Leftover New Zealand!

Not keen to write about a trip I have done so long ago (to which I attribute to the excessive writing I've had to do over Spring semester), so here's a major photo dump of the rest of my New Zealand adventure!!!

Sumner Beach! ♥

I love how this photo turned out. Still at Sumner Beach, on the Cave Rock side

Warm Lamb Salad at Winnie Bagoes

Souvlaki/Kiwi Craving pizza at Winnie Bagoes

Mexi Lime Chicken/Marinara pizza at Winnie Bagoes

Christchurch Art Gallery - Te Puna O Waiwhetu

Cathedral Square

Me, being me, as per usual, on Worcester Boulevard

Penguins! Too bad they're not live ones.

The following photos are from our road trip to Akaroa, which is a small town that used to be a French colony. It lies on the edge of New Zealand, on the eastern side.

On the road to Akaroa!

At the hill top - our destination is where the water is!

Upon arrival, Akaroa Jetty :-)

Gorgeous flower in bloom, Akaroa War Memorial

Well, that's it for my little New Zealand adventure. Just a recap of everything I've seen in the 7 days that I was there:

• Methven
• Rakaia Gorge
• Mt Hutt
• Christchurch City
• Akaroa

In summer, Methven is practically dead, so best to go there in winter for some skiing or snowboarding up in Mt Hutt. Rakaia Gorge, which is also in Methven is probably the only other place you can go visit in summer, where you can go rafting.

Christchurch City, though small and quaint, has a lot of great food and sights! Go to the markets on Worcester Blvd, or visit the Christchurch Art Gallery! Learn about Maori life in Christchurch Museum. Don't forget to grab a bite to eat at Winnie Bagoes. They have amazing gourmet pizza and a friendly, warm atmosphere. :-)

Next stop - Singapore!

Welcome to Brisbane!

When the spring semester ended, my friend Caloy and I decided to go on a 6-day adventure to Queensland. My best friend was kind enough to give us a roof to live under and good food to eat throughout the trip. It's funny how we're all from different cities. I live in Sydney, Caloy in Melbourne and Tippy in Brisbane. Because of this, we have had a lot of chances to compare Queensland to our places of residence. Of course Tippy has her own biases being a Queenslander.

Caloy and I took a plane up to Brisbane (Thank you, JetStar!) and after a hearty breakfast and a long early morning nap, we decided to first explore Brisbane's CBD. We took public transport which I may say is quite different from Sydney and Melbourne. The QR trains are one level as in Melbourne, but they're all pretty vintage. I actually liked it but I assume there might be a lack of seating capacity come rush hour. It comes out really cheap though, right about $5-6 for FIVE ZONES! Even much less if you have QLD concession.

Me enjoying the train ride.

In the city we went to see the Anzac Square. We had our photo taken at the Shrine of Remembrance. I think it's one of the places that are really worth seeing because it has a lot of history behind it.

Shrine of Remembrance with Caloy

Close by was the Central Station, but I wasn't able to go inside. Here's a photo from the outside:

Central Station is not their biggest station, but Roma Station

I must say their CBD is quite quaint and definitely much smaller than the Sydney one. It also isn't overflowing with people during lunch. What I like most about it is that everything is close to everything else. For examplem, The Cathedral of St Stephen's is merely a 5 minute walk from the shops where we had lunch.

This is the interior of the church where we said our prayers before going to Southbank.

Crisp white, classic structure. Notice that there are individual seats and not pews

At the dock you can see Story Bridge, which is something like the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It is much smaller, and its main difference from the Sydney Harbour Bridge is that it is a cantilever bridge where as the latter is a steel arch bridge. I heard you can also climb the bridge just like you can in Harbour.

The Story Bridge

We tried to catch the CityCat to get to South Bank but failed miserably so we just caught the usual ferry. The CityCat is bigger and it just sounds so much cooler.

City view from the ferry :-)

At South Bank, we walked until our legs gave away. Lol jokes. We went around the South Bank Parklands and it's really pretty. Seems as though it's so easy to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life in Brisbane. It's like a 10 minute ferry ride!

This is what welcomes you to South Bank!

What's even more awesome about it is that there is a man-made beach called Streets Beach (click on link for 360º view). I find that such an insanely gooooood idea. In Sydney, you can easily hop on a bus to get to Bondi or other nearby beaches or get a ferry that can take you to Manly in half an hour. In Brisbane it takes like 10 minutes, and there aren't any sharks!!! Haha I'm so sold to this idea since I can't swim properly but love the beach anyway.

Super awesome, right?

As we continued walking towards the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) & Queensland Art Gallery (QAG), we passed by the tourist attraction Wheel of Brisbane. It is, of course, like other ferris wheels in other countries, a great (aerial) way to view the city.

Didn't want to try it cos I get insane dizzy spells!

Tippy & Caloy on the bridge to the Galleries. This provides such a good view of the city!

Our last stop for the day was the GoMA and QAG. Unfortunately, the GoMA was still in the process of being set up for the upcoming exhibits. The Queensland Art Gallery, however, had quite a selection of artists and artworks, ranging from indigenous Aussie art, Picasso, Warhol, to Queenslander art. I really enjoyed our visit there but maybe not as much as I had enjoyed the National Galleries Victoria in Melbourne. What I loved most of all about it though is the very modern look of the building!

I love the colours they used! So easy on the eye.

This may be rather weird but this is one of the highlights of our city trip ---

Ceiling decor made of paper & clips (!!!)

This simple decoration of the GoMA looks really really good in real life. The best part is that it's simple and anyone can do it. I swear, I'm considering putting the exact same thing up when I finally have a house (with a high ceiling to match)! :-)

For the lack of coherence I promise you better entries about the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and many more of Queensland's pride! Happy holidays, all! :-)

Seeing sights

Melbourne is such a beautiful city - full of art, life and history. I was blessed with another chance to come visit again this year, but this time I went along with some friends. It was a great experience and this time I got to know the city a lot more.

We flew in really early on the 4th of June (and I mean we took the 6.15 am flight). Melbourne was bound to have a beautiful day:

This is the aerial view of Melbourne just a little past 8am.

Right after breakfast we decided to visit Queen Victoria Markets which is comparable to Sydney's Paddy's Markets. It has everything, and I mean everything in it, from shoes to boomerangs to flowers and food. I reckon it is much, much larger than the Sydney one, though I can't be too certain. One thing I know that is worth heading to while in the QVM area is this mobile doughnut place:

I assure you fresh & hot doughnuts, for an affordable price (6 for $3.90). It's certainly a classic and nothing too complicated. You can pick from a plain sugar sprinkled one, and a jam-filled one. Both are good and it's even better if you have one after the other, alternately ;-)

The Queen Victoria Markets are open from Thursday-Sunday, with varying opening & closing hours.

Afterwards, my aunty gave us the idea of taking the City Circle Tram so that we'd get to see the entire place then just choose to hop on and off wherever we wanted to go after the ocular inspection. It seemed to be the most practical idea since we wanted to maximise our time to explore the entire city, so we did that. It's good because the City Cirle Tram is a free service that takes tourists (and locals just the same) to the different hotspots in the city. If you're the impatient type (like me) you will love this service because it comes around every 12 minutes, and it runs from Flinders Street to Spring Street and back. It's easy to find compared to the normal pay trams because it is small & very vintage-looking (and more importantly, labelled City Circle, lol).

I find that the best place to come back to after a long day of going around Melbourne would be Flinders Street as it has the train station for one huge landmark:

See what I mean when I say it's a landmark? It's one of my favourite spots in the city, as it is always busy and Flinders Street Station is just a lovely sight. Right across it is something extremely modern, the Ian Potter Centre:

If in any case you get lost this is the side that you have to go to because this is where the really big information centre is complete with all the train, tram & bus routes, events lists, tour booklets, maps & of course, friendly volunteers to help you find your way.

As for my friends & I on the first day- we hopped on and off everywhere (& sneaking cat naps on the tram), took a walk at the Docklands, ate at Flinders Lane (parallel to Flinders Street) & ended up doing some shopping at Bourke Street Mall where the biggest Myer is located. I'd have to say - it was a pretty long & exhausting day, especially if you hadn't slept at all.

Wine me, dine me.

Last Friday, I went to out into the city to hang out with my aunty & cousin. I had no idea what we were doing that night; all I knew was that I was sure to be in for a new taste of the city.

When we all got together, we talked about whether we should get a drink or food first. Hah, not being alcos at all, we chose to go for a drink. They took me to Marble Bar - located in beautiful George Street, it's on the basement of the Hilton. It's such a classic place, as it was built in 1889. It was refurbished in 2005, still upholding that really dark, cozy & classy atmosphere. I feel terrible I haven't got any photos. :-( My new camera hasn't gotten into my hands yet, pardon me. Anyway, I had a Vesper Martini - very James Bond inspired. It was a pretty good drink, though I would say it lacked a little kick (salt maybe? But that would ruin it, I suppose). The Vesper costs $16, and most cocktails are, on average, from $16-18. Not too bad for that great an ambience.

After drinks we decided we were hungry. It was a tough decision to make, to be honest. We knew that we were having Asian for dinner, but the problem was where to get it. The consensus was to grab grub at DinTaiFung, as I've never eaten there before, and because it's supposed to be a really good place to get XiaoLongBao. It's at the top floor of World Square, that is also along George Street. We ordered heaps of stuff, and I mean heaps for 3 ladies. Hahaha. People stared at how much we had on our plates, and that is no exaggeration. Just a quick rundown of everything:

Steamed pork dumplings

Steamed crab meat & pork dumplings

Steamed shrimp & pork dumplings

Shrimp & pork shao-mai

Fried rice w/ eggs & shrimp

Green beans w/ mince

Obviously we didn't get that in just single orders... It's my secret to keep how much we really had. Hahaha. It was an AMAZING dinner, and definitely worth the (45-minute) wait (outside in

the rain). I was really, really, really pleased & for all of that we paid around $80-something. Not too bad. I can't wait to go there for dinner again :-) In my desperate attempt to show you guys how amazing the food there is, here's a photo from GrabYourFork (who happens to have amazing restaurant reviews, glad I discovered this site tonight!!! Subscription-worthy, people!):

DinTaiFung review by GrabYourFork here

After much catching up (and me thinking of where to head for dessert), we caught the bus from World Square to Glebe Point Road, which has got to be one of the streets I favour going to more often than usual. The food places on that street are just GOLD! That night we picked Badde Manors to indulge in mind-blowing dessert. We got 3 different cakes - carrot cake, Italian baked ricotta cake & sticky date pudding. To match, we got mokka, chai tea (the real deal guys not powdered stuff) & hot chocolate.

The carrot cake was good, it had a nice thick cream cheese icing and the actual cake wasn't too sweet. Definitely matched the fresh cream garnish and the good thing about it is that it had fruit & nut to taste. It does the job but it's not the best, maybe because it was a little bit dry. The Italian baked ricotta cake was fantastic. It's the first time I've ever tried it and it was good. It was powdered with cinnamon and confectioner's sugar and garnished with fresh cream. But these two don't compare to the sticky date pudding! It was a perfectly-sized one, topped with fresh cream and surrounded by a pool of mouth watering toffee sauce. Ah, it was heaven!

The drinks were pretty good too. The hot chocolate was not too thick and had the perfect amount of sweet & bitter fusing in every sip. The chai tea was brewed beautifully - there was a perfect amount of cinnamon & ginger in it and it's all about feeling warm all over ;-) As for the mokka I forgot to try it cos I was too busy with the sticky date. :-\ I'll try again next time. All that for about $35, I can't complain.

Badde Manors was the perfect place to end our girls' night out but my food adventure doesn't end there.

On Saturday night my aunty, uncle & I agreed on eating at Deli's Thai after church. It wasn't a first time for me, as we all personally love this humble restaurant down at Glebe Point Road. I told you, that road is gold. Lol. Our staple spring rolls & money bags were ordered for appetizer, and for mains we had the usual fried rice & pad thai, but this time I ordered chicken pad cashew nut sauce. Their spring rolls are always palatable, stuffed with vegetables and really thin noodles. The money bags are my favourite; basically they're deep fried minced chicken and dessicated coconut with beans and other good stuff. We devoured the fried rice in a flash and took some time to get to know the chicken pad cashew nut sauce. It's nicely seasoned, not too salty and not too spicy, and had lots of vegetables. I can't say I'd put it in the list of stuff I would re-order but it's definitely worth one try. :-) Deli's Thai offers amazing Thai food for a reasonable price. For all of that we paid around $35.

I may have gained good 5 pounds from this weekend, but it was definitely worth it! :-)

Touring the city

Finally, after so long I have found the time to write. I've been meaning to share my first experience at touring someone new to Sydney with you guys the last couple of weeks but I have just been buried in assignments!

Now, we begin (I'm heaps excited)!

Every time I've been here (first when I was 6, then when I was 19, now that I'm almost 21 and living here), I've always been the one being toured. I always liked the idea of seeing new places, and seeing things so different from home. Things have changed ever since I moved here to Sydney. I've been going from the city to the suburbs on a weekly basis - not much of a touristy thing to do. I've been learning to know the ins and outs of the city by heart (and by foot!) and it feels like right now, this is home.

Anyway, I met a friend of a friend who came to Australia to work for a year. During her first few days I kept her company, because my friend was in Tasmania on a holiday. Cathy is Chilean, and when I asked her what she wanted to see - she immediately told me that she wanted to see the Opera House.

I thought, okay, cool, we can head off to the city and spend the day there. I also thought that maybe I should show her other parts of the city that were worth the visit. The night before, I set up our itinerary. It was an odd feeling, having to pick places to show someone who's new, considering I'm new here myself. Here is the list:

The Opera House

Darling Harbour

Royal Botanic Gardens

Queen Victoria Building (!)

Mrs Macquarie's Chair

Manly Beach

Circular Quay

At 8.30AM we took the train from Blacktown to the city - we both purchased DayHopper tickets, which cost $17. The DayTripper is really useful if you know you're going all over the place via public transport. It covers payments for the trains, ferries and buses. It's really worth it!

At Central we changed to catch the line that goes to Circular Quay. As soon as we stepped off, we already saw a place to take photos:

Me, trying to act touristy at the Circular Quay platform.

Me, again, on the other side. Lol

We then walked out of the station, and went straight for The Opera House. It was such a nice day, with the sun out and the cool breeze brushing past.

Approaching The Opera House for the nth time, I still needed a photo. LOL

This time, however, I actually paid attention to the tiny details of this magnificent structure. I had no idea that the roof, that was designed like a sail, was TILED. I always thought it was painted, or shingled, but I thought wrong. I became more impressed!

See how cool that detailing is? Wow. How could I have ever overlooked it!

After taking all of Cathy's photos, we decided to take an even longer walk towards the Royal Botanic Gardens. It's an amazing place to people-watch, as well as to have picnics. Lots of the people who live in the city do their morning runs here as well - I suppose it's a good location to just leave the hustle and bustle of the city behind even for a short while.

The Botanic Gardens have lots of trees.

Fishing is also an option here

I'm jealous of the lady just breathing in life, she seemed so relaxed.

I happen to love rocks/rock formations, and this is the big one leading to Mrs Mac Chair

This is the spot where Queen Elizabeth first landed on Australian soil!

I have a soft spot for old trees.

After that long exhausting morning, we took the bus back to QVB by midday.

We're pretty good at concealing exhaustion, aren't we? :-D

We had lunch with my aunty at De Costi Seafoods (if memory serves me right!), which is in the lower ground of The Galleries Victoria. Food there is fantastic! I didn't get the chance to take photos of what we ate because they were in take-away packs and they weren't too photogenic.

After which, we walked to Darling Harbour, which is a place that I usually frequent, for some strange reason. A lot of tourists hang out there and take water taxi rides or those jet boat things. They cost quite a fair amount, which is why I've never tried it. At the Darling Harbour, one can find a lot of food places and bars; I reckon it's best to go there at night ;-) However, look at this!

The spiral fountain fixture at Darling, which I love the most (compared to all the other fountains present - I tell you, there's heaps)!

Then we walked back to QVB to catch the bus to Circular Quay once again! It was at that time that we decided to take the ferry to Manly (More details on here). The ferry ride was windier than usual, but it felt so nice and calming! We took a stroll at the beach, where I found this particularly interesting:

Haha. I know it's common here, and I see them more often than not, but I thought it was just cute that they were huddling. We did some shopping in Manly, and by the time the clock struck 4.30PM, we were just beat. So we caught the ferry going back to the city, took the bus to the train station, and caught the earliest one home. I can now proudly say I know Sydney, and I really love being here. :-)

(Aussie flag along Pyrmont Bridge)

Not too bad for a 17-dollar worth day, isn't it? :-)

To the city and beyond

I've been spending heaps of time in the city and I figured it would be nice to share how beautiful the place is. From where I'm staying, the city is around 15 minutes away by bus. I usually take the one called 440 and stop at Town Hall, which I reckon is the central area of the city. But I can't be too sure just yet. LOL.

Town Hall from across George street, at rush hour.

The bus stop right across Town Hall, where I wait to get home.

What I love about strolling around that area is its busyness and the designs of the buildings! Take for instance The Strand Arcade, a place where Australian designers are showcased. I reckon it's something like the Filo area at Greenbelt 5, but it doesn't look anything similar. Here's a photo.

See how they maintained the old building? This one is the only one left of Victorian Sydney, and it was opened in 1892. I find that really amazing. I should've taken photos of the interior but I was in a hurry as my mum was being her wild, shopaholic self.

I also had the chance to visit the Apple Store, and my was it massive. I like how they made it was made of glass panels:

Here's a photo from the outside, lol. Again, we were in a hurry to get to QVB. Will try and do a better job next time.

My favourite among all the places in the city is the Queen Victoria Building. It's been there since 1898, and I've loved it since I was 5! The place is just so quaint and pretty :3

QVB, top view (I took this when I was at Sydney Tower last week)

And the best part is the lifts!!! They're the old fashioned wooden-door-type ones. Such a shame that I've got no photo. But, the interior is just as amazing:

I adore the hallways!

The center of the building where the the clock is. What a beauty.

Me, by the staircase. Look at those antique tiles! They're treasures!!!

QVB is like the best place to find designer goods. It was perfect timing that I went yesterday cos so much stuff was on sale! I got a belt from Sportscraft, and I really wanted this hat:

The Rita Cloche in Berry
or in Black!

Ah... I feel like I'll be going back for that hat sometime by the end of the week, because it's too cute to lose. My mum says otherwise though. She thinks I should wait for the sale to come (it's currently selling for AU$69.95).

How do you feel about it?