44th: MELBOURNE SPRING HOLIDAY

Assalamualaikum
Hello everyone. Especially to all my beloved Bloggermoks (yang masih setia menanti entri yang tak muncul tiba). <3
I know this post is (VERY) long overdue but I really hope you guys are still thrill to know about my spring trip to Melbourne during last May.  As I have promised (almost 3 months ago :P ), am gonna be sharing with you guys on the list of the places that I visited and also my experiences during the whole trip. Manalah tahu kut-kut boleh jadik pedoman dan panduan untuk korang yang plan nak pergi sana nanti.
First and foremost, just so you guys know, this trip is actually sponsored by my mother in law (thanks, Mama), whereby I do not know exactly how much is the flight ticket price (booked by my sis in law) and the cost for our accommodation, etc (fully sponsored katanya). I mean, I can ask but I'm just too lazy to do so. XD
But one thing for sure, we managed to grab hold of a superbly worth it ground package (this one, walaupun yang carik pakej ni suami sendiri but once again, I didn't really ask in details so alkisahnya tak berapa nak pasti jumlah sebenar bayaran per person. I believe it is around RM2K++). 
Fret not, bagi yang berminat nak tahu, boleh cekcekcekidaut FB page this guy ---> Ehsan Nasri . Siapa dia? Dialah "kepala" kepada ground package yang kitorang amik sepanjang trip kat Melbourne haritu. Ye, orang Malaysia kita ni. So for those who are wondering whether you need to master English slang Aussie, udah-udah le. Takyah, cakap je bahasa Malaysia dengan Ehsan ni. Siap slang pekat utagha lagikkk.
Basically his package provided us with everything that we need; a 3 bedrooms house for us to stay, vehicle for us to ride in (tour guide a.k.a. driver included woii. Takyah susah-susah nak godek-godek GPS or buat itinerary sendiri) and the BEST part, makanan pagi, tengah hari, malam all inclusive sepanjang 6 hari 5 malam kitorang kat sana and by that I meant makanan HOME COOKED yang bukan calang-calang. Ini level masterchef punya. Cerita panjang kasik pendek, kitorang dapat merasa kari kepala ikan salmon and sambal petai udang besau-besau. Kawwwwww ceq oiiii~ Nuff said, TOTALLY WORTH IT and made the whole trip a sweet (fatfull) experience.
DAY ONE 
Arrival at Melbourne Airport after 9 long hours of flight rasa macam familiar sangat perasaannya. Macam masa Winter trip to Shenzhen ( Shenzhen HK Winter Holiday ). As cranky as a provoked wasp. Coz I didn't manage to sleep well in flight due to the uncomfortable seat and yup, usual problem for a person with motion sickness. 
After checking in at our home stay, everyone ate lunch and went straight out to Brighton Beach which my husband and I both passed. I slept right after they showed me my room. And woke up hours later when everyone else masih out and about. So kitorang dua pun pergi laa selak-selak dapur tengok apa yang dorang tinggalkan. Tengok-tengok ada perghhhhhhhhh sup kambing. Apa lagi~panaihkan leklok pastu pekena laa dengan nasi. Homemade tuuuuu. Kenalah plak time tu memang cuaca sejuk. Even though it was spring tapi angin dia punya tiup, menusuk sampai tulang hitam. Therefore, the highlight of my first day adalah sup kambing baikkk punya. So Brighton Beach, takpelah tak dapat pergi pun. Yang penting, kambing dah selamat masuk perut. Alhamdulillah.
DAY TWO
Hari kedua started off really early (in fact, every day pun started off really early, especially hari nak bertolak balik nanti. Sebab flight pukul 9 pagi. *nangis*). We drove to San Remo and berhenti breakfast tepi sungai sambil berebut dengan seagulls. Mana nak dapat diknon pengalaman camni kat Malaysia. Dah laa dilema nak pakai gloves sebab angin sejuk gila tapi nak pegang drumstick ayam panggang. Cemane tu. Nasib laa nak oiii~
Then next destination, kitorang dibawak ke Phillip Island Wildlife Park. OMG BEST GILA. Like seriously, time ni laa macam control-control excited sebab first time nampak kangaroo live depan mata. Siap dorang melompat-lompat datang mintak makanan. Paket makanan kangaroo akan dibagi sekali masa kat pintu masuk. Basically makanan ni boleh bagi kat semua wildlife yang ada kat dalam taman tu. Ada kangaroo, beruang koala (tapi tidur laa plak atas pokok. Sebab time tu pun dah agak petang so letih gamaknya beruang tu dah seharian melayan manusia asik datang bagi dia makan) and burung unta kemain banyak sampai naik seram sebab dorang besau pastu berlari-lari plak datang kat kita. Memang OMG jelah kerjanya semua orang. 
Once the sky turned dark, we went to see the famous Penguin Parade at Phillip Island. Since it was night time and by the beach, we all had to start wearing our thick clothes. It was very chilly. We waited for a few minutes before gerombolan demi gerombolan penguins terkedek-kedek balik from laut to darat (yup, rumah dorang kat dalam lubang-lubang celah-celah pasir / cerun / bukit-bukit tepi pantai tu). They are so little and super duper cute. Sadly we were not allowed to use hand phone to capture their images. But it's okay. I can still remember looking at them adorable, tiny penguins walking in line searching for their homes. How amazing. Subhanallah~

San Remo

Phillip Island Wildlife Park

DAY THREE
Hari ketiga ni merupakan hari paling mencabar untuk orang yang motion sickness. Mula-mula journey started off manja-manja je. Siap singgah amik-amik gambar kat Anglesea River. Waah, bahagia sungguh rasanya melihat keindahan sungai yang jernih, matahari punya lighting pun memang support baik laa photo shoot. Banyak laa jugak dapat shoot gambar-gambar Instagram quality. :P
After that, the horror for every person who is suffering from motion sickness pun bermula for 3 straight, don't kona-kona, hours to the Great Ocean Road. I tried to sleep. I swear I did try. But to no avail. Alhamdulillah ada sesi perkongsian buah limau sepaket yang kitorang beli last night from K-Mart menyelamatkan keadaan. Then we stopped by the beach at Lorne to eat lunch. *sujud syukur. Limau masih kat tangan*
Thank God for next few more hours, kitorang banyak berhenti-henti kat tempat-tempat menarik along the way. We stopped at Kennett River to feed beautiful and colorful birds. Plus, ada beruang koala jugak kat pokok-pokok tepi jalan. Yes, pokok-pokok tepi jalan like jalan yang kereta lalu lalang. Takde siapa pun kacau binatang-binatang ni. Kagum sekejap. But then again, everyone over there dah lali tengok sebab memang hari-hari pun menghadap. Still laa, kagum dengan cara dorang preserve the nature without interrupting the natural habitat of the wildlife. 
We also stopped at Port Campbell National Park. Kat situ macam kawasan teluk. Dapat tengok laut yang serius cantik. Lepas tu singgah kat Apostles, nampak ada batu-batuan yang naturally terhakis due to the constant hits from the waves. Subhanallah~cantik sangat-sangat. Berbaloi diknon bau limau sepanjang jalan tadi. And then, off with the perjalanan balik. *nangis air mata darah* XD

Anglesea River

Great Ocean Road

Lorne

Kennett River

DAY FOUR

Fourth day was shop-till-we-drop day. We went to Doug Hull Adventure Park first to have our awesome lunch. Well setiap hari pun awesome tapi harini super awesome sebab makan kari kepala ikan salmon oiii~bukan seketul dua tapi berketul-ketul. Makanlah sampai jeans pecah which alhamdulillah, tak pecah so all iz well. :D

Then kitorang pergi Victoria Market. Kat sinilah baaaaaaanyak souvenirs boleh beli untuk yang tersayang yang tertinggal di Malaysia nun. For me, I opted for fridge magnets; as my mom, aunty and also myself are collectors, some small cute teddy wombats, kain penghias dinding gambar map Aussie and I think that was all. Oh ya, I also bought a thermal wear there because it is soooooo cheap. Nak kagum lagi sekali dengan penduduk tempatan sana. Victoria Market tu sebenarnya gabungan pasar kering (jual barang-barang souvenirs, bags, kasut-kasut, baju-baju, etc) dan jugak pasar basah (bahan-bahan mentah, lauk-pauk and what's not) tapi tak berbau langsung dan semestinya sangat sangat sangat bersih. By tengah hari, semua kedai dah siap dibasuh dan kemas sebelum tutup operasi.

Habis berbelanja kat situ, dibawaknya plak kitorang ke area town untuk melawat shopping malls high end. Since bajet takdelah plak allocated khas untuk shopping expensive stuff, I decided to go to my go-to shops each time I go to any shopping malls; Victoria Secret and H&M. I thought "Well, maybe just to take a look. It must costs fortune to buy them here in Aussie." Boy, was I wrong or was I wrong. Yes, I was wrong. Kebetulan time tu ada sales. Sebotol body mist VS for only RM25 and there were also a buy 1 FREE 1 promo. Talkinbout OMG to the max. Not enough thrilling, well off I go to H&M and discovered that the platform-sneakers only costs me RM30 (which kat Malaysia pun takkan dapat murah camni dik oiiii). And kalau kat Malaysia, kita ada Guardian or Watsons, kat sana ada Chemist. Kebetulan lagi (amboiii seronoknya banyak kebetulan ni), Chemist tengah buat sales crazy-crazy one, sampai tahap berlaga bontot sesama manusia dalam kedai. Top brands perfumes such as Britney Spears, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Nina Ricci, CK, Hugo Boss, YSL, CD, etc were only around RM75 - RM100 per bottle (normal size, not miniature). Cosmetics products were on flat price of only AUD5 each with buy 1 free 1 promo (dorang memang suka promo camni kut). Waah, panjang plak perenggan pasal bershopping ni kan. Tu belum lagi cerita pasal lawatan agong kitorang ke DFO plak kan. Takpe, tu kalau nak tahu, continue baca kepada hari esok nya ni plak. Kesimpulannya, kalau nak shopping, datanglah Aussie. 

Doug Hull Adventure Park

DAY FIVE
Harini hari last kitorang pergi jalan-jalan. Sebab esok pagi-pagi dah nak gerak ke airport. So harini semua bangun kemain pagi and kitorang terus dibawak ke Sovereign Hill Historical Park. This park is actually an old gold mine. Settingnya ala-ala pekan cowboy. And kita boleh pergi mendulang emas kat situ, Kalau ada rezeki, dapat boleh bawak balik. Tapi kalau takde (which is memang biasanya takdelah nak dapat kan), kita boleh beli emas kat gift shops yang ada bersepah-sepah kat dalam park ni. I bought myself a small bottle of gold leaves. Very nice and a perfect fit for my liking towards unique looking items. They also sell gold coins, pendants, bracelets and not to mention, for those who go cray-cray for gold, they have gold bars as well. Ya go get em.
On our way back to town, kitorang singgah ladang buah-buahan di Bacchus Marsh. Masa kitorang pergi tu musim buah epal, so gigihlah memasing memetik buah epal. First time tengok pokok epal, selalu kat sini, tengok semua epal dah elok packed dalam plastik je kan. Jadinya berbaldi-baldi plak epal dipetik, excited punya pasal. Paling penting, epal dia juicy and manis. Takde pun yang ala-ala sabut kelapa gitu.
Anddddd, as I have mentioned before, today we concluded our shopping spree session here in Aussie with a visit to DFO. Sebagai pemegang amanah orang tua-tua dari Malaysia, tujuan utama saya ke DFO ni cuma nak carikan handbag untuk nenek and any good looking item untuk mama saya. Pusing punya pusing, last-last sambar sebiji handbag warna hitam brand Kardashian Kollection. OMG letopnya nenekku pakai handbag Kardashian. XD 
Disebabkan duit nenek dah kirim, pastu lepas bayar sebiji handbag, ada lagi baki duit, I decided to grab another handbag for my nenek. But this time, from Guess. Yang ni harus warna merah because my nenek lovesssss anything in red. Masa kat Guess, ternampak plak purse cantik, terus belikan for my mama. Tapi macam tak percaya tu semua sekali totalnya lebih kurang RM600 je. Mana nak dapat latest designs harga macam tu kat shopping malls kat sini. *sujud syukur* Alhamdulillah nenek and mama suka barang-barang yang dibeli. Tolong pilih and belikan je pun. Duit semua dorang kirim. :P

Sovereign Hill Historical Park

Bacchus Marsh

DAY SIX
Woke up. Sleepy. Took a quick shower (sejuk oiii nak mandi beria). Alhamdulillah barang semua dah siap packed early since last night so pagi ni mamai-mamai bangun bersiap tinggal nak angkut beg je. Sarapan pun packed and bawak terus ke airport. Takut tertinggal flight punya pasal. 
Touched down Malaysia after 8 and a half hours of flight. Alhamdulillah sampai semula ke tanah tumpahnya darahku. Paling tak tahan, pakai baju dari Melbourne so fenfeeling macam sejuk gila, 5 minit sampai Malaysia, ketiak berlecak. Sekian wassalam.
Well those are the story (which I have tried very hard to make it as simple as I can while not leaving behind any excitements that I have experienced back in Melbourne) of my Spring trip to Melbourne, Australia. It was so much fun and full of priceless moments that I will definitely remember till forever.
Australia is absolutely on my list of top countries that I would like to visit again in the future due to the hospitality of the locals, the low cost of living there and it was very easy to find halal foods. I strongly recommend you guys to travel to Melbourne if you guys haven't been there yet. Seriously, please go. You guys will not regret it.
Bagi sesiapa yang nak tengok a few more different photos from my trip, bolehlah tengok kat sini --> Melbourne 2016 tapi kena friend dulu baru boleh view (READ: bukan trick untuk market diri). :P
Till we meet again in my next entries.
Salam menggemok and Toodles~
Assalamualaikum and Have a nice day.