Sorry for the delay of this last post of our Tasmania and Melbourne trip. Was busy with Chinese New Year and after that DH and I also made a short trip to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Will come to that after I have sorted out our photos.
Day 15 (28 Dec 2017) : Melbourne
This is our last day in Melbourne before we fly back tomorrow. We start our morning with a complimentary breakfast at Treasury on Collins. They served simple continental breakfast which pretty decent considering that it was complimentary. Our favourite is the self service make-your-own pancake. It was fun watching the machine make your pancake!
Shopping @ Queen Victoria Market
After breakfast, we took the free tram to the Queen Victoria Market. I had heard so much about this market and was really looking forward to doing some souvenir shopping.
The market had different sections for food, meat, fruits and souvenirs. We headed first to the souvenirs section. The souvenirs were relatively cheap and so DS2 picked up some stuff for his friends. We also bought some retro posters that were printed on metal plates. DD bought a T-shirt. The stuff were ok but really not very extensive or exceptional. it was just like a cheap goods market. I was somewhat disappointed. I was hoping to find local handicrafts. There were only one or two stalls with that. Salamanca Market in Hobart beats this hands down.
We did not linger long. Before we left, we bought some cherries to bring home. I paid A$35 for 2kgs which I thought was reasonable as these were pretty big.
Lunch @ Cafe Segovia, Block Arcade, Melbourne
We got off at the tram stop right in front of the Block Arcade. We looked around the shops along the street and went in in search of a place for lunch. There were many small cafes around and we ended up at Cafe Segovia. Only my parents were with us as DSis had split up with us at QVM.
We weren’t very hungry and so decided to order some food to share. Among us we had the Chorizo Linguini, Seafood Linguini, mussels and the Korean Fried Chicken. We liked the fried chicken so much that we ordered a second serving. The fried chicken came with a sweet chili sauce and was yummy. We were all missing chili by now.
Together with our drinks of ice coffee, ice chocolate, ice latte, a cocktail, 2 coke and a juice, the total cane came up to A$146.
Shopping @ Block Arcade & Meyers
After lunch we did more shopping around Block Arcade and Myers.
Block Arcade is an interesting Arcade with interesting little shops. We bought some artisan chocolates there.
Then we went over to Myers where the men and boys bought some Calvin Klein T-shirts which were on sale.
DMum and DDad were quite tired after this and decided to go back to the hotel to rest. The 5 of us drop our stuff back at the hotel and took the tram to the Docklands. DSis and family had already went ahead of us.
Afternoon of 3D Fun @ ArtVo, Docklands
At the Docklands, we headed to ArtVo, the 3D art gallery. This is a really good 3D art gallery. The larger than life murals creates the illusion that you have come face to face with wild animals, scale rocky crevasses and surf the ultimate pipelines.
The gallery is split into many different zones, eg underwater, jungle, Egyptian, famous sights (eg Sydney Opera House, Taj Mahal, Venice etc) and much more.
We spend several hours here taking many many fun photos. We have been to many of such galleries and find that this one is really good. There are many unique murals here which were very realistic compared to some others.
It can get quite crowded so patience is needed. Definitely well worth a visit for families. Posing for those photos was fun. We left around 5plus and there was little time to shop as the shops around there close at 6pm. The boys only had time to pick up some discounted PlayStation games. We then took the tram back to the hotel to meet our parents.
Dinner @ Grill Steak Seafood
That evening we headed to Grill Steak Seafood, at Hardware Lane, which was just a short walk from our hotel, for dinner. Our family of 5 decided to share some oysters and 2 platters. We had half a dozen of the Oyster Kilpatrick (A$18), another half dozen of raw oysters (A$15), the Surf & Turf platter for 2 (A$99.50) and the Mixed Grill Platter for 2 (A$99).
The mixed grill platter came with a Potterhouse steak, pork ribs, lamb cutlets, chicken, chorizo, chips and mixed salad. The Surf & Turf platter came with King prawns, barramundi fillet, Sicilian style mussels, calamari, porterhouse steak, lamb cutlets, marinated chicken, chips and mixed salad. Both platters were huge and could definitely feed more than 2 persons each. My sis and parents all didn’t think we could finish the platters, but the hungry meat monsters among us proved them wrong and cleared out those plates easily. It was a very enjoyable meal and was a great finale for our 15 days trip.
The next day, we had a lazy start before heading to the airport to catch our mid day flight home, ending our 15 days Tasmania & Melbourne road trip!
Overall, it was an enjoyable and pleasant trip with lots of quality family time. But frankly, the scenery while nice did not “wow” us. The 5 of us agreed that in terms of scenery, South Island NZ was more impressive compared to Tasmania. I know I may be receiving daggers for saying this, but that’s our honest opinion. But it was still a nice trip and we definitely enjoyed Port Arthur, the Penguin tour and the minor activities, eg Tasmazia, Jetboating. And the Tasmanian Devils were cute!
Next up: Siem Reap Photographic Journey, 2018