The Cube

The last out of Melbourne trip I had with sis and family was Yarra Valley. The plan was to have lunch there. Having heard some reviews on Yering Station, we thought of having our lunch there. However it was quite spontaneous so we didn't make any reservation and of course, at such a beautiful Saturday it was fully booked. On hindsight, it was probably a good thing because Yering Station restaurant feels a little too sterile and posh to my liking for a comfortable day out.



We finally settled for lunch at Medhurst Cellar Door and Cafe. This definitely feels more like home and easier on the pocket. I shared a Fisherman's Paddle - 3 fish with salad, crostini and herb mayo ($30) with sis. BIL has issue with seafood so he opted for a Chicken Sambo ($18) and little niece got her own Kid's Cheese Toasty ($7).

Fisherman's paddle

Kid's cheese toasties

No photo of Chicken Sambo because BIL had already started on his meal before we took any photo. Grin. Little niece had bits from the fisherman paddle as she absolutely loved the smokes salmon pate.


Medhurst is after all a cellar so we head over to the tasting counter to kick off our tasting session. I shared with sis as she would need to take over the driving after BIL had a couple of drinks. We decided to open a bottle to have it with our dessert (corkage fee applied though). Of course we had dessert as all good meal finished with a dessert or two. The spread of sweet treats were display on the counter and we have already totally check out the desserts while waiting for our food. ;)


Our pick was vanilla slice after read somewhere that they made very good vanilla slice... and it was! Grin - and the wine as a dessert wine. LOL


Happy tummy makes a happy us. After lunch, we make our way to Domaine Chandon. There seem to be a consensus that Domaine Chandon has the best view among the vineyards, so that's our next stop!


Domaine Chandon's view does live up to it's reputation and the wide open space makes little niece ran happy. This place is definitely more popular comparatively as the crowd is bigger but this is a bigger place too.



Sis and I sat out on this one, only BIL did some wine tasting. Wine tasting is not free at Chandon though. BIL walked away with a bottle to bring to his friend's house for dinner at night.



We decided to return to Yering Station again after Domaine Chandon as we were there for a very short while earlier. In my very humble opinion, of the three wineries we visited Yering Station's view is placed at the third position. I have no comment on the food though as we didn't eat there but as a tourist, the place itself did not carry a friendly vibe.







Wineries done, next up - chocolate!

No - this not edible..

It is not the mannequin, it's the metre long chocolate!

Book or chocolate or both? ;)

And - of course we had to have a takeaway ice-cream for the road trip back ;)



Side note: I think the secret to a good night's sleep is warm feet!

Ok. First things first - because I am in some slow-motion-timing this sand sculpture event has ended for the year 2015. But fear not, I heard this thing is an annual event so there will always be next year.

My initial perception before seeing it was it would be a much bigger event but it was actually quite smallish. Entrance fee was $13.50 per person. I took a train to Frankston and walked to the event site, meeting sis, BIL and little niece there. They met with a friend for brunch and I was being anti-social.

Coming out from Frankston station

It wasn't a long walk from the Frankston train station and the weather was perfect with white clouds dotting the ever blue sky.


It wasn't a long walk but I have no idea how to get there without google maps. I have not been to this suburb before but I noticed a family who looked like they were heading to the beach so I ended up following them. Hehe :)



The sand sculptures were not on the beach though but at a closed off area nearby. I reached before sis and co, so I lingered a little at the front waiting for them. Plus I was starving and texted sis to grab me some food :P


It was a Monday past Easter Sunday on our day of visit and there was an egg hunt activity too. Basically the sand sculptors had sculpted some eggs and we are to count them. Even if you got the count wrong, you still get a chocolate egg, or two. Lol. Anyway, here goes...

Winnie the Pooh and friends

Master Yoda

Darth Vader and co

Jabba the Hut

The adorable R2-D2 and C3PO

The Avengers

Ewoks

Spidey

Simba

Frozen

Peter Pan

The Incredibles

You know them...

Little niece was actually more interested in playing with the sand than looking at any of the sculptures. And yes, this is a lazy post - more pictures than words.


Side note: Time to roll on the bed again!

Two weeks ago as I was doing my laundry round like usual, the washer emitted some irregular sound and I realised the water was not drained out during the rinsing cycle. Um... not good. I'm not thrilled in hand washing my laundry, especially not in winter when most clothing are jumpers, hoodies, etc not to mention the cold water.

Long story short, I did have to hand wash one round of laundry and managed to get a mechanic in to look at my washer the week after. Turns out the culprit was the hair pin above, and yes this hair pin cost me $100. The irony was it has been ages since I used one of these pins. I used to when I bun my hair up but it definitely has been awhile since I last put my hair up in a bun.

So there - remember to check the pockets for foreign objects before putting them in the washer!


Side note: I so need a holiday!

Phillip Island is almost equate to penguin parade. It was the same for us, the main aim was to catch the penguin parade. Of course, there are other attractions but penguin parade wins all. We went on a Easter Sunday and didn't foresee that the tickets for the parade were all sold out when we reached Phillip Island. It was about 5 PM then, so we only managed to visit the Pannys Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

Chocolate penguins

Chocolate high heels

A boy who was there in the shop told me these wall were made of real chocolate... I don't know if they are for sure...

We asked for some samples to try but didn't really like it though I am not sure if we were too disappointed from not being able to see the penguin parade after a 2 hour drive. We had dinner and departed home... and tried again the next day.

Disappointment needs to be remedied, so off we went to see those penguins again. This time we had a bit more time to pop over to The Nobbies, had an early dinner before making our way to the parade.








The photos are all a little gloomy but that's what Melbourne is at the moment, grey and cold. Especially since we were at the sea, it was even colder. We were equipped with beanies, winter jackets, gloves and scarves while waiting for the penguins to return home. We got the 'general viewing' tickets at $24.50 per person. You can also purchase online here. Photos are prohibited to protect our little friends. So you would need to visit Phillip Island for yourselves to see the cute little penguins. ^^


Side note: Am tempted to have a cuppa of coffee... 

I was clueless of Rippon Lea House & Gardens. It was in sis' itinerary because they have an Easter egg hunt activity during the Easter week. I had high hopes that the eggs for the egg hunt were at least egg-shaped. Something like wooden egg but they were not, they were pieces of papers with egg printed on them and laminated. Oh well..


Rippon Lea House & Gardens is 20 minutes away from Melbourne's CBD, located in Elsternwick. It is the last of Australia's grand suburban estates with a 5.7 hectares garden. The mansion was designed in 1868 and was home to two families who collectively lived about 100 years in the estate.

It was initially home to the Sargood family who owned a clothing and drapery firm in Melbourne. In 1903, Sir Sargood was knighted in 1890 and upon his demise in 1903, Lady Sargood sold the property to the Premier of Victoria, Sir Thomas Bent. The next owner moved in to the estate in 1910. His daughter, Mrs Louisa Jones inherited the property in 1935. The estate was passed to the care of the National Trust in 1972 after the passing of Mrs Louisa Jones.


We had a little picnic along with the many people in the expanse field looking at the mansion. There was a live band playing to keep the crowd entertained.


After feeding our tummies, we went inside the mansion for a visit.








Side note: I have just realise that it is so hard to shop for long boots when one is a shortie >.<"

I'm running on some delayed time at the moment. I think I'm turning into a bear - all I want to do is sleep. Ok, maybe some strange bear that wakes up for food. So eat and sleep.

Anyway, back to the blood moon. I took this photo on 4th of April and I don't have some kick arse camera, hence that's the best I can get. I cropped the photo so the moon looks bigger, otherwise no other edit.


Side note: Time to go zz again.

If you have walked into The Block Arcade before you would probably notice a big glass window showcasing beautiful desserts.


Next to this big glass window, there's usually a queue to get into a particular tea room. This place is Hopetoun Tea Rooms.


We returned to this eatery to celebrate Little P's be-early birthday. Many restaurants here have a specials menu and Hopetoun is one of them. Little P blogged about this two years back and because the food we ordered were from their specials menu, they no longer serve those. This round we had seafood risotto. I really enjoyed the risotto.. yumm..


Then come dessert (of course!), we had two - another item from the specials menu which was the sticky date sponge cake and a lime pie to share.



Oh.. and my flat white. Little P is a tea drinker, so mint tea for her (and yes, I know this is a tea room...)



Side note: Happy be-early birthday Little P! ^^