Road trip to Mt Buller, our first experience with SNOW : Part 3

Hello!

Melbourne trip, Part 2: Click here

So far, my monday is so productive! Lunch hour now, so let's update my trip to Mount Buller. Yeay!! We check-out from Redan Apartment at around 9.30am to Mansfield, Vic on our day 6 of the trip. From Melbourne to Mansfield took about 3 hours (Whoever going from Melbourne, you can also check for the packages available for day trip at melbourne Visitor Center). But, ding dong ding dong we reached Mansfield at 1.00pm. First thing we did as soon as we arrived there were surveying for the shop that offer snow gears such as jackets, boots, toboggan and etc. When we arrived Mansfield that day, it was so cloudy and it was drizzling so it was quite cold. But still, unbeatable as compared to Toowoomba when the wind howling like crazy! hahaha..

 Mendung je. This time we check the forecast at Mt Buller the temp showed -5c. Brrr...

We stopped by at SCM (to see full price list: click here) to rent some gear. Hana masa offer haritu dah beli snow pants and boots plak beli from my friends yang dah balik Malaysia. So, dah jimat! Actually, kalau beli masa offer memang tersangat jimat. haritu snow gloves Aldi sell for only $3 per pair (tapi tak terbeli, ciss)! So, kitorang sewa a boot and a jacket for my hubs, a jacket for me and a toboggan for Aisy. Jacket tak banyak pilihan. Either kaler merah or biru! Blergghhhh.. dua2 kaler yang tak digemari. huhu.. We bought 3 pairs of gloves at $17.95/pair, mahal! Glove mmg takde sewa. Tapi, hana tak guna pun glove yang dibeli dan pulangkan balik ke kedai. One thing that is good in Aussie is if you don't like anything/ you're not using the thing that you purchased you can just simply return the goods back. Tapi mestilah in good condition. So, dapatlah duit balik. hihi.. Total damage here is: $118.95 (minus the refund lebih kurang ~$100). Meanwhile, for snow chain the SA said that we'll see the weather tomorrow if you need the snow chain. Snow chain ni diperlukan untuk naik Mount kalau snow banyak untuk dipasang kat tayar kereta.

Settle everything there, we head to High Country Holiday Park for check-in. This time around we got a spa cottage. Antara banyak2 penginapan, yang ni paling mahal untuk semalam which is $265/night. Oklah, puas hati dengan servis dan cottagenya.

View from our cottage

Kitchen

Dining area

bathroom with spa tub

our room

living area

Memandangkan hari pun dah petang, jadi kami rehat2 di rumah sahaja. The next morning baru pergi snowy mountain. Tak sabar!! From Mansfield to Mt Buller took about an hour drive. Sepanjang perjalanan nyaman je pemandangan. Byk lah kambing, lembu semua. Bila dah separuh perjalanan, tetiba nampak gunung yang ada snow cap, gumbira tak terkata! hihi.. Oh..lupa, kami pakai siap2 semua jaket dari Mansfield sebab kang kat atas sejuk terketar2 plak nak get ready! hahaha.. Entrance fee to Mount Buller is $40/car. But, for us because we went there with a bus (toyota commuter) so they count per head! hehh.. So, total: $72. Ok, jomlah kita layan view yang memang sejuk mata memandang. hihi..

Subhanallah. Ini belum sampai lagi, tapi dah cantik sangat dah viewnya. Mount Buller from far.

As soon as we reached there, terus recharge Aisy, kang ngamuk susah plak. Hahaha.. Ini kat tempat parking. From the parking lot, there will be shuttles that will take us to the village.

Yeay dah sampai village! (tak suka jaket biru ni! Kat dalam jaket pki thermal dengan sweater, tu nampak menggelembung je. kahhhh =p)

Aisy sibuk dengan susu, so bagi dia nak naik toboggan!

Our first real snow experience. =D

Snowsuit Aisy member bagi, boots bought from Aldi for ~$13 and gloves bought at SCM for $17.95.

putihhhhhhhhh salju! Jom luncur ngan toboggan, weeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

yeay, we met Olaf!

carrot ada family mat salleh ni bagi haritu. hahaha

chair lift for skier

Bila dapat main snow lagi? huhu

Rasanya, kami dekat Mt Buller dari pukul 9 am sampai 2.00pm. Alhamdulillah, haritu tak sejuk sangat min was -1c dan masa kami datang takde snow fall, sobbbsss. Pemandangannya plak mendung-mendung aje. Tu yang gambar gelap2 je suasana. Kami tak sewa snow board or ski sebab dalam itinerary memang tak lama atas mountain. Jadi nya round-round sekitar Mt Buller, main luncur dengan toboggan, makan donut depan kedai souvenier pastu grab lah fridge magnet 2 ketul dan siap2 pulang.

lama tak jumpa jeram2 ni. Bersih je. haa, inilah sweater yang dipakai dalam jaket biru tadi. 

On the way back to Mansfield, we stop by to see this beautiful creek. Teruskan perjalanan turun Mansfield balik untuk cari makan. Kat Mansfield ada kedai kebab halal. Alhamdulillah. Boleh lah isi perut. Kenyang perut, solat dan siap2 untuk teruskan lagi perjalanan kembara kami yang seterusnya.

From nature to big city is next!

Road Trip to Melbourne: Part 2 (Fitzroy Garden, Cook's cottage, Queen Victoria Market and Brighton Beach)

Sambungan dari Part 1 : klik sini

Sementara semuanya masih segar dalam ingatan, mari kita teruskan berkarya. ewahhh!

Untuk hari kedua berjalan-jalan sekitar Melbourne, kami gerak awal sikit dari Apartment. Seperti hari sebelumnya, kami ke Windsor train station berdekatan apartment kami untuk ke Brighton Beach. Jarak dalam lebih kurang tak sampai 30 minit naik train. Brighton beach is famous with their colorful bathing boxes. Memang port orang ambil gambar lah kat sini. Cute-cute je bathing box nya. Semangat dan excited lah pagi tu nak pergi, sekali HAMPA!! Kecundang ditengah jalan. Kemain jauh nak berjalan dari station ke bathing box nya. Sedih mak!

This is the view after you have walked at least 20 mins from the train station. Nampak tak yang kat sudut kanan tu yang warna-warni tu? Itu lah dia..

Tambah sedih, separuh dari jalan tengah construction. So, jalan dia mati kat situ seperti yang boleh nampak dalam gambar diatas. Tak boleh nak jalan lagi dah. Ku keciwa!! Adakah akhirnya Hana dapat bertemu dengan bathing boxes ni secara dekat? Nantikan di episod akan datang. Muahahaha..

So, dah kecewa kami pun terus lah melangkah kembali ke stesen keretapi tadi. Penat oii jalan! Next destination is Fitzroy Garden. For the 2nd day tour, this is the main highlight. Sebab dapat menikmati garden yang cantik sangat. I like! Meh kita tengok picture.

Taman dia sangat bersih dan cantik. Tambah lagi time winter, daun kering dan pokok sume tak berdaun. Classic!

my baby girl!

Dalam Fitzroy garden ni ada Captain Cook's cottage. Cottage ni cottage lama yang dibina pada tahun 1755 dan sebenarnya cottage ni dibina di Yorkshire, England tapi kemudiannya shipped to Australia pada 1934. Boleh google untuk sejarah yang lebih detail. Untuk masuk cottage ni ada entrance fee, adult $6 children under 5 FOC. hihi.. Murah je, jadi jangan lepaskan peluang anda untuk melawat cottage ni kalau datang ke Melbourne!

 Cottage ni kecik sangat. Ini antara gambar yang diambil didalam cottage.

 Di ruang makan.

Us in the middle of Cook's herbs garden =)

Nah..inilah Captain Cook nya! hihi

Settle jalan-jalan sekitar Fitzroy garden, plannya nak pergi Puffing Billy. Yang ini pun nampaknya takde rezeki. Sobssss... Kalau bawak budak2 naik keretapi steam ni mesti best. Takpe nak, next time aisy dah besar sikit kalo ada rezeki kita datang naik ni ya? Hahahaha (sedapkan hati!)

Source : Here

Jam pun dah menunjukkan pukul 2pm mcm tu. Makanya, masa untuk makan tengahari! Jalan-jalan sikit sekitar Melbourne Central terjumpa ada Restoran Nelayan (indonesia) ni yang halal. Jadi terus lah terjah. Alhamdulillah, kenyang.. Oklah not bad makanannya. Lama dah tak dapat makan bakso, dpt pulak pekena bakso lepas lah jugak rindu tu.

bakmi ayam bakso

aisy dengan apam balik kacang choc nya.

Dah lepas makan, kami pun jalan2 sekitar jalan dpn RMIT dan lalu depan State library of Victoria. Library ni pun half on construction. Apelah nasib!

Ramai sangat orang depan library ni.

Lepas lepak2 jap kat library ni kitorg beransur balik ke apartment dan lepas tu naik van untuk jalan2 cari makan. This time kitorg pekena Nasi Ayam Penyet Ria yang direkemen ramai kawan2 kat Melbourne ni. So, haruslah carik! Ayam Penyet Ria ni kat South Melbourne, ya Allah rasa dia memang sedap dan setanding Wong Solo lah. hihi..

 mabeles!

lepas makan ayam penyet, cari dessert plak kat Max Brenner. nyummm!! hahaha.. Nasib kedai dekat2 je.

Winter2 ni cpt je gelap! Sighhh.. Disebabkan hari kedua di Melbourne ni hari Rabu, makanya kami berpeluang ke Night Market (Queen Victoria Market). Nasib yang ni dah survey dulu. Ada hari2 dia siang tak bukak tau! Nak tahu bila dia bukak sila klik sini. Kalau pergi siang mesti lagi best dan lagi heaven untuk beli souvenier. 

Dalam ni ada live band, jualan makanan (kami beli air tebu je) dan barang2 souvenier.

So, itulah dia pengembaraan hari kedua di bandar Melbourne. Hurm, berbalik pada cerita di bathing boxes tadi. Kikiki.. kita sambung je lah part ni! hahaha.. Dengan tekad dan azam terus pujuk rayu en suami! Kali ni tak nak naik train. Mintak dia bawak van pergi ke Brighton Beach. So, keesokan harinya which is the 3rd day in Melbourne pagi-pagi lagi dalam 8.30am kami dah gerak ke Brighton Beach. Alhamdulillah, tak sampai setengah jam pun drive dari St Kilda. Lepas tu yang paling gembiranya, dari tempat parking (berbayar) kereta jalan 2-3 langkah dah sampai depan bathing box tu terus!!! Syukur dapat jugak sampai walaupun pagi tu cuaca tak berapa elok. Hujan..huhu.. (Pengajarannya kat sini, kalo nak datang Brighton beach tgk bathing box ni naik je lah kereta)

gigih tak gigih lah sampai basah jaket kena hujan!

inilah bathing boxes nya.

harga satu bathing box ni cecah ratus2 ribu dollar you!

Sekian dulu untuk Part 2. Next episode ala-ala frozen lah plak! hahaha

Road trip from Queensland to Victoria - Part 1

Assalamualaikum and G'Day!

Alhamdulillah all praise to Allah, my family and I were given a chance to explore famous attractions all across four states (QLD, ACT, NSW and VIC) for 10 days in Australia. This marked as the longest road trip so far for us. Back in Malaysia, the longest road trip for me were from Kajang to Perlis or Kajang to Kota Bharu which not even reach a thousand kilometer of driving. Hahahaha.. But, last week we had such a tiring journey which took about more than 4000 Kilometers. Yes, you read it right!! But hold on, this tiring journey was an absolute AMAZING journey overall! Yeah, to do this road trip is ain't easy plus you have this little fella, not only 1 but 4 of them that you need to entertain along the journey as well. Despite their crankiness and a sudden rise in their body temperature, others were fine (ye ke??).  Huhu..

Ok, I think I have to separate this trip to few parts. Hadoiii.. tak biasa oi nak karang berpart2! Lets start with day 1. We started our journey at 10.30 am in the morning after we took our van from Europcar. Yup, we rent a van/mini bus with 12 seats (Toyota Commuter) for this trip. This Toyota Commuter cost us Aud1200 from 3rd Aug 2014 until 12 Aug 2014. Per day free mileage given was 200 km. Extra mileage were charged $0.27/km. Everything ready, load all the luggage and off we go!

 Nah... Siap dengan big esky lagi. Penuh satu van dengan luggage, makanan dan kanak-kanak. haha

We drove from Toowoomba and stop by at Tenterfield Rotary Park for lunch and solat. Then, we continued our journey and reached Canberra at around 3 pm, if I am not mistaken. First stop in Canberra was at Weereewa Lookout Point where we can see all the wind turbines (looking like windmill from far) and snap few pics here. As usual! hahaha.. Next, we went to the Australian Capital Territory, Parliament House. Canberra ni sebijik macam Putrajaya. Not really happening like in cities such as Melbourne/Sydney. Siap makcik yang jaga information center tu bagitau, nothing interesting here! It was just a corporate looking town that filled with senators, politician etc. hahaha.. Nothing much to do in Canberra, so we head to Sydney straight the same day! Total km until Sydney was approximately 1000 km.

It was so difficult to capture clear picture of the turbines because it was far away from lookout. But, we can see it clearly with our own eyes there. Right pic- us in front of the Parliament House in Canberra.

At last, we reached Sydney (Famous Bondi Beach to be exact) at 2 a.m on 4th Aug 2014.

Lamrock lodge, Bondi - Aud83/night

In this journey, we stayed in all budget accommodations as we're always on the go to visit from one place to another. So, no point for us to stay in a luxury hotel as we just have less than 8 hours staying in the lodge/motel (purpose untuk baring je). Tapi kalau duit berkepuk apa salahnya kan? =). So, after almost 14 hours driving we had our not so goodnight sleep at Lamrock Lodge. Masa booked this lodge, we forgot to see whether they have available parking and individual toilet!!! So, it is not really recommended to stay here as it was a shared toilet lodge (kind of like hostel/backpackers). Tapi boleh la. Dalam bilik ada sink and tv. Lepas tu boleh jalan kaki je pergi pantai! 

Dalam pukul 9 am dari Bondi beach, kami teruskan perjalanan. This time it was about 880km from Bondi to St Kilda, Melbourne. Travelling with kids, a drive which usually takes 9-10 hours drive will take longer than that. So, we reached Melbourne almost at wee hours (2.30 am). This time we stayed at a better place as we planned to stay in Melbourne for 3 days. 

We stayed at Redan Apartment nearby St Kilda beach - $324 for 3 nights. This apartment (1 queen and a single bed) was like studio apartment that equipped with kitchen and there was parking for our BIG van! 

In Melbourne, as we are not really familiar with driving route plus the tram system is using the same lane as driving lane, we decided to just take trains/trams to go around the city. Seriously, we thought it was easy. But, turned out it was not!!! As we're carrying baby and toddlers with prams (not recommended) as these trams and trains are not babies and pram friendly! To use baby carrier is a good option, but unfortunately Aisy ni nak naik stroller pun bertarung. Tak larat mak nak dukung seharian nak oiii!!

Next, tour around Melbourne begins! Disebabkan penat drive sampai lewat pagi, kami bertolak dari apartment untuk berjalan-jalan dah nak tengah hari. So, kami jalan-jalan untuk familiarkan diri dengan town. We bought our Myki card ($13.50) at Chapel Hotel near Windsor train station (Sandringham line). This myki kad kalo naik tram dia takkan charge lebih dari $7. So boleh naik je ke mana2 sebab dia charge daily. So, kami naik train terus ke Flinders Street Station and Melbourne Visitor Center. Both are famous attractions for tourist kalau sampai ke town Melbourne. For tourist who wanted to go for tour to Great Ocean Road, Philip Island etc they have lots of packages available. You just need to compare the prices from different companies. Dekat sini, dorg ada bagi buku2 free dalam tu ada voucher utk Puffing Billy etc. So boleh la jimat! Disebabkan dah penat travel jauh gila dari Toowoomba, we opted not to go for more kilometers (approx 600 km go and back from Great Ocean Road to St. Kilda). Walaupun dalam hati meronta-ronta nak pergi tapi apa kan daya. Ramai yang cakap, what a trip to Meboune if you're not visiting GOR. Kira macam tak complete gitu. Tapi takpelah, this will always be our excuse to go to Melbourne again! hahaha..

Melbourne visitor center and Flinders street station

Keluar dari Melbourne visitor center kami keluar cari makan tengahari. Konon nak try naik City Circle tram. WTFish betul! Tram tu slowwww la plak. Dgn sume tgh menahan lapar. hoho.. So, pengajaran untuk diri hana, kalo nak rushing ke sana-sini tak payah naik City Circle tram ni. Tram ni bagus untuk orang santai-santai round satu city yang ambil masa berapa jam tak tahu. hahaha..

To take this tram you just need to wait beside Flinders street station. This City Circle Tram is FOC. Bayangkan mcm mana kami angkut stroller naik benda ni dengan umat yang penuh dalam tu! hoho.. Taubat!

We were actually lost and confused on how to go to Queen Victoria Market or Melbourne Uni using tram. Penat berjalan, kami terjumpa one train station (lupa dah kat mana) yang pergi ke Swanston St. So, we hopped on to the train and went to Swanston St and stopped in front of Melbourne Uni. Akhirnya dapat pun beli makanan, padahal jam nak pukul 4pm dah! Grrrrrrr... As you know, Australia operating hours for almost all malls/gardens/supermarkets will close at 5.00 pm. So, we head back to Melbourne Central and take out train back to Windsor Station. Melbourne Central ni bawah dia train system, atas dia ada glass cone yg sangat menarik! Byk gila shop lot, ada semua brand. Mak je yang tak dapat nak shopping sebab dah petang. Sighhhh.. ape je yang sempat pun tak tahu. huhu..

 Massive glass cone!

The Marionette Fob Watch.

These two pictures were taken at Melbourne Central.

Untuk mengubat hati yang lara, kami balik makan dan solat dekat apartment. Usai solat, semua siap2. One of the attractions near St. Kilda is their Penguin lookout point near the pier! Hah.. untuk tidak melepaskan peluang, mestilah nak tengok penguin live kan? The best time to watch this penguin is during the sunset (maghrib). Kami sampai situ nak pukul 9 pm. Hoho.. Nasib jumpa penguin! Adalah 5-6 ekor yang nampak dengan mata kasar I. hahaha.. Sebenarnya beratus-ratus dalam batu. Tapi dah malam diorg ni tak keluar dah, kecuali yang mencapub je! hahahaha..

St Kilda Pier, Penguin lookout Point. (No entrance fees)

Dah malam, so this was the best shot of lil pingu! Lagipun, nak ambil pic penguin ni dilarang guna flash!

Romantica de amore sangat berlatar belakangkan bot2 mewah dan bandar metropolitan, Melbourne.

So, that is it our first day tour around Melbourne! Panjang dah ni, so to be continue je lah ek? hahaha..