Part 4 Melbourne: Day 4 & 5 (24-25Nov09)

Day 4: Tues 24Nov09 Bacchus Marsh

 

We went to Kmart to get our handphone charger because the charger PaPa brought was faulty. We bought some biscuits and box milks at SaveWay.

We then took a slow drive to Bacchus Marsh and our first destination was the Information Centre. The staffs were so helpful that they even helped to call some of the places we wanted to visit and they suggested to call those places to confirm whether it was open or not.

It was about lunch time, PaPa ask for the nearest public park to have our picnic. They suggested Maddingley Park not far from the Information Centre, it was a nice big park with a nice wooden playground. PaPa cooked pasta that morning. So, our picnic lunch was pasta and salad. After lunch, again both kids went to play in the playground. It was a nice playground made of solid wood.

After lunch, our first planned stop was to pick-up some cherries in Paynes Orchards but unfortunately it was closed maybe due to no more cherries to pick-up because last weekend there was a Fruit Bazaar in town. So we went to the Strawberry Orchard. After picking, the kids ate some strawberries in the car while PaPa and Mummy were looking for the Witchmount winery (suggested by the Information Centre staffs). The address given was incorrect because the GPS leaded us to the wrong place. It was a residential house. We continued to go straight and eventually found the place at the other end of the road. The winery factory was closed but the guy, Adrian was very nice to show JL how wine was made. He took us out to the vineyard to show the grapes plants and the processing factor for the whole process from pressing to fermenting to bottling and innaly labeling the wine. PaPa and Mummy did some wine tasting after that tour.
We drove back to Aunty LL’s house. Since we were early, we went to Coles Market to get some grocery and that night PaPa cooked pasta for dinner. We ate with Aunty LL and YH because Uncle KM went outstation that morning.

Day 5: Wed 25Nov09 Sovereign Hill

We drove to Ballarat to visit the famous Sovereign Hill, a recreated goldfields township. We started the journey early because it was located quite far.

We arrived there early in the morning. We managed to get a coupon from one of the brochure collected from the Information Counter in Melbourne City which we could use as free entrance for JL. So, we only paid for two adults tickets.

We walked the whole area and it was quite a big place. JL experienced playing bowling in the olden days where everything was made of wood even the bowling ball. Besides that, he also witnessed how gold was made into a gold bar at the Gold Smelting Works. All of us went through an underground tunnel of Red Hill Mine to see how gold was mined underground. It was dark and cold. We also saw how candles, boiled-sweets and wheelwrighting(wooden wheels were handmade there all in the 1850s style. Then there was a marching session by the Redcoat Soldiers.

JL tried to mine for gold and tried a few locations along the stream. He had more fun playing with the spade to scoop the sand then to panning the metal pan for gold.

We had our picnic lunch outside the Sovereign Hill next to the souvenirs shop. It was good thing that the kids were not fussy of the food even though it was almost the same food. We promised JL that when we have enough budget next time, we would not have so many picnic packed food during our holidays.

After a late lunch, we went to the Gold Museum which was located just across the road since the entrance fees was inclusive when we purchase the entrance fee to Sovereign Hill. It was an interesting place with a few plasma televisions mounted on plasma mounts to display some of the historical events besides the photos on the history of the Gold Town.

After that, we drove back to Aunty LL’s house. We ate dinner cooked by Aunty LL that night.

• 
  
  Part 1 Melbourne: Planning before the Trip
• 
  
  Part 2 Melbourne: Day 1 & 2 (21-22Nov09)
• 
  
  Part 3 Melbourne: Day 3 (23Nov09)