The Australian Experience - Part 3

Before I proceed, I have a message for my sister in Moscow. Sis, if you are reading this, we had so much fun in Melbourne! And I am sure you will be jealous of our holiday!All right :)

My convocation was on the 11th of December 2008. On the 12th morning, we took a flight to Melbourne and spent 6 days there. Jimmy and Alice tagged along and the 5 of us had a very memorable trip in Melbourne.

The happiest moment was of course a dinner at Meat & Wine Co, Southbank with Jimmy, Alice, Ash and Zi Hao. Even dad enjoyed his meal too ! Of course I had the famous full rack of pork ribs.

There was an Australian who told me he place 5 dollars on the table that I can't finish the full rack.

I finished it all up in 20 minutes (easily) with fries but unfortunately, he left before I had everything on the plate inside me. HMPH!

In Victoria, I took my parents to the Melbourne CBD (Uni Melb, Victoria Market, Lygon Street, Southbank), Philip Island (Warrook Cattle Farm, Koala Conservation Park, Penguin Parade), Mornington Peninsula (Ashcombe Maze and Gardens, Mornington National Park), Geelong, the Great Ocean Road, Ballarat (Sovereign Hill) and finally to Castlemaine (to visit my aunt and her husband).

Ice cream at Freddo's (Lygon Street). We had lamb pizza at my favourite shop before this, Intersection Cafe (highly recommended).

Dinner with friends at Southbank - Meat & Wine Co.
From left : Ash, Me, Zi Hao, Mom, Dad, Jimmy, Alice

Me and my full rack of pork ribs (partially blocked). The piece in the middle of the table is the same as my plate. So yes! Haha. Big piece huh!

Jimmy and Alice. Glad to have both of you with me at the dinner and the holiday!

Ash, me, Zi Hao. Clipped by two doctors and yet I was eating a lot. Mmmm.

Mom and dad with their salmon and lamb dish.

Dad enjoying his prawn and salmon meal :)

The next day, we headed off to Philip Island where we made stops at Cattle Farm, Koala Conservation Park and Penguin Parade.

The pictures I took at Koala Conservation Park was blurred with water marks because it was a stormy day.

As for the penguins, we took the VIP Skybox package (due to the storm and I wanted parents to be comfortable). Cameras were not allowed at the Penguin Parade. Again, no pictures for that part.

Mom at Warrook Cattle Farm feeding milk to the baby cows.

Me with some sheep!

Dad enjoying the nature and feeding the kangaroos.

Next stop was Mornington Peninsula. I think this is a beautiful shot of Dad walking through a lavender garden at Ashcombe Gardens.

Next stop was the cherry picking farm!

We drove down to Geelong after Mornington and put up a night at Four Points by Sheraton. Thankfully I had GPS to guide me. Everything was simple with a GPS.

The Great Ocean Road pictures.

The trees are blown hard everyday and look at their growth ... "senget" right? Haha.

Mom trying to pan for gold at Sovereign Hill. Seriously, there are still gold at this river in Sovereign Hill. My aunt and uncle managed to get quite a lot of mini gold pieces.

Now look at this picture. Caught this picture at Sovereign Hill. This is a place for turkeys. Look closely.

And this was what I saw !

The following day, after the Sovereign Hill trip, we drove over to Castlemaine to visit my aunt. On the way, I took this picture - rays of sunlight :)

And surprisingly, my aunt's housing area is "rural enough" till kangaroos roam around freely, even running into her house.

After Melbourne, we went back to Canberra where I finalized my packing to move things to Sydney (will be studying there next year).

I brought my parents around to The Australian War Memorial and the Old Parliament House. We moved on to Sydney for a short tour before my parents took their flight home on the 20th of December 2008.

-end-