Sovereign Hill Melbourne

Sovereign Hill is a place that you will make you feel that you are in the olden days in Australia, somewhere around 1850’s. The houses, people and even the animal was all properly done and dressed up. I believe even the things sold there were similar to that era. Don’t believe, below is some pictures for you to see.
A photo of me outside of Sovereign Hill and on the right is a statue outside the gold museum.

Old Soldiers patrolling the area and Methodist Church.

Sights of the transportation system.

Cowboy hat for sell.

Red Hill Mining.

Me at the cinema ticket booth.

Three Women enjoying themselves.

Kitchen.

Bowling Alley.

Some old photos.

Evaluation

Do not have much time to continue posting on my Melbourne trip. Have been busy doing evaluation for the staff. It’s quite a tough task. Anyway I guess most of you guys are bore seeing my Melbourne photos and short notes on the trip. Coming back to the evaluation, I have been doing this for few years and I still find it difficult. How is one suppose to put a point to someone performance? It’s so subjective. My 90 points could be meant for Bill Gates and another colleague 90 points could be meant for Krisbeardin and Hairymargin (just a fictitious name for actor of dumb and the dumber).

Especially for staff that newly joins, it’s even difficult. They are just so “new” to this dog eat dog world. They still look at the world through the eyes of an innocent child. Everything could still be one piece of white paper. If the points given are bad it could even cause them to lose confidence. It could be a jolt to them as most I believe is academically strong but they still lack the “ohm”.

Or should I just introduce them to the reality of this world, shake their confidence a bit and let them grow up, slowly blooming. I guess I will do just that by putting what I feel is an honest assessment of them. Oh as for dumb and dumber, I just evaluated you also and my cross has just gone to the other box.

Ballarat WildLife Park Melbourne

There are 2 tours on Sovereign Hill to choose from. We decided to choose the package with the wildlife, paying an extra of 8 AUD. The place is called Ballarat Wildlife. Hence is another round of Kangaroos but this time, is the Kangaroos that chased after us. I believe they are hungry. Below is a video on these friendly Kangaroos.

Some photos, started with a Kangaroo and a Duck below.

A Kaola.

A wombat.

Great Ocean Road Part 5 @ Port Campbell and London Bridge, Melbourne

This is the last post on Great Ocean Road. We spend our tea break at Port Campbell town. When I walked into an eatery all I saw is fish and chips, chicken sandwich and etc So I told my wife that I will spend my time walking outside looking for some photo opportunity while she wait for her tea break of chicken sandwich. Below are some of the photos I got.

As I was walking further I saw this lady fishing. The water was quite rough, wave after wave it pounds the bank.

This is the view looking into the town.

A view on my way back, a sight of a loving couple.

The next stop is London bridge.

After the stop at London Bridge we make our way back to city center, it was quite a tiring day as the schedule was quite pack and is a long drive. We spend most of the time on the road. I believe the best way to enjoy the Great Ocean Road is to travel and stay overnight at hotel or guest house along the way. That will enable you to stop anytime along the road and take photos of this beautiful coast line of Australia.

Great Ocean Road Part 4 @ Loch Ard Gorge Apostles Melbourne

This is another famous attraction. There is a Japanese group filming the place. They took up the best position for some great photos. As they were introducing the place, the word Loch Ard Gorge was mentioned a few times. I waited for quite sometime until I got fed up and took whatever pictures I can. They have the luxury of time staying at the place for as long as they can but we were on a tight schedule. Click onto the picture below and you will get another view.


And it was drizzling and it was really cold, my hand was shaking when I took photos. Here you could see me suiting up to warm myself up. This is the view you see when you stand with you back facing the ocean.

Great Ocean Road Part 3 @ Twelve Apostles Melbourne

When we arrive at 12 Apostle, it was windy. The sky is pretty dark on one side and bright on the other. The wind was blowing ferociously. I understand that one of the rocks collapsed due to erosion which is actually how it was formed initially. Here are some photos.


This is the bright side.

And when we about to leave, the dark clouds seems to be moving further away.

And a video to share.

Next post will be on Loch Ard Gorge.

Great Ocean Road Part 2 @ Melbourne

After moving away from the historical sign board of Great Ocean Road, we were off, twisting and turning on the road again. It was quite a curvy road and the bus is a big bus. As I was enjoying the scenery, I notice my wife was closing her eyes. The motion sickness has gotten her. She was trying hard to keep the billy tea down. Luckily nothing comes out as we slowly make our way to Apollo Bay for our lunch.

We ate hokkien mee, refer to my post on food in Melbourne. I think it taste like Japanese Mee more as it is sweet. I guess Aussies has never tried the true hokkien mee. After lunch we went searching for motion sickness pill and of course along the way some photos….


And a video showing the ocean and beach along the road.


What is the main attraction along Great Ocean Road? There are a lot and of course its scenic coast line and the main attraction should be 12 Apostles at Port Campbell National Park.

Will continue in Part 3

Great Ocean Road Part 1 @ Melbourne

What so great about a stretch of road beside an ocean? We woke up as early as 6:15am to get ready, dressed up, and ate our breakfast and subsequently wait for our pick up bus. We actually wonder why there is a need to do so. We were like Zombies. This is of course due to a late cold chilly night of penguin watching.

We find out the reason when we were being tossed from left and right along the way. My wife already starts to feel giddy and nausea. It was a long drive before we reached our first stop which is Bell Beach. We stopped there for our morning “Billy Tea”. It was drizzling and it was cold, very cold.

Will continue after my weekly market trip....
And I have some fun in lessening my "load" on one the most colorful toilet I have seen in my entire life.

After the morning tea, we continue our way until we reached the “Grean Ocean Road Sign”, it was still drizzling and the skies is cover with dark gloomy clouds, I guess now is its turn to lessen its load.

Cowes by the Sea Side @ Melbourne

After watching the penguin parade, we stop at Cowes for our dinner. There are a few restaurants that were still open in this quiet town. There are a few choices, like Italian pizza, Curries and etc. As usual we ended up eating Chinese food at Wing Lock Chinese Restaurant. Nothing much, just would like to note this down in case I could not remember the sequence of events in this memorable vacation and of course some pictures to share.

Penguin Parade at Phillip Island Melbourne

What is the main attraction in Phillip Island? Most of us who have went there will definitely shout Penguin Parade, tiny little creature, waddle slowly in group returning to shore at dusk after a long day of hunting in the ocean. They actually wait until its dark enough with their dark colour “coat” that act as a perfect camouflage. This gives them the “stealth” capability to avoid being seen by their predator. You could see them slowly emerging from the waves and slowly making their way converging in small little groups. There are times they will turn back if they hear or see anything that could harm them. This is the reason that no cameras or video camera is allowed to be used to capture or to film them. Umm do you think a rebel like me follows rule, wink wink..hahaha

I also manage to capture some pictures of one of them who stay back, most likely a female at the Nobbies, I believe this is legal, hahaha. We were told those who did the hunting were male hence naturally female stays back at the nest. Oh and one interesting thing, I notice when the little penguin making their way up the hill, you could hear noises made by the female calling out to their males, directing them and I did see some immediately mate along the way, hahaha I guess cannot tahan…



And a video of the little penguin at the nobbies and you could see at the end of it I was preparing to take those pictures above.

The Nobbies, Phillip Island Melbourne

A weird name, the Nobbies, but the scenery was quite good. It was a bit dark covered by the cloud hence photo wise is a bit challenging. I got some photos to share most of it has been uploaded in my photoblog and one below here.


And better still a video to share.

Koala Conservation Centre at Phillips Island Melbourne

This next stop is a “safe house” for koala and it charges an entrance fee of 9 Aud per adult. Koala is one of the few cute animals around, in China there is Panda, and in Australia there is Koala. You could see them hanging around in trees, probably due to the liking to the Eucalyptus leaves. We were told that they only spend few hours a day active, the remaining hours is spend hanging around the tree sleeping.

Actually the place is quite confusing there are few places within the compound that you will be able to see this animal. Or you can also wait for the “oohs!” and “Ah!”. You will never fail to hear one, if someone spotted this cute little animal hanging dangerously on the tree bark.

Actually what so cute about this animal, is it the sleepy eyes? Or is it the furs? Or is it their round body? Or their floppy ears? Below is me posing in front of the centre, who is cuter? hahaha...

Warrook Homestead Melbourne

This is a place that we stop along the way to Phillip Island for out afternoon tea break. Its the first place we encountered Kangaroo, not a lot but a few. This is enough to get us into frenzy; we chased them around to have our photograph taken with them. Now looking back the Kangaroo might be thinking that there is a bunch of aliens dressing as human taking photographs with them, hoping to show it back to the folks back home in some planet XYZ.

Here I am posing with a Kangaroo which looks a bit sick. I guess it is sick of people taking photograph of him. The crowds at the back is waiting for their turn. I guess same goes for a movie star or famous personality. Day in day out they are sick of people taking photographs of them. And below a good looking ducks.

And at the back of the place, the scenery were serene and beautiful.

Golden Dragon Hill Temple

Today I was at a temple called Golden Dragon Hill in Rawang. This is where my mom and dad ashes are placed. This temple has grown from just a tiny shack into concrete walls and tiles. My dad has once help to clear the bushes and helps out during the construction and expansion. Today it has even a hostel for monk and nuns. Below is my pictorial journey this morning which ended at 1 Utama.

The corner of the temple and the place where all the joss stick will be put and "wish" request to the god.

The main hall of the temple.

The lovely door that is in the main hall.

The beautiful flowers in the temple and below is pictures from 1 Utama

The concrete jungle.

Fish at the concrete jungle