Melbourne trip 2011

We survived the trip!

It was pretty good actually.. despite being quite tired when we got back I felt somewhat rejuvenated. Like a good break from the monotony of life at home.

We left on Wednesday night for a midnight flight. I was sneaky.. I doped Annika prior to the flight so she slept like a log throughout most of the flight. Unfortunately I had to carry her for most of it so by the end I was a little numb and sore. BUT.. worth it.

We arrived Thursday morning and checkout at the immigration department was horrible. Snaking long queues. Well, Annika yelled her head off and I think that got us to the front pretty quickly. Once we cleared that the rest was amazingly breezy. Chris' mum and Anthony were waiting outside so we drove straight home.

The first few days we spent just chilling out. Went to the playground next door, took the kids to the fantastic Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre and did a little shopping. The kids really loved the warm swimming pool at MSAC. And of course the playground, which perpetually had kids around. It was nice having a home there so the kids didn't have to eat out every meal.

On Saturday our travelling companions arrived. They kept themselves occupied during the day so we only met for dinner. The next day we picked up our 12 seater Commuter bus and drove down to Phillip Island to see the penguins.

Despite being summer it was chilly and downright FREEZING at the penguin parade. We had to be seated at a platform 1 hour before the birds came out and it felt really long. When the sun set the penguins FINALLY started waddling out of the water and they were quite cute. The kids had a ball watching them, but thank goodness that's done. I don't fancy doing that one again.

We stayed at the Silverwater resort at San Remo, just across the bridge from Phillip island. It was a pretty nice place. We had a 3 bedroom apartment and a studio. Chris' mum and Anthony came as well so we took the 3 bedroom unit. The resort had an indoor heated pool as well, which we used the next morning.

The second day at Phillip Island we spent checking out the various attractions. There was the Amaze and things ( crap ), Koala conservatory ( not bad, got to see quite a few koalas ), and the chocolate factory ( crap, crap and waste of $$! We paid $24 a head expecting to sample heaps of chocolate but there were a grand total of 2 samples!!)

We headed back to Melbourne after the chocolate factory because my parents had arrived that morning and were making us dinner. And an impressive dinner it was! Chai made his signature beef rendang with coconut rice, sambal kangkong, Pa made his chicken soup, we had some steak that we bought from Phillip island and there was chocolate fondue for dessert.

The next few days were spent shopping, eating, drinking coffee and more playground time. Chai's graduation ceremony was on Thursday the 8th of December. That took 2 hours and we had our celebratory dinner at Number 8 at Crown Casino afterward. That dinner took 2 hours. It was midnight by the time we were home.

Friday was exciting.. we were off to the Mornington Peninsula. This time with an even bigger group. There were 9 adults and 3 kids in the first group that left on Friday morning. Then 4 more joined in the next day, Saturday. We stayed at a rental house fairly near the beach. It had 3 main rooms, 2 with queen beds and 1 with bunkers. There was also a "guest room" which was more like an outside shack with bunkers. For all that many people it only had 1 bathroom!

The first day we went cherry and strawberry picking. Since we didn't want to spend over $100 picking fruit at each location we sent in 3 adult representatives to accompany the 3 kids each time. The others waited outside and ate fruit that had been pre picked. Everyone was famished and tired by the time dinner rolled around so we ate charcoal chicken and fried noodles for dinner.

The second day we had grand plans to go to the farmer's market, and after the hassle of getting everyone ready turns out it wasn't even on. Anyway... it was fortunate that a party shop opened next door so the kids got free face painting and balloons. We wound up going to Sorrento for lunch and then it started to POUR the rest of the day. So that ended the plans for going to the spa in the afternoon. We did have our steamboat dinner though, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed that.

We finally did go to the spa on Sunday, on the way back to Melbourne. We managed to get into a small argument with the reception staff. They were RUDE. Actually one was RUDE. The spa itself wasn't too bad. All the kids got to go into the kiddy version of hotsprings, one pool that was heated to 36C.

I think the best part of the trip would've been our last dinner with our friends. We left the kids at home to be babysat and just the 2 of us drove out to a friend's home for pizza dinner. I guess it felt like a relief the entire trip went without a hitch and we could call it a success.

All too soon the trip was over and we were on the flight back home on Monday. Again.. not too bad really... Annika complained at the start with the bad immigration queue, during parts of the flight, BUT she did sleep ( sans antihistamine) so I actually got to watch part of a movie ( then I fell asleep so can't blame her for not finishing the movie!) The service on Singapore Airlines was EXCELLENT. So nice, compared to the below average service that we received from the Aussies during the trip.

I think as the kids get older the Melbourne trip should get easier, and I'm actually looking forward to next years' trip already! We were harbouring thoughts of moving back to live there, but I think it'll probably not happen right now... I'm quite spoilt by the help and ease of life here in Singapore!