On my return trip to Melbourne last month, le boyfie and I took a week up to Sydney and Newcastle.

Clearly, I'm not referring to Newcastle upon Tyne located in the United Kingdom but the predominant city within the Hunter Region, which sits north-east from Sydney.

Upsie daisy!

As Kon's mother mentioned, "You're very lucky to have a beautiful day today!" as the rest of the other days spent in Newcastle were almost always cloudy and a subsequent heavy downpour.

Phew! Yay for sunshine! 

Thank you for parting your clouds & allowing the sun to peek through for me, Newie!

We parked the car and got down to enjoy a stroll along the coastal road

Sunny days ahoy!

Nature

Oh and I forgot to mention, the beautiful coastal line that we are at is called The Foreshore.

Ta-daaa! 

Quite a touristy place, if I do say so myself. It's located pretty close to the CBD as well. 

I caught sight of many with their cameras strapped around their necks too!

So refreshing

Couldn't ask for a lovelier day than this with him! 

Serene

How I love taking in beautiful, calm sights!

Whilst I am having my arms outstretched and basking in the sun, guess who else followed suit?

LOLOLOL

We kept walking along the path and I was pretty much fascinated with whatever I saw that evening.

It takes an enthusiastic tourist to have a local realize what a lovely place it is worth living in.

The roundabout and the immigrations department

Previously, le boyfie has been telling me so much about a certain "penis tower" that Newcastle is famous for.

So…. what is this "penis tower" exactly about and how does it look like? I wanted to see it for myself.

LOL. No wonder!

While we got to the bottom of the "penis tower" I got to know that its official name was Queens Wharf Tower.

Iconic! We decided to climb 40 metres up the spiral staircase to catch the view from a bird's eye view.

Tired! Little bit more! Up up up!

Finally got up there and it sure as well was worth it.

The view was magnificent! I regretted not bringing my DSLR with me at the time.

Taking a rest on the steps

Could've taken heaps of wide-angle to fish-eye shots if I had brought my gear along!! Grrr 

Wonder what's on that little island?

Sssso pretty!

Scenery from up above

Watching the traffic go by

View from another angle!

Camwhoring on the steps

We're 40.3 metres above!

We got down after that and headed back to the car.

I couldn't help running towards the pier to look below at the sea from here

I  the sounds of the sea; especially the waves!

I was taken by surprise 

 

Result : a beautiful shadow!

 

Foreshore was amazing

So we all headed to the beach next, as the sun was about to go down in an hour.

Perfect time to capture the sunset!

Drove past the Newcastle beach

And arrived our destination!

It wasn't exactly a beach; was more of an estuary which beautiful rocks, clearly seen during low-tide.

View from the top!

Took this shot when we were down by the rocks  Looks like a poster/calendar right?

This somehow reminds me of a screenshot off Discovery Channel or something #justsaying

The rocks reflected the sunset rays too. People were seen fishing!

See the rocks below? We walked precariously from rock to rock without slipping.

Taking pretty pictures against the sunset background!

(had to brighten us a tad bit cos we could hardly be seen!)

T'was beautiful indeed

Starfishes, tiny crabs, prawns & other crustaceans were spotted!

While le boyfie was busy crouching around the rocks looking at miniature sea creatures, I parked my arse onto one of the massive rocks and dipped my feet into the crystal clear water below.

So cold!!!! Eeeeeek!

Brrrrr

With each tide of wave that comes periodically, a gush of water runs through these rocks

The waves stopped for a little while

My desktop wallpaper at the moment 

This happened pretty candidly to be honest.

We were talking to each other of what other poses we should do and then *click* goes the camera

I love this photo! Thanks to the mistur!!! 

 

Setting… setting….

Spent quite a while there, the sun began to set into the horizon more and more

Shot with a polarizing filter

It was time to go home & get ready for dinner.

It was Maria's birthday  

Bye bye Newcastle beach!

I had heaps of fun  ^____^

 

Woohoo! All my life, I've always wanted to experience snow and to see snowflakes with my very own eyes.

This trip to Mount Buller has made my childhood dream a reality *bigwidegrin*

 

Remember the earlier blogpost about this roadtrip on Day #1? I was still up the snow-mountain then.

But now I'm back!

 

Say hello to the new Snowboarder in town!

 

Oh and I forgot to mention in the previous post -- there were names for every corner up the mountain.

The one called 'Unnamed Corner' made Kayla and I laugh. 'Dump In Corner' made me giggle too 

 

But this corner made me semi-freak out 

 

We arrived after 5 hours. I was awed by the cosy Tyrolean vibe that this hotel boasted the moment I laid eyes on it.

Staying in a lovely place on the Victorian Alps for the weekend? I could get used to this

 

Here I stand, at the two-time champion award-winning Hotel Pension Grimus!!  

 

I soon realized that we will be spending the weekend in one of Australia's leading Ski-Resort hotel 

 

Buddy Kayla and I just before check-in

 

The moment we entered the hotel lobby, we were greeted by its warm, cosy atmosphere and a friendly receptionist at the front desk. Whilst the rest were busy talking to the receptionist and getting keys to our rooms, I took to snapping photos of the hotel interior straight away.

 

It made me feel right at home 

 

A ski-hotel with a modern concept yet retaining the traditional cabin/lodge features

 

Coat hanger to place our thick, snow jackets and overcoats

 

We were ushered to our respective rooms

 

My eyes widened with delight as we entered the room. It was beautifully furnished, spacious and brightly-lit.

The refrigerator was well stocked with lotsa goodies too! 

 

Pretty, ain't it?

 

Ssssooo cosy and screaming to be snuggled in under the covers!

 

After enthusing over the room, having a hot bubble bath in our jacuzzi and taking a well-deserved rest, we decided to dine at the hotel's fine-dining restaurant just downstairs, called Kaptan's Restaurant.

 

Camwhoring while waiting for my missur to be ready

 

And off we went to Kaptan's Restaurant! We'd best be off; I'm starving! 

 

I love its wooden concept + heaps of photo frames on the walls!

 

Chilling nearby Herbie's Cocktail Bar while waiting to be seated.

There was a fireplace beside our table. Squeee!  (But it  wasn't fired up, unfotunately.. but STILL)

 

It was not until we sat down & gave the waiter our orders that we realized…..

 it was a FINE DINING restaurant.

 

…… Blimey. We were severely under-dressed  Aaaargghh.

Major fashion faux pas, if you ask me. Hey, in our defence, we were on holiday and dressed for comfort! (Okay fine. To be honest, we didn't research what kind of restaurant we were dining in first)

 

To make things even more awkward, the tables around us were filled with guests dressed to the nines talking about their high-flying careers, investments and their shares (as though trying to upstage each other!) while we were having our meals enjoying each other's company giggling about the fun day we had and inside jokes without a care in the world.

Anyway, here are our choice of meals from the dinner menu

 

 

Entrees

Potato & Leek Soup served in a shot glass

Tempura Soft Shell Crab with Watermelon, Persian Feta Salad & Sesame Dukkah

 

Mains

Whole Buxton Trout with Beetroot, Almond Cream, Zucchini Flower & Pepper Crisp

Organic Corn Fed Chicken Breast on Sweet Corn Puree, Leek Fondue & Austrian Cheese Tortellini

 

The food was exquisite, without a doubt. We enjoyed the shotglass soup and my chicken was really tasty. Kon couldn't stop gushing over his crab  The fish was tender but we were in for a surprise when we found out how wicked its bones are -

 

I've had heaps of different fish before but never trout.

Its bones could put a porcupine to shame anytime!

 

After dinner, le boyfie got me into Sudoku (yes, I have never played before).

To be honest, I know all the rules and HOW to play it but, I just couldn't be bothered to play one for myself.

 

 

Oh and… don't you think this photo below has the potential to be a movie poster?

 

No?

 

Well, you'll see. Challenge accepted.

 

Told you.

 

The very next morning, we were awaken by 2 trays of hot breakfast in bed by Pension Grimus.

Talk about top notch service! :) Everything was so delicious too.

 

I especially loved my mushrooms, hash browns, buttered croissants and scrambled eggs!

OMG AND PEACHES! 

Hotel Pension Grimus provided rental for ski & snowboarding equipment too

 

After breakfast and some snoozingcanoozling, t'was time to head out to the snow.

..Head out to the snow.

..THE SNOW.

..SNOW!!!!!!!!

 

The staff at the ski hire made me a very happy girl.

Gave me a red snowboard to use for the day which matched the red gloves Greg lent me

 

I'd bask all day in the snow if I could

 

Sillyfuntimes

 

To me, snowballs aren't as easy to make as it seems.

Mine kept getting lopsided and misshapen! Such noob skills.

 

Well, this one wasn't too bad if I do say so myself!

 

My snowboard and I

 

Le boyfie and I just before our snowboarding sesh!

 

behold Master Greg's 3 students in snowboarding

 

Fell over like, 50 million times

 

We got separated at one point while snowboarding and when we finally found each other, we decided to snowboard down the mountain while holding hands. But we gave up as we kept falling over and overshotting each other not to be able to begin at the same spot together! 

Bummer.

 

Downdowndown the run

 

\

Practice makes perfect. I'm now taking a break after all that snowboarding!

 

Cold, gloomy weather

 

Group shot after we all managed to find each other at the foot of the run!

Kon & I  Kayla & Greg

 

As I was so keen on actually playing/being silly in the snow, leboyfie decided to bring me to the snowplay area.

Hey! I missed that out during my childhood, what better time than now to make up for it?

 

Snowplay! 

 

Do you remember how I was obsessing over the snow and the 3 main things I MUST DO?

1. Make a snow man

2. Make a snow angel

3. Throw a snowball at someone

 

NUMBER ONE --  check!

 

NUMBER TWO -- check!

 

NUMBER THREE -- check!

 

No surprises on who my victim is Poor Kon got snowballed over and over again.

He had his fair share of snowballing me down too. Snowfight FTW 

 

We took approximately half an hour to build our snowman

our "illuminati snowman" as a random guy claimed it to be LOLOL

 

I was very proud of our snowman. And he's not JUST an ordinary snowman, okay?

He's a celebrity; received lots of attention from everyone and all wanted to take photos with our snowman. 

 

Our snowman sure got heaps of loving from me

He's a cool three-tiered snowman who wears sunglasses & likes snowboarding! 

 

 

We went to bed early that night as we were exhausted from all the snowboarding & our day out!

I was determined not to spend some $AUD80 (which is RM240 in my currency!) *regurgitates blood* for a lift pass, so I hiked up the hill each time I finished snowboarding down the run. It was insane.

 

Short VLOG of snowplay!

 

Fancy climbing up a snowhill being resisted by snow and carrying heavy gear. Gofightwin!

 

Buffet breakfast in Kaptan's Restaurant the next morning

 

Very happy how the hotel provided us free wifi.  TOTAL PLUS POINT! Our last day was spent rather chillaxed. 

We also decided not to snowboard again today (our bodies were aching!) but spent it leisurely and in the spa!

 

We had our own private spa & sauna

 

It was awesome! Best to unwind in the hot bubbly spa and sweat everything out in the 50°C sauna.

So relaxing till I almost fell asleep 

 

After spa & sauna. Okay, time to head out in the cold again!

 

Had lunch and prepared to go home.

What can I say? One of the BEST WEEKENDS I've ever had in a while.

 

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!