Melbourne Trip: Yarra Valley and Healesville

June is an interesting month for me. I have been anticipating this trip to Melbourne for a really long time. I've booked the air ticket about a year ago. Well, because of a fren (Yen Min) who can consider settling down in Melbourne pester me to visit her for years, i finally decide to go despite not knowing what will my financial status going to be. And i did not regret my decision. Everytime when i visited a country, it add lots knowledge to my pocket. I will start to see things differently. Guess this Melbourne trip did the same. And this trip make me realise that the planning that i have all this while is the right one =)

Date: 12.06.2011 (Sunday)

Visited Place: Yarra Valley

Yarra Valley is a valley that is full of vineyard. I was there during the winter. Therefore the view of the wineyard is not pretty as most of the plants is drying up and going into hibernation. My fren told me that the best season to visit the vineyard would be the in November and December. But i would like to visit again during autumn. They describe the forest and the plants will look like in fire and it is really eye-catching. I really wish i can see them =)

It was about 2 hours drive from the city. We picked the Yarra Yerring to have a visit and have a look on the vineyard and also the scenery.

the back of the vineyard where wine is stored

beautiful farm scene with all the cattles and goats



place where the grape is ferment to turn to wine

 Well, there is no touring given at this vineyard. So is the rest. But you can explore and ask any question to anyone around the vineyard (of course the workers that stationed in the vineyard). They are very friendly and willing to share the knowledge and information that they have. Of course, no touring is given therefore, it is zero cost to visit this place. We do not hav to pay to visit =)


in front of the shop



the wine racks

wine testing station

 Well, i did not know that there is this free wine testing in all vineyard. Basically you can drink as much as you want and walk out from the shop without buying anything and visit the next vineyard. If you have the guts =) Some of their wine are really good. But i find them really troublesome. So i end up did not get any of them. It is not cheap either. Haha..

testing corner

 Beside the wine testing station, there is the testing corner. There are jam, and sos and all sort of seasoning made of wine. I like one of the sos, but i could not think of what my mum can use the sos for? i end up did not buy that and the only thing i leave with is the jam. Erm, it is the wine jem and it tasted a lil spicy =)

lavendar farm

 There is this big lavendar plants in front of the entrance. Due to winter, the lavendar is not growing at all. No purple colour. This is where my friend remind me again that i should back during the spring and winter. Haha..

my best frens

in front of the grape farm

 See all the plants behind me, it is all yellow due to the winter. If not, i can imagine that this must be a really beautiful vineyard =)

Date: 12.06.2011 (Sunday)
Visited Place: Healesville Sanctuary

After the vineyard, we head to the Healesville Sanctuary. It is about 1 hours to 1 1/1 hours lar. We had our lunch before we go there. I had subway =)
Healesville Sanctuary is like a zoo. Place where we can see animals. Many people did not know a little secret that belong to me, i really love animals and i love to visit zoo =) Of course, i do not like them near me. I just like to watch from a distance. Seeing my reaction toward dog and cat, people will definitely assume that i do not like the zoo. haha.. But to be honest, i really love them =)
Of course this need entrance fee. I am young and fresh so i go in with student price. I paid about AUD18 for the visit. DUN CONVERT!

healesville sanctuary

with the emu

come Melbourne to see him.. haha..

with the koala

the koala is awake to greet me

I almost forget that koala can only be seen in Australia until my friend remind me that i should visit the sanctuary. And the main reason of my visit is to see mr. Koala and also Mr. Kangaroo as well as Mr. Tasmania Devil and Mr. Platipus. The sanctuary is well maintain. It is clean and organise. It does not look dirty and were stationed with lots ranger around the sanctuary. They will tell stories and facts about the animals and we can shower them with question. And most important is they carry their smile when they are on duty and they are polite to everyone of the customer. In this sanctuary, you are given the chance to get near to the animal of course, provided if you pay extra. I think we pay AUD10 extra per animal to get a close up. Well, it's depend how you define worthy. By paying the extra AUD10, you get to take picture upclose with the animals and fed them.

CRAP MAN - he is the super hero that persuade citizen to use recycle toilet paper

 I realise that Australian, they are really environmental concern. everywhere you go, you see recycle bin and the people actually dispose their rubbish according to the type of rubbish. Therefore, we met a superhero that concern about the environment too. He introduce himself as Crap Man. His duty is to tell the citizen to use recycle toilet paper and how this recycle toilet paper is going to save the earth and human being at the end  =) He is funny. He actually have a toilet paper roller at the back of him.

with the kangaroo

 New information i know from this sanctuary is both baby Kangaroo and baby Koala is call Joey. I know baby Kangaroo is called Joey. I didn know that baby Koala is call the same.

me with the 1st blue eye kiddo


the baby joey i met at the jumping field. The spongy thing behind us is for us to jump and feel the feeling of being a kangaroo =) i enjoyed though i was forced to jump because I AM A TOURIST.. haha..

the medical center for the animal

This is something unusual, they actually have this medical center in the middle of the sanctuary to show the public on how they treat the injured animal and how we suppoer to take care of them when we saw one. As they emphasize a lot on the freedom of wildlife, you can actually bump into a wildlife while driving along the highway. I bump into something when i am on the way back to the city from Philip Island =)

hearts of some animals

 One of the specimen i took from the medical center. It is the size of the heart for few animals. i think the smallest one belong to the snake. Well, by the time we finish the whole sanctuary, the sun is down. Sun off duty around 5pm during the winter. There isn anywhere else we can go after the sun is down. Therefore we headed home.

mexico food for dinner

I had mexico food that night for dinner thanks to Eva's bro who work in the mexico restaurant. the food is awesome and the boss charged us 50% for the dinner. 1st night ended ok. More excitement to come =)