The Cube

A couple of my friends visited me early last month so I joined them and played tourist in Melbourne. One of the activities was a wine tour to Yarra Valley. My friends looked up the tour and booked it through Klook. Not sponsored so we paid and showed up at the picked up point at Arts Centre Melbourne Spire. Thank you Melbourne for a fairly good weather day. 

Our first stop was the popular Yering Station Winery. I didn't have a good experience the last I visited Yering Station Winery but it was remedied this time. The staff who gave us the guided wine tasting was excellent and witty, which attributed to a positive experience. 

After the wine tasting session, we were given some time to walkabout at the grounds. I had very similar photos from previous visit too.

We then moved on to the second winery, Soumah. Soumah is an abbreviation for "South of Maroondah", a highway in Victoria. 

After wine tasting, we get to choose which wine we want for lunch. We were given a full glass of the wine we chose to accompany our lunch. Lunch selection was pre-ordered when we were in the bus on the way to Yarra Valley. 

Antipasti was shared and my lunch selection was the Fettine (pan grilled minute steak, served medium, garlic butter roasted mushroom cap, pecorino polenta chips, glazed carrots, cavolo nero, Syrah jus) and paired with The Butcher. One of my friends chose grilled barramundi, served with steamed green beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic and caper broth. Another has intolerance to dairy products so her perocino polenta chips were swapped to a different side. 

This venue gave a more upmarket feel but the wines weren't to my taste unfortunately but beautiful grounds though. We did a quick round the lake. 

A couple of the tour members opted for gin tasting and they were ushered to the Four Pillars Gin across the road. From the wine tour organiser website, it looks like there also also an option to switch to beer. We continued with wine option and stayed at our fourth tasting at Payten & Jones. I prefer the wines from the first 2 wineries comparatively. 

Last stop was chocolate and/or ice-cream dessert before we were dropped back in Melbourne. We chose ice-cream.

Mount Baw Baw is a snow resort located closest to Melbourne. I tagged along a ski trip with sister and family during their visit to Melbourne. I was going to skip posting about this as I have zero contribution to this trip. But.. here are a couple photos since I have taken them. Sis and brother-in-law planned everything - accommodation, getting to Mt Baw Baw and ski lesson. I pretty much just needed to pack my own bag and go, even then - I forgot my gloves. Haha. 

We went in July and the snowfall wasn't great. It was our first time skiing except for my BIL so sis and I were mostly at the magic carpet area. The kids were doing much better than us. 

In need of a holiday but I wasn't organised enough to plan for the Good Friday long weekend break. By the time I got to looking up anything, there were all getting too expensive. So I decided on a day trip on a Sunday (nonetheless) on a normal weekend. Not public holiday, not long weekend. I did try to coincide it with a local market which happens first Sunday of every month but i was short on time and didn't even end up visiting the market. Ha! So much for all the planning. 

As I started to search for possible day trip options, I stumbled upon Castlemaine. Castlemaine is a former gold mining town in the Goldfields region about 120 kilometres northwest from Melbourne. It is only an hour and a half train ride away from Melbourne. As I wanted to maximise on things to do, I decided to make the trip on the first Sunday of the month. 

I only have 4 items for the day trip but only managed 2.5 of them? Anyway, here are all 4 if anyone is interested. 

It is like a hub for those looking for art, vintage stuff and food. Historically it was a woollen mill back in 1875. I didn't have a lot of time to poke my noise in all the places but worth a visit. I was seated next to the chimney when I had my meal in Das Kaffeehaus. 

On reading that it is Viennese coffee house serving traditional Austrian food, I am sold - will have food there and that was my first stop on arrival. 

I don't usually have cream with my coffee but can't go past Vienna coffee (double shot with cream). All these were my brunch - cheese kransky served with roll, warm sauerkraut and mustard AND a toppenstrudel. They don't look big but I was stuffed! Food was delicious and my bursting tummy was happy. 

Beechworth has a well-preserved historical town, also in the north-east direction of Victoria. It was just an hour away from Bright by car/bus. As of 2016, Beechworth had a population of about 3,800. 

Likely many other towns, Beechworth was a gold producing region in the past, circa 1852-1857. Walking around Beechworth, one would see many references to Ned Kelly - an Australian bushranger, outlaw, gang leader and convicted police-murderer. He was known for wearing a suit of bulletproof armour in his final shootout with the police. Kelly was trialed at the Beechworth Historic Courthouse and held in the Beechworth Gaol. 

I rocked up to the Tourist Information Center and they prompted offered me a map. The 2 staffs in the center were very friendly and offered options of things to do. It was a hot day so their recommendations on the particular day of my visit was - ice-cream, cooling down at the Lake Sambell Reserve, visit the Bilson's for free cordials, indoor options of museum or courthouse. 

Whilst I didn't enter any of the historical sites, I saw this Telegraph Station just next to the courthouse. One could send a message by telegram from this Historic Telegraphy Station by morse code to anywhere in Australia at the cost of $2. I think that's pretty cool. 

Saw another echidna at the beginning of my walk and got pretty excited. Me, not the echidna. 

I was the only crazy who walk the Gorge Walk, I did not meet anyone on foot. There were cars, less than 10 but all stopped at The Cascades. When I was at this 'lookout' place, a car slowed down but didn't stop. 

Can you see the 'The Three Sisters' sign? I had a good laugh, you might if you heard of the other Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains.  

This was where the others headed to, The Cascades. When I walked passed, there were 3 cars parked at this area.  

I continued my walk back to the historic center. By this time I was motivated by promise of ice-cream at the end of the walk. 

Most of the shops were closed by evening. I decided to go for a walk after dinner, it was definitely more quiet, less people and not hot at this time. 

 

I made it to Lake Sambell but the sun has set. When I got back to Camp Street, just managed to catch the last light before it got dark. 

Beechworth Honey Discovery is located in the historic Bank of NSW and provides information on honey and bees. I just happened to walk pass as it was just next to my accommodation in Beechworth. There is a separate honey shop at the end of Ford Street.