Melbourne CBD

It took me so long to finish my Aussie's post. Here is the last part of Aussie trip where we spent our last two days in Melbourne. :)

flying from Launceston to melbourne

We stayed at City Tempo Hotel which is very near to Victoria Market. 

As we strolled down the streets of Melbourne CBD, we saw Chokolait. It was just the right timing to get a cup of creamy, rich and warm chocolate for tea break.

By dinner time, we were at Elizabeth Street. We wanted to have something hot, so we ended up having dinner at Pho Flinders. It was not bad, but the pho which we had at second day was even better.

After dinner, we crossed Yarra River and had a relaxing walk at Southbank, enjoying the night breeze and taking some nice pictures.

Later on, we took the free city tram back to hotel. 

Left: Queen Victoria Market's direction signboard

Top right: Organic section at Queen Victoria Market

Middle right: American Doughnut Kitchen

Bottom right: Doughnut with jam filling 

We started the new morning with a visit to the Queen Victoria Market. This market is the major landmark for Melbourne and it has been in operation for more than a decade.

Top left and right: Boreks

Bottom left and right: Bratwurst shop

It was a pleasant surprise to find Invita at Queen Victoria Market. Everything is made with fresh, healthy and organic(if possible) ingredients. 

On the way back the hotel, we spotted Parisi foods where we bought many fresh nuts at reasonable price.

For lunch, we decided to explore Melbourne's Little Saigon for authentic Pho. We did not expect it was that far, but luckily Phin Zhe slept all the way in Ergobaby carrier. It really worth the walking as the pho was very good. I would recommend it!

Melbourne is famous for its coffee and cafe culture. Therefore a visit to Melbourne is not completed without visiting Degrave Street, Melbourne's coffee hub lane.

TOFWD, The organic food and wine deli was one of the shop at Degrave Street. We bought a brown rice sushi roll for Phin Zhe who just got up from his nap.

I offered two choices for dinner, an Italian restaurant at Lygon Street or a Chinese restaurant at Chinatown. The latter was picked. So we had dinner at Shanghai Street. Dinner was a bowl of szechuan spicy and sour soup, a plate of quarter chicken and a plate of dumplings.

City Tempo Hotel
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Chokolait
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Pho Flinders
136 Elizabeth St, 
Melbourne VIC 3000, 
Australia

Queen Victoria Market
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Parisi Foods
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Pho Huang Voung 2
150 Victoria St, Richmond VIC 3121, Australia

TOFWD
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Shanghai Street
146 Little Bourke St,
Melbourne VIC 3000, 
Australia

Launceston: Cataract Gorge and Bay of Fires Wines

After a good night's sleep, I woke up and prepared some simple breakfast for everyone. It was a nice experience cooking in such a beautiful kitchen. When I was cooking, Phin Zhe did not disturb me. There were so many things to keep him occupied. Daddy continued to sleep until breakfast was ready. Seriously we could not find a single claw at this apartment. :)

view from Forest Road Apartment

Elmo

Sticker time

stamping

It was our last day in Tasmania. The next day we would fly back to Melbourne. We made it a very relaxing day which we would only visit two places, Cataract Gorge and a winery. Before that, we went to get some Tinnies Pies. Well, reviews were good in tripadvisor. But our votes still went to Richmond Bakery.

Tinnies Pies

Menu

pies

Cataract Gorge, a piece of natural wilderness, only 15 minutes drive from Launceston city. We spent the whole morning in Cataract Gorge.

peacocks everywhere

taking picture with peacock

Chair lift

having fun with other kids

Playground Slide

spotted a mummy kangaroo with her baby kangaroo

posing with kangaroo

After lunch, we went to Bays of Fires. Even though we purchased few bottles from them, but we were not very happy with the services. We might not have visited enough winery, but this was the first time we had to reuse the same glass for wine tasting. :(

winery

inside the winery

Back in the apartment, Phin Zhe had his favorite activity again. Feeding the hens were easy, but not the rabbits. The rabbits were hiding most of the time. Thanks to the friendly owner, Jo. She found us the rabbit and captured a lovely family photo for us.

feeding hens

feeding rabbit

After dinner, i followed the recipe card on the fridge, took out the ingredients provided in the apartment and baked 3 delicious muffins for tomorrow breakfast. The only disappointment we had was we could not have stayed longer in this apartment.

cranberries muffins

Forest Road Aparment
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Cataract Gorge
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Bay of Fires Wines
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David Grand Central
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Note: Great place for grocery shopping and picking up Tasmanian produce

Long journey to Launceston!

This day, we drove about 300km from Strahan to Launceston. It was snowing at Cradle Mountain area. We did not expect to see snow for this trip! We were so lucky that it wasn't snowing when we were at Cradle few days ago, else the temperature would be even lower. We stopped the car and let Phin Zhe experience the snow dropped on his hands. :)

But then at 90km away from Cradle Mountain, the weather was great! We stopped at Elizabeth town cafe for lunch. Since they were selling Ashgrove cheese, we skipped the original plan to visit the cheese factory.

lunch

Then we went to 41'c salmon and ginseng cheese farm. Don't forget to buy the ginseng spice from them. Good with almost everything on the plate!

nice scenery

salmon pond

feeding session

can u see the salmon fish in the picture?

 

We also dropped by Melita Honey Farm @ Deloraine. Unfortunately it was not opened that day.

Finally, we reached Forest Road Apartment at Launceston, which we rated the best stay for this Aussie trip.

getting the house key with the code provided in email

It was a 2 room apartment with a big living hall and a full kitchen.

On the kitchen top, there are travel notes,welcome note, welcome truffle, farm eggs from the garden, food for rabbits and hens. The truffle was nice, we found it at Davies Grand Central the next day.

This was the bedroom. Another room has a full height cabinet with toys!

This was why we were given rabbit and hen's food. Phin Zhe enjoyed feeding them very much.

At night after dinner, Phin Zhe enjoyed blueberries as his dessert while

we adults, have Valhalla ice cream, blackberry cheesecake flavor.