Going to the Land Down Under

January 29 - February 6, 2011

We finally made it to Australia! *cartwheel*

My friend and I took separate flights going from Singapore to Australia: me via Perth, she via Sydney. We met up in Melbourne and followed our itinerary from there.

Day 1: Day tour to Phillip Island which includes a visit to some wild life sanctuaries, a chocolate factory, a beautiful beach, meeting the Koalas, feeding the Wallabee, and watching the Penguins come back to shore.

Day 2: This was our free day in Phillip Island. This was the most relaxing day of the entire trip. The day before I saw this fish & chip resto by the beach. My friend and I went there by bike and had a picnic nearby. Until now, I can say this is the best food I have eaten in all my trips.

Day 3: We're back in Melbourne's business district. We spent the morning touring the area on the free tram. After lunch we headed to the airport for our flight to Sydney. It just an hour flight so we still had time to claim our tour pass and transportation card. We also had our first dinner in one of the restaurants along Darling Harbour before we headed for West Ryde for our accommodation.

Day 4: The first activity we did was the Oz JetBoating experience. It was one of the highlights of this trip and totally unexpectedly fun. We were still somewhat wet when we joined the city tour. The last stop of the tour was Manly beach. We did not bring any swim suit so we just visited the Manly Aquarium. Then we took a ferry ride back to Circular Quay and on to Darling Harbour where we found a $10 steak available. Perfect! Since Sydney Aquarium was just nearby we decided to visit it before calling it a day.

Day 5: We had to start the day really early to be able to make the most of the Blue Mountains experience. It was a lovely day to spend with mother nature, trekking along the marked paths. I finally got to meet the Three Sisters and see the beauty that surrounded them. I bought a winter jacket for a souvenir before we went back to the city where we went up to the Sydney Tower.

Day 6: The last day we can use our city tour pass. We started off with another city tour which brought us to the Mrs. Macquarie's Chair that has a good view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Opera House, and the city's skyline. We also stopped by Bondi beach for 30 minutes before we headed back to the main city passing by suburbs with houses with iron terraces. The last stop of the tour was the Opera House. We also joined the informative tour of the Opera House. Interesting history. It was quite a hot and warm day, we finally decided to watch a movie (Black Swan) at Dendy Cinema -- this was included in our city pass. And on a last minute decision we visited the Aquatic Center and the ANZ Stadium.

Day 7: We met up with Ethel, a childhood friend of mine who now lives in Australia, for lunch and she showed us where we can shop for souvenirs. It was basically a shopping day.

Day 8: It's our last day in Australia. We attended mass in the morning, had our lunch with our host, then went to the airport for our flight back to Singapore.