Mia's Weekend Getaway: Australia - Sovereign Hill (Part 2)

After a good night's sleep in my cozy bunkroom, we woke up at 830 in the morning to pack up and get ready to check out.

 

The air smelled fresh and crisp from the slightly chilly weather....

  

And the sky was so blue it made my photo looks like a postcard now! 

 Even their crow (on 2nd thought I think it's a raven?) looked prettier and friendlier. :)

We got to the reception at 930, checked out, and was told Sovereign Hill opens at 10. However, the friendly receptionist informed us that some attractions are already opened and we could get an access card to enter via Comfort Inn. However, as Comfort Inn is located right at the top of Sovereign Hill and quite a far walk from the bus stop, we decided to give that temporary convenience a miss and took a slow stroll down the quiet neighbourhood to enter via the main entrance. 

And of course, enjoying the view of a nearly empty road, lined with greenery and topped with a clear blue sky. 

 And guess where we headed upon entering the premise?

 

Typical Singaporean - Look for food! 

Even though the signage said, 'opens at 930am daily', we were rather disappointed that they actually weren't quite ready for the day at 10am. And so, we decided to go a little bit up the trail and right, to get to Sovereign Cafe for my morning coffee. 

 

It's actually a pretty big, canteen-styled cafe hidden at a rather secluded corner of the premise, behind the eye-catching carriage and white tent. 

And I have to say, my first coffee in Australia was extremely disappointing. I felt like I've paid almost $5 AUD for a downsized McDonald breakfast coffee. What's worse? McDonald gives it to us free flow. 

 After the disappointing coffee, we headed back to Hope Bakery and noticed they still weren't quite ready (many biscuits weren't baked and some pies were missing) but the entire bakery was already filled with the mouth-watering fragrance of freshly baked pies! As their lamb stew pies weren't ready yet, I was left without any other choice than to get a chicken pie for about $4.50 AUD. They had beef pies as well, but I don't take beef.
As you can see, the pie was thick and big, about the size of my hand. The extremely thin crust was baked till flaky and crispy and the filling of flavourful, moist and gooey chicken stew was piping hot. Just 1 of this pie was more than enough to fill up my empty tummy and make me happy and satisfied. A must try for pie-lovers!

After we're done with breakfast, we headed out of the bakery and came to a blacksmith shop situated opposite the bakery.

 And within, there were a couple of blacksmiths working! This blacksmith in green was showing us how to make a horseshoe.

 After which, we went by New York Bakery that was still yet to open for business. Unlike Hope Bakery, NY Bakery is more of an eatery that provides luncheons.

 We then got attracted to this Charlie Napier Hotel when we saw a group of tourists taking photos outside the building and decided to head inside for a look. Be glad we did, for the interior was so pretty!

 

 I absolutely adore these old looking chests. Always gave me the feeling that a pile of treasure is lying within. :)

After coming out from the hotel, we walked into Clarke Brothers Grocers, selling all sorts of food products (sweet treats)! I was really tempted to buy a huge bag of their chocolate nuggets at 60 cents AUD per piece but was worried they might melt on my way back to Singapore. As YS and I were discussing, the staff overheard our conversation and was really nice to suggest that we head next door for sweet treats that wouldn't melt.

 Hand made boiled lollies by Brown's Confectionery!

My purchase from the store that amounted to about $19 AUD. Google up Sovereign Hill and you'll probably read countless reviews about 'stocking up their raspberry drops'. I did too, which was why I grabbed a bottle immediately upon seeing it. I wasn't disappointed. It was really good.

And there! Souvenirs for my colleague - checked! And then I started fretting about getting gifts for the girlies. And after walking further up the trail, I saw my life saviour.

 Handmade soaps and candles!

 If you're interested, you may get yourself a colourless (smooth or lumpy) candle and try to dip dye them to the colours you fancy.

My purchase from the store that amounted to about $20+ AUD. 3 scented candles in Musk, Green Apple, and Rose. Along with 4 soaps in Lychee (smelled really yummy!), Rose, Lavender, and Hibiscus.

Souvenirs for the girlies - checked! :)

 After which, we decided to go on the mine tour. Since YS holds a student pass, we can get the tickets cheaper at $6 AUD per person. The disappointing part was, there's no choice of which tour we get to go for. I was really hoping I can get the Trapped tour, but in the end we got The Secret Chamber, telling the tale of two Chinese miner brothers.

This picture was taken mere seconds before our train started its descend into the mine grounds. And during the 90 seconds ride, we were enveloped in total darkness. I shan't divulge much about this tour, but my favourite part of it has got to be this ride in the dark. But hey, if you hold a student pass, why not give it a try?

After coming out from the mine tour, we were just strolling along where the trail leads us and came to this place whereby a gold-making showcase was being held. We were pretty lucky to be in time for the last 5 minutes (and most important part) of the showcase.

Making a GOLD BAR! Just look at that awesome glow of orange when it just came out of the furnace in molten stage!

And just to share a few more random snippets at Sovereign Hill...

And before we left the place to return to Melbourne, we popped by Hope Bakery again and got ourselves some biscuits!

I got myself a melting moments because it looked so cute, very similar to a whoopie pie/macaron. Yes, I'm very superficial when it comes to sweet treats. I shall not elaborate on the taste for now, as I shall do a separate post on the sweet treats I've tried in Australia.

And so, this concludes my experience at Sovereign Hill and also accounted for 1 and 1/2 day of my trip. Stay tune for more!

Till then,
Mia

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Mia's Weekend Getaway: Australia - Sovereign Hill (Part 1)

After abandoning my previous blog on the 3rd day of my 7-day Vietnam trip in 2009, I vowed never to do travel blog entries anymore. However, with encouragement from bloggers I've known from Discuss SG like oyhz, finaldust, chikumama, coffeeluvs and chenelin, I've decided to give it another shot! 

And yup, I went to visit a friend in Melbourne! 

Upon touching down, I dropped off my luggage at YS's apartment and off we went to Ballarat to get to Sovereign Hill!
Rushing for the train was quite an episode, we first missed the tram at YS's place and got to Southern Cross station barely 10 minutes from the schedule train departure time, ran towards the platform only to be told along the way that the train has been switched to a coach. Oh well, in the end we still made it and I totally KO-ed on the coach for that 1.5 hrs ride (and missed many awesome sceneries!) until we reached Ballarat to take another local bus to Sovereign Hill.

These were the buildings/views I was enjoying while at the bus stop.

We got there pretty late, 4 plus almost 5 and it seemed like the place has closed for the day. Thankfully, they hadn't. And we had the chance to ask for directions to our accommodation for the night and some recommendations for dinner places. By this time, all eateries located within Sovereign Hill has closed and we had not much choices other than to venture out again to Main Street whereby a few restaurants were located.

Along the way there was nothing but greenery and the baby blue sky, along with a couple of cars passing by. Totally fell in love with this peaceful town. 

 And we decided on Fish & Chips! Pretty affordable too, with just flakes and chips at less than $9 AUD. You can also request for either plain salt or chicken salt for the fries. And I went for chicken salt! I'm a huge fan of flavoured salt, especially curry salt and yuzu salt. :)

The place was very simple with an open concept kitchen and a counter table with wall decor as shown. There's also a strip of "namecard holder" across the wall with all sorts of namecards (hair salons, locksmiths etc) stuck on them. I got rather tempted to stick my own up there. But then I realised, I've left my namecards back in SG. :(

And here's my first dinner in Australia, fish & chips with a can of ginger beer! See the before and after pic of my fish & chips? =.=" I hardly touched the chips at all. 

The flake was nothing like what I had in SG, 'flaky' and tough. Instead, I almost thought I was eating chicken cutlet! It was packed with really dense, 'solid' fish meat and was fried till the point whereby the meat remains soft and very moist. The fact that it was generously coated with chicken salt from the fries didn't help much with my 'hallucination' that I was eating chicken cutlet.

And after my ridiculously big dinner, YS and I packed up our leftover fries and retraced our steps back to Sovereign Hill and beyond in search of our accommodation for the night, Comfort Inn, and enjoying the relaxing scenery of the place. 

 After 20 to 30 minutes walk, we finally arrived at Comfort Inn! I was pretty shock as it seems extremely small, like a normal bungalow house. 

 

They were awarded Gold Award in 2012 for Choice Hotels Australia, as shown. 

 And the reception area is kept clean, impeccably neat and tidy. I found this newspaper area kind of cute and cozy too.

 Upon checking in, we were shown the way to our room and it was then I realised the Inn is actually pretty big with extended wings where the actual rooms were located. We got the twin bunkroom with (supposedly shared but turned out to be) ensuite bathroom located at this 'Military Barracks'.

And this was how our 'brickhouse' bunkroom looked like. It has got this extremely cozy feel to it, with two single beds placed at right angle to each other and a bathroom (didn't take any pictures of it) almost as big as the bedroom itself. The room was equipped with a small clothes rack, an electric kettle, a cup, and a full bowl of instant coffee with sugar. Even though there's no provision of TV (communal laundry room and TV lounge located in the wing) or free wifi in the room, we absolutely loved this place! I wouldn't mind spending a few more days here just to chill out, either. 

And after resting for a while, we 'coated up' and headed out for the show we've gotten tickets to. Blood on the Southern Cross: A Sound-and Light Spectacular. 

‘Blood on the Southern Cross’ is an explosive multi-million dollar sound-and-light show like nothing you’ve ever seen before!

The story of the Eureka Rebellion, a dramatic battle between gold miners and Government forces at Ballarat on 3 December, 1854, is retold nightly by ‘Blood on the Southern Cross’, Sovereign Hill’s acclaimed sound-and-light spectacular.

Set under the night skies at Sovereign Hill, ‘Blood on the Southern Cross’ involves no actors – just voices, dazzling sound-and-light effects and a stunning open-air set. Visitors travel across the site on a comfortable transporter and view much of the action from the re-created Free Trade Hotel on the Eureka Diggings.

Experience the miners’ disgust at unfair gold taxes and witness the dramatic burning of the Eureka Hotel. Then, listen to Governor Hotham’s reasoning for a dawn attack on a band of men who were the first to swear an oath of loyalty on Australian soil to a flag that was not British – the flag of the Southern Cross.

Credits to sovereignhill.com.au

As photography was prohibited, there is absolutely no pictures of the show. I'll say it's really interesting and pretty engaging with all the lights, special effects, movement of props, the story-telling and background noise. It would have been brilliantly spectacular if they are able to make it into a play (introduction of actors), though. Nonetheless, it was truly enjoyable and brought my first night in Australia to a meaningful end.

For more information on Sovereign Hill, click HERE.

Till then,

Mia

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