Melbourne Holiday 2018 (Day 6, Part 2)

Super excited to be at Mt Buller.  Will let the pics do the talking...

With Mt Buller Cut-Out Stand 

One of the Toboggan areas

Making a Snow Angel! 

The snow was so fine.  Made me think of eating Ice Kacang  

Elyssa playing with a snow ball

Yup, that's hubby at the backgound building his snowman.  Building snowman is hard work! After a while, he found his snow jacket too thick so ended up wearing just a sweater and a tshirt. 

Hard at work 

As for me, I was just happy to sit on the snow. 

Gave up building my snowman

Hubby finally completed his snowman!

Time for a family pic  :-) 

Erin with her daddy 

And of course Mr Snowman...complete with beanie, specs, scarf and some leaves! 

Elyssa with a HUGGE snowball!  It was heavy! 

Headed for lunch after that. And it started snowing. Whee heeeee!!!!! Small specks only but we were all grinning away.

Catching falling snow flakes

Can't quite see from the photo tho

For lunch, I somehow imagined myself sipping on a hot latte and eating a Western meal, whilst overlooking the snow capped moutains of Mt Buller.  But at where we were, the first signs we saw were " Asian food court 100m ahead.  Hot meals".  Hmmm...sounds alright too.

My Won Ton Noodles

Oh gosh.  It was surprisingly goooooood!  

We had fried noodles (lousy) and fish& chips too (decent)

More snow play after lunch. Actually, we didn't want to lug our bulky toboggans so we took the Shuttle bus back to the car park. Found out there's another (nicer) toboggan area near the car park

Isn't this place gorgeous??!!

After a gazillions times of going down and up, we placed the toboggans back in the car.  And off we went for a walk.  Decided to take the Ski Lift (AUD 20 per person for a return trip).

One of the many Ski Lifts 

All strapped in

Hubby's actually afraid of heights.  Look at his expression! haha.

OMG, it was AMAZING!!!

Definitely my favourite part of the trip.  I kept on squealing "OMG...this is Amazing!!!"

At the top 

Ok, this was closer to what I envisioned earlier.

Had our hot chocs and coffee at this lovely cafe  :-) 

When we took the Ski Lift down, it was snowing again.  OMG..... super happy!!!!

We left Mt Buller around 3.30pm. Wish we could stay longer but still had to drive back to Creswick. Luckily it stopped snowing when we were going downhill and we didn't have to use our snowchains.
Dropped off our rented gear and had to start the long drive back.

KFC on the way back. 

Back at Sebel Creswick 

Aaahhhhh.......warm hugs after a long day in the snow. Just lovely! 

-- -End of Day 5---

Melbourne Holiday- Aug 2018 (Day 6, Part 1)

Good Morning Day 6 ! 

Woke up all excited.  Well, I was actually a little groggy since hubs snored the whole night and I couldn't sleep much. But well, ready or not, Mount Buller here we come!

Elyssa and Erin in their Snow Suits

From Merrijig, it was about a 10 minute drive to Mt Buller entrance and then another 20 minute drive up the mountains.  It was mandatory to carry up snow chains for the car wheels and we were originally considering taking the bus instead as we were worried about driving up the mountains in snowy conditions. But the bus fare was like AUD 65 each for such a short journey!!

Decided to drive up in the end.  Cost : AUD 25 for snow chain rental and AUD 44 (Online rate. Payment at entrance was AUD 55) for park entrance and parking.

First signs of snow.

OMG... we were all super excited and started exclaiming in delight! 

And a little bit more..

 And more...

Check this out!

Snow covered cars 

White Wonderland

Oh, so beautiful ! Even the trees look white here. 

All so happy tho we haven't actually gotten out of the car yet.  Haha. 

Found out parking and then put on our snow boots.  Suuuuper excited!!

First time touching snow 

Photo taken at carpark 

Took the Free Bus Shuttle and headed for the ski village 

So beautiful! 

Hubs, Elyssa and Erin

& plenty of snow!!! 

 --to be continued  ( I need to sort of a gazilion photos first.  ;-)  )

Melbourne Holiday - Aug 2018 (Day 5)

Good morning Day 5!

We had only one big item on our itinerary for the day - get ourselves to Delatite Apartments Merrijig about 3.5 hours away.  The plan was to stay there for the night before heading up to Mount Buller for snow the next morning. Just 4 of us, with my parents opting to stay behind at Sebel Creswick.

Our breakfast fry-up 

Sausages, bacon, eggs and salad 

Sleepy faces at the breakfast table 

Enjoyed breakfast at a leisurely pace since we had more time

I think it was close to 11am by the time we headed out!

Stopped by for coffee at the petrol station

Pretty cheap!  AUD 2 for a large cup of latte

Girls were thrilled when they saw Cup Noodles!  haha

Promo price at AUD 1 per cup.  We got 3 cups and also bought Hungry Jacks burger set to share 

Happy with cup noodles that they normally don't get to eat 

Did a pitstop at Mansfield town as well, to rent our snow gear for the next day.  Went to a few shops to compare prices before settling on Ski Chute 4. (actually, another shop was slightly cheaper but the sales personnel wasn't as helpful). We needed to rent snow chains for the car wheels as well and needed advice on that.

We ended up spending on:
1. Snow suit + Boots for both girls : AUD 35 each
2. Jacket + Snow pants + Boots for hubby : AUD 30
3. Snow pants + Boots for me : AUD 20
4. Tobbagons x 4 : AUD 10 each
5. Snow chains : AUD 25

Expensive affair indeed!!!  Plus we had to buy snow gloves.  AUD 20 each x 3 pairs.

Erin in her snow suit.  

Doesn't she look adorable?? 

Got some groceries at IGA then we headed to Delatite Apartments.

Delatite Apartments

Photo taken the next day.  It was already dark when we arrived. 

We never met any of the apartment staff.  Got the combination lock number via SMS and that was it. 

One queen size bed and one double decker bed

Girls squealed in delight when they saw the double decker! 

Fooling around during dinner.

And yup, Cup noodles again!  (plus soup and roast chicken from IGA).  They couldn't believe their luck in eating cup noodles twice in a day  :-) 

 Monkeys up above

Slept early that night. All ready to wake up early for our snow adventure at Mount Buller!

---End of Day 5---

Melbourne Holiday - Aug 2018 (Day 4)

Good Morning Day 4 !
Plan for the day was to explore the small towns of Trentham and Daylesford.


Started the day with breakfast (or more like brunch by the time we got there) at Redbeard Historic Bakery in Trentham.

From the net:
RedBeard is famous for its organic, sourdough bread, baked in a huge wood-fired,19th century masonry oven. Enjoy delicious, contemporary Australian café food with excellent coffee, local wines, beers and ciders. Take home a loaf fresh out of the oven. 
Few bakeries in Australia create handmade, organic, sourdough bread. Even fewer use a 140 year old Scotch oven. 

Our Late Breakfast 

Just the food 

 Freshly baked bread for sale 

 Outside the bakery 

We stopped by Passing Clouds Winery after that.  More of a lunch place so we decided to skip.

Next stop : Daylesford Cidery and Tavern.

Ordered a taster palette of 7 ciders 

That's how you carry the cups to the table!  How innovative 

Highlight for the girls was this super friendly dog who kept wanting to play ball! 

 Running around the cidery gardens 

For the following stop, we set our Waze to a honey place as we wanted to get some honey.  Turned out it was an unmanned stall with stocks and samples of honey! hehe.  We bought 2 pots of Manuka honey from the stall.  Just dropped the correct cash amount into the box and went on our way.

Honey Stall

Stopped by Lake Daylesford too.

It was pretty cold by the lake! 

Quack, Quack 

Hmmmm.... sign at one the restaurants.  A bit snobbish aint' it?? 

We headed to Daylesford town center after that.  Parked at Woolsworth parking lot to get some groceries.

Dark Chocolates 

Papa asked Mama to get some dark chocolates for him.  Mama went to this shelf and went "Which one?????"  Hahahha.  70%, 78%?, 85%, 90% ?

More chocolates at Daylesford Chocolate Mill

Handcrafted Chocolates 

Huge cups of Hot Chocolates 

Erin spotted this wombat and asked for a photo.  And did this pose. Haha 

Spotted a rainbow! 

Headed to Target after that for some retail therapy.  This time everyone bought something! Pretty good deals. Nice looking long sleeve t-shirts at AUD 3 only!  Elyssa and her Ah Mah now have matching Ts.  :-)

Dinner that night

Lasagna, Butter chicken, soup and salad. 

Study time after dinner 

---End of Day 4 ---