties were only AUD300K. In Singapore, I dont think u can get a landed property for SGD1mil. Hey, and this place is near near near the beach! We live in a rat's world compared to the Aussies....
Anyways, the following day we headed off on our mission to see the 12 Apostles. Made stops at Lorne and Apollo Bay. And that was as far as we've got coz of pesky nephew, the winding road, and I guess not all of us wants to see more rocks formation. haha. Ohwell, next time maybe.
The last night at Melbourne was well spent. We met up with our cousins who have migrated there years ago. Yee, Bee, and Nee. I'm sure it made my mom very happy as it was her late eldest brother's enstranged family members. We went to Victoria Market (felt like we were at some chinatown fest, Chatuchak beats it flatfaced) together. The morning after, we met up with Shaun(cousin in NZ) and Tze Yin. Had a great great breakfast by the Yarra River....
My take on Melbourne..and the rest of Victoria: Canada-like with a great laidback feel and certainly worth two trips or more. And I'm glad it has none of the city-like experience that I'll rather give a miss.
No comments:
Post a Comment