Australia

For winter vacation 2017 I decided to take a trip to Melbourne, Australia and a few other locations in Victoria province located outside of the city.

The weather was amazing and it was so nice being able to escape the cold winters of Korea in exchange for the warm weather in Melbourne. The average temperature when I was there was about 77 degrees fahrenheit or about 25 degrees celcius. Not too cold and not too hot!

The transportation in Melbourne is very easy to use to get around the city but if you like going on walks in beautiful weather like me, you will find that a lot of the places I explored in the city are a good walkable distance from each other. However, if you choose to use the tram there is a free tram zone and then a tram zone that costs money. If you are travelling within the CBD (Melbourne city center) most of the tram stops are free and if you are leaving the city to go somewhere like the zoo or the beach then the tram is not free. It is marked at each stop to help you determine what is included in the free tram zone. If you are not sure then just ask one of the locals.

Also the cafes close around 3 so if you are hoping to try a new cafe in Melbourne (food capital of Australia) you should go for lunch or you will be very sad when you show up at 3pm and get kicked out for coming during closing time. They have some interesting cafes too so don't miss out on your chance to eat at a cafe. Also, food in Melbourne is quite expensive at all restaurants so keep that in mind if you are trying to stick to a budget.

 

 

 

Day 1

 

I flew from Incheon to Singapore. Originally I was going to meet some of my friends from Singapore for dinner once I arrived but my plane was a little bit late so my layover time was shortened. I decided that I would just meet them on the way back to Korea. Also, my friend who works for Singapore airlines was scheduled on a flight to Korea the day that I left Korea. Such bad timing!! Singapore's Changi airport is still a very nice place to have a layover though.

 

From Incheon to Singapore

 

 

 

Day 2

 

I arrived at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport and it was a bit of a rocky welcome to Australia. The airport could have been more organized but after being stuck on the plane for 45 minutes after landing and then being stuck in the airport for another hour waiting for my bags to arrive on a different flight I was ready to see one of my best friends, May ^^.

It was around lunchtime when I finally escaped from the airport so we decided to get lunch. My first meal was a Malaysian dish called "Laksa" which is a noodle soup dish. The broth of the laksa I ate had a base consisting of spicy curry coconut milk and had chicken, prawns, fish cakes, eggplant and many other delicious foods. It was sooo good and you get a huge portion size. The restuarant that I would like to recommend is called "Chef Lagenda Malysian Kitchen". If you have the chance to try it then you should, but if you are not interested in the laksa then they also have many other delicious foods to try. I wish I had a bowl of their Laksa right now, it sounds so good!

Laksa

 

 

 

We stayed at a really nice airbnb in Southbank that had a really nice view. It was also in a walkable location to a lot of the things that I wanted to do, it just depends on if you like walking and if you have the time to walk.

 

 

 

 

View from our airbnb during the day.

 

Also, if you are a Delta skymiles frequent flyer you should book your airbnb through deltaairbnb.com up until April 30th 2017. They have a promotion to earn 3 miles for every $1 spent on airbnb but it has to be through this website and you have to enter your frequent flyer number. So if you and your friends are splitting the cost of an airbnb and it is put on your credit card you can get a decent amount of skymiles added to your account! And if this is your first stay with airbnb then you could get an additional 2,000 miles added to your account. Just something to keep in mind if you are a frequent flyer like me and enjoy the benefits of using mileage.

 

 

 

Day 3

This was my first day in Melbourne to explore the city alone. I decided not to use the tram this day because I just wanted to enjoy the wonderful weather. My first stop was at the Yarra river that cuts the city in half between the northern part of Melbourne and Southbank. I walked along the Yarra river at Batman park and decided that I should get a small snack to eat and have a picnic while people watching. There were a lot of birds, people, and dogs enjoying the view of the Yarra river too. Some people also wanted to go on a helicopter tour of Melbourne so they signed up and loaded into the helicopter that was parked on the helicopter pad in the Yarra river and took off for their expensive aerial tour.

 

 

 

 

Batman park on the northern side of the Yarra river.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Along the Yarra river on the south.

 

 

 



 

Next I explored Flinders street and found flinders station and federation square. There are a lot of places to eat lunch and it is very crowded in this part of the city but I did not eat there because I was meeting my friend for lunch when she got off work for her break. When we met up we went to the Emporium, which is a shopping mall (higher end like Somerset for all my Michigan friends who know what I mean) and had lunch. I ate a burrito from Guzman y Gomez and then we went out for some frozen yogurt at Yo-art!

 

 

 

 

Spicy chicken burrito

 

 



 

 

 

After my friend went back to work and I went exploring some more I decided to eat at "Yuzu cafe & cuisine" which is a restaurant that specializes in Japanese cuisine. It is located down a small lane off of Collins street. If you cannot find it then google maps is a good resource to use. The staff was very friendly, welcoming, and polite and they were very knowledgable about the menu and the drinks you can order from the bar. I recieved a few recommendations from my wonderful waitress and tried so many delicious foods! Happy hour is from 5pm-7pm for $10 a drink which is a good deal for how expensive Australia can be.

 

 

 

Sake blossum

 

 

 



 

Sashimi platter with Salmon, Tuna, and Whitefish! The Whitefish was the best. It was my first time trying it.

 

 

 

Espresso Martini

 

 

 

Yuzu roll

 

 

 

Terriyaki beef with rice

 

 

 

 

Yuzu cafe~

 

 



 

 

No amaretto sours so the awesome bartender hooked me up with a whiskey sour.

 

 

 

Then I decided to go in search of some dessert. I don't always eat dessert but I was on vacation so why not! I found some delicious bakeries and got some donuts. Fresh baked donuts not preordered like the kind in Korea at Dunkin Donuts. I think Melbourne is an awesome place for people who like to eat good food!

 

 

 

This donut shop has expensive doughnuts but these doughnuts are the kind that definitely cannot be found at your local Dunkin Donuts. Each donut has a special name, but I can't remmeber the name of the nutella donut.

 

 

 

 

Nutella doughnut. The inside was filled with nutella and the outside was covered in cinnamon and sugar. I couldn't eat the whole thing in one sitting. It was sugar overload.

 

 

 

 

The slim shady. Just a regular donut dipped in a glaze and covered with mini M&Ms.

 

Day 4

I treated myself to a wine tasting with my friends through the tour group "Dancing Kangaroos" the tour was "The Epic Valley Tour". This was an awesome tour that took place in the Yarra Valley region of Australia outside of the city and I am very thankful that my first official wine tasting experience was through this group. Our tourguides were very knowledable, energetic and fun. They went beyond the boring "And if you look to your right you see a field...(in monotone)" and actually took the time to get to know a little bit about everyone. They also told us about the history and stories of the vineyards and made an upbeat atmosphere with their awesome playlist. They even went a different route than usual since it was Valentine's Day, so we got to see a more scenic route on the way to the wineries. And for those of you who prefer smaller groups of people (like me) this is a great group size with no more than 11 people per tour.

 

 

If you want to look at their tours: http://www.dancingkangarootours.com/yarra-valley-winery-tours

 

 

We went to 3 different wineries and sampled a good selection of wines.

 

1. St. Hubert's Cellar door

 

        My favorite wine was the Roussanne, if you go please try it. The supply is very limited in

        Australia due to the lack of grapes grown for making this sort of wine. I wanted to buy some to

        bring back to Korea but it would be difficult to bring it on the plane with me. They only export

        by internet sales to U.S, U.K, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan.

 

 

 

This glass was dedicated to Melode. ^^

 

 

 

A view of the first winery

 

Level shot! May and Kun, a lovely couple!

 

 

 

The Harvest Specials

 

 

 

 

The list of wines we were able to taste and their prices per bottle at St. Huberts.

 

 

 

2. Helen and Joey Estate

 

       This winery makes a good Cabertnet Sauvignon but is also well known for its Pinot Noir and

       Chardonnay.

 

 

 

The second winery

 

 

 

 

The landscape was pretty

 

 

 

The list of wines we were able to try at Helen and Joey's.

 

 

 

 

 

The three of us with the pretty background. Too bad the camera wasn't turned the other way to get more of the background.

 

3. Yering Farm

 

        This winery is also located on an apple orchard so they are not only famous for wine but also for

         their Pink Lady Apple Syder (Syder is the correct spelling, but I unfortunately cannot 

         remember the reason why it is spelled with an S)!

 

 

 

 

Walking up the path to the wine shop and our third wine tasting.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was a really cool looking wine rack but the picture didn't turn out very good because of the lighting. You can see the outline of it though.

 

 

 

 

The boards in the background had the names of all of the wines we were able to taste at our third tasting of the day including the Pink Lady Apple Syder.

 

 

 

 

 

More wines on display

 

 

 

 

Drinking our Pink Lady Apple Cider

 

 

 

After the wine tasting we went to a dairy farm called "YV (Yarra Valley) dairy" for a cheese tasting. The cheese was good and we ended up buying some Ashed Goat Cheese that we would snack on every night. It was very creamy in texture.

 

 

 

 

 

We got to taste most of these cheeses! And they were all delicious except for the one with dill spice. I don't like the taste of dill. But cheese is my favorite food and goes well with wine so this was of course a highlight in my long day.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to buy an Ashed goat cheese pyramid which was very creamy.

 

 

 

Then they were also selling homemade jam so we bought some of the Spiced syrian fig jam to try.

 

 

 

For lunch we ate pizza and risotto at a cute restaurant called, "Vintage & Co cafe". I recommend the vegetarian risotto although all of the food is good, the vegetarian risotto was my favorite. You sit down at a long table with the other people from around the world that join your tour and have to chance to meet each other better if you are with a more social group of course. Sorry no photos???

After lunch we went to the "YV chocolaterie & Ice creamery" for some dessert.

 

 

 

 

This was a huge chocolaterie and creamery. They have so many different kinds of chocolates to buy, so I of course bought some chocolates to bring back to Korea with me. The ice cream also looked good (they had peanut butter flavor) but I was so full from lunch that I didn't try any. Regrets!! And if it is too much chocolate for you to handle there are also lamas in the field that you can maybe pet? haha.

 

 

 

Our last stop was at a brewery, "Napoleone Brewery and Ciderhouse".

 

 

 

 

I think the mountains in the background look great!

 

 



 

Never-ending rows of grape vines!

 

 

 

 

 

Future wine!

 

 

 

A close up of future wine!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kun, May, and I

 

 

 

 

 

Walking into the brewery

 

 

 

 

The inside of the Napoeone brewery in the Yarra Valley region of Australia.

 

Outside the brewery next to the pond.

 

 

^^

Day 5

 

Gardens, Queen Victoria Market and the Melbourne Museum.

Melbourne is a really pretty city. They have many parks and gardens to enjoy the warm weather in. The first garden I went to was the Carlton gardens which is located right outside of the Royal Exhibition building and the Melbourne museum.

 

 

 

 

 

Carlton gardens pond with some birds justing chilling in the shade. This was actually the hottest day of my trip with the high being 88 degrees Fahrenheit. It was wonderful feeling it in the middle of winter when I am used to being cold.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open fields where people in Melbourne come to read, nap, tan, and more. It is outside the Royal Exhibition building which is next to the Melbourne museum.

 

 

 

 

The Royal Exhibition Building

 

 

The second garden I vistited was the Flagstaff gardens. This was later in the day so it may have been more popular because the work day had finished. There were so many dogs going for walks and playing fetch. I wish I could have brought Hodu. I think he would have loved it here. This is also the garden that is close to Queen Victoria Market.

 

 

 

 

The Flagstaff gardens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third garden that I visited (on a different day) was the Royal Botanic garden. This garden is located south of the Yarra river. Some of the locals told me that this garden was their favorite to go to. The view is the prettiest. There are other gardens you can visit in Melbourne but these were the only ones I had time to visit. I have no pictures though???

 

 

I also planned to check out the Queen Victoria Market, which is one of the largest outdoor markets in Australia. They are open from 8am-2pm everyday except on Mondays and Wednesdays. Mondays they are closed all day but on Wednesdays instead of being a day market the hours change to 5pm-10pm transforming it into a night market. There are so many vendors to buy things from and so many delicious foods and drinks to eat. It is definitely a good place to hang out on a warm summers night with family and friends. They even have a stage with live entertainment of musicians from all backgrounds. I saw some pretty good violinists.

Also there are two parts to the market. One is where you can buy clothes, handmade items, and the many delicious foods mentioned above and then there is another part of the market that sells fresh produce, fresh dairy products, and fresh fish and other meats. It was definietly an interesting place to visit and see.

The only negatives are it gets really crowded really fast and it gets smokey in the market sometimes from all of the grilling of food, but it definitely smells delicious! I would definitely recommend anyone travelling to Melbourne to check it out.

 

 

 

 

It was hard to get pictures because of how many people there were. I tried my best to keep faces out of the pictures so I wouldn't get yelled out by random strangers wondering why I took a picture of them. But even if the faces were recognizable I would cover them with a kakotalk peach like in some photos of my Taman Negara, Malaysia page.

 

 

 

 

More people and some shops set up to buy from.

 

 

Smoke from all of the food grilling. Large crowds of people.

 

It was a Wednesday so I went to the summer night market instead of the morning market which is every other day the markets are open.

 

 

Anyone who knows me knows that I really love history, so I wanted to learn more about the history of Melbourne as well as the Aboriginal people of Australia, so I took a trip to the Melbourne museum, which is open from 10am-5pm.

 

 

 

 

It was really interesting to learn about the aboriginal people of Australia, but also very sad, since they were also people that were victims of British colonization and are still struggling to this day for the recognition of their rights as the indigenous people of Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a picture of a Diprotodon which is thought to be the largest marsupial to ever live and is thought to be related to the wombat! Unfortunately they are extinct, but I think this is one of my favorite extinct animals to have learned about so far. It is kind of cute!

 

 

 

 

A picture of the Royal Exhibition Building from the front.

 

 

 

 

Some of the earliest known weapons of the aboriginal people and a historic boomerang.

 

 

 

 

This art piece looked really cool but the picture did not turn out well due to the eerie lighting. It is a picture of the aboriginals seeing the first ship that arrived in Australia from Great Britain back before colonization began.

 

 

 

 

Canoe

 

 

 

 

A turtle just because I like them.

 

 

 

There were also other exhibits about walking with dinosaurs, marine life, the mind and dreaming, and a small section on Pacific Islanders that I loved reading about.

 

 

 

 

 

Sails

 

The "Moana" boat but the angle was bad so you can't see all of the boat.

 

 

 

The sails from a different angle.

 

 

 

 

I learned that Lyndon B. Johnson was the first U.S. president to visit Australia.

 

 

 

 

Then I went walking with the dinosaurs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And they tell the children to feel the dinosaur poo.

 

 

Day 6

 

Beach day at St. Kilda beach.

The tram was super easy to use to get to St. Kilda beach. It was a beautiful day to go to the beach. The area has many cafes to eat at, a huge beach front to swim and relax, and a long pier to walk along. I was on the side of the beach where dogs are allowed to come and play. There were so many happy dogs playing fetch in the water. I wished Hodu could have been there.

 

 

 

 

The pier from the beach.

 

 

 

 

Someone paddle boarding.

 

 

 

 

The boats. I miss summer time in Michigan!

 

 

 

 

My pigeon friend.

 

 

 

 

The waves were growing!

 

 

 

 

Nice white caps in the distance.

 

 

 

 

A guy kite boarding. It looked cool but I wanted to try surfing.

 

 

 

 

The swimming side of the pier. It looked a lot deeper.

 

 

 

 

The boats from the pier.

 

 

 

Kite boarding

 

 

 



 

And of course the pier! If you want to see the baby penguins at sunset you need to go past the building onto the rocky area.

 

 

 

 

The city skyline of Melbourne from the Pier.

 

 

 

  

Those blues are so calming.

 

 

 

 

 

 Another park you need to cross before you get to the beach at St. Kilda.

 

 

Day 7

The Melbourne Zoo since I like looking at animals!

 

 

 

 

 Map of the zoo~

 

 

 

The duck-billed platypus! I heard it is called an 오리너구리 (duck raccoon) in korean? I love it!

 

 

 

 

No flash allowed so it was dark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The giraffes

 

 

 

Koala is an aboriginal word for "doesn't drink" because the Koala gets most of its water source from the gum leaves they eat.

 

Also, you should use recycled toilet paper to help ensure the Koalas aren't displaced from their natural habitats.

 

It is a wombat. Looks a lot like May~~

 

 

 

 

The kangaroo exhibit was closed for petting the kangaroos so I could only see them from a distance. Here is a baby kangaroo.

 

 

 

The other kangaroos were lazy but it was another hot day so I don't blame them.

 

 

 

 

Here is another Tapir. This one is not a Malayan Tapir like the one I saw in the wild in Taman Negara. This is a Brazilian Tapir I believe.

 

 

 

 

I was surprised he wasn't sleeping since they are usually nocturnal but he definitely wasn't feeling social since he had his back to us.

 

 

 

 

Going to see the lions, but unfortunately their last lion had just passed away from renal failure only a week before this picture was taken so I did not get to see any lions.

 

 

 

 

 

Flowers for the lions :(

 

 

 

 

 

Lions

 

 

 

 

They have many species of tortoises so here they are!

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A seahorse

 

 

 

 

The penguins swimming.

 

 

 

The bamboo forest

 

 

 



 

Tiger bridge on the way to the tigers and elephants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

Elephant

 

 

The butterfly house

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Orangutan!

 

 

 

 

 

So many turtles! How many can you see?

 

 

 

Bamboo forest

 

 

 

 



 

Lemur!

 

 

 

 

The ring-tailed lemur!

 

 

 

 

 

Pygmy Hippo

 

 

 

 

Tortoises!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red panda in the treetops

 

 

 

 

Meerkat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Melbourne Zoo has Tapir stuffed animals. One of the best animals in the world. I wanted this so bad but it was $40AUD. I was so surprised that they had them because most zoos do not. One day!

 

 

 

For dinner I had a Calzone from Il Tempo Pizza.

 

 

 

 

 

My tiny espresso!

 

 

Day 8

 

Grampians National Park

The scenic views at The Grampians are great if you have the desire to escape the city. There are many tours you can do so do your research. If you are more interested in hiking the trails then there are tours that will allow you to do so and if you prefer driving up the mountainous terrain then there are tours for that too. But if you prefer to drive up then I recommend just driving yourself and not being part of tour group. The region is very beautiful and the trails are nice too! When it isn't raining!

 

 

 

 

 The mountains

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I like the sky the most in this picture. The nice blue with the puffy white clouds.

 

 

 

 A bee on the mountain flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waterfall and river

 

 

 

 

Baby waterfall!

 

 

 

 

 

All of the waterfalls in this river make up one of the largest chains of waterfalls in Victoria province.

 

 

 

 

 

Later in the day it became a little bit stormy and the fog in the distance began to roll in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a picnic together for lunch at the Grampians. Sandwiches and watermelon. We also met some nice people from Japan and Taiwan.

 

 

 

 

 

I also tried a famous Australian meat pie. They said it was steak but it actually tasted like a pulled pork pie.  I was expecting it to be more savory but there was some sweetness to it. I would eat one again but I would prefer if it included some vegetables.

 

 

 

Day 9

 

The Great Ocean Road is also known as the World War I road because it was a service project created to help employ soldiers that were returning home from war. The funding for the project came from the generous donations of the Australian people who wanted to help their veterans by making sure they had jobs to return to in order to help provide for their families and contribute to society. I thought that was really touching that so many people were willing to donate to the cause. As a result, Australia has a beautiful coastline that is easily accessible to everyone who comes to Melbourne.

 

 

 

 

I was told that along the Great Ocean Road was the best place to try surfing but there was no time and the weather was off. :( But those waves are still pretty!

 

 

 

 

This was at the very beginning of The Great Ocean Road.

 

 

 

 

This is a view of some of the Twelve Apostles. The weather was really stormy at this point. Hail was hitting my face during some of the pictures and videos I took.

 

 

 

 

 

More of the Twelve Apostles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 At one of the viewing spots of more of the Twelve Apostles

 

 

 

 Loch Ard Gorge

 

 

Loch Ard Gorge.

 

 

Day 10

 

The Melbourne Art Gallery.

The Melbourne Art Gallery had an art exhibit on display when I was there by an Artist named David Hockney from the U.K. He is most known for the pieces of art he creates using apple products such as the iphone. I thought that his creations were really cool and it made me wish I had an ipad or an iphone to try and make my own creations. He even made a book dedicated to artwork he created of his two dogs.

 

A creation by David Hockney.

 

 

 

 

My last night in Melbourne celebration with beer and cider with Kun, May, and Min!

 

 

 

 

And our food with the beer of course. Some pizza and french fries (or chips if you prefer).

 

 

 

 



 

The sun was setting! We are near Luna Park, but that is a theme park for children.

 

 

 

The beach and the sunset on my last night. We were on our way to the Penguin March! The baby penguins return to their nests under the Pier at St. Kilda around sunset every night so people go to see the baby penguins as they dry their feathers before going to sleep. They were cute! Also, you cannot touch the penguins thanks to the volunteers that work hard to keep the baby penguins safe!! ^^

 

 

 

 

 



 

Here is one of the penguins but it is hard to see him since you can only use red lights to watch them. The white lights are too bright for them. He is just drying off before heading in for the night.

 

 



Day 11

I began my journey home. I took the airport bus from Southern cross station in Melbourne to Tullamarine airport. It was very simple to find.

 

 

 

I had another layover in Singapore and actually arrived at Changi airport 30 minutes earlier than expected so I met with my friend Cherie for dinner and got an apple pie from Mcdonalds, because you can't get them in Korea. I also tried the sweet chili sauce that is famous in Singapore. It is spicy because they put fresh garlic in their sauce. It was good.

 

 

 

Day 12

 

Relax day before returning to work

I arrived back in Korea at about 5:30 am and decided to have a day of relaxing before returning to work the next day. I found a new book to download and read while resting and cuddling with my little Hodu.

And then it was back to reality and preping for the new school year to start. It is good to be back!

 

** I also have videos but they are going to take some time to load so hopefully I will get those loaded soon.**