National Rhododendron Gardens

Sorry, for the lack of post recently, I’ve been so busy lately with guest (cousins and their families) visiting from Malaysia. We’ve had two groups in the last month; one group after another. It’s been very tiring but enjoyable.

My cousins came with their kids this time around, the kids are so active. It’s been a while since I’ve been around hyperactive kids! Don’t get me wrong, they’re really well behaved but just super excited to in another country – they’re little balls of energy; constantly!

Before their visit, Chris (bf) had his aunt and uncle from Singapore visiting (it’s been a busy, busy month for us both!). We took them to the National Rhododendron Gardens to relax. We caught a rare, warm weekend to enjoy the limited sunshine there. (Melbourne’s weather has gone haywire lately. One day in the 30s and the next is raining cats and dogs!)

The Rhododendron Gardens are located in the Dandenong Mountains and are host to brilliantly coloured blooms of rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, cherries and daffodils. Inside is really big and if you walk it all, you’re bound to have an excellent workout.

Chris and I went there a few months back, it was a lot nicer then because the weather was consistently warm and the plants were in full bloom, we also caught a glance of the lyrebirds that run around there.

This time around, we spent less time there, and only walked a little but were still able to take in our gorgeous surroundings – and cool down with an icy pole later.

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Enchanted Maze Gardens x Ethan's Birthday

Chris and I have been planning to catch up with our good friends, Cassy and Ethan for a day trip for a while now. We chose a Saturday that happened to coincide with Ethan's Birthday. We all decided that we wanted to go to a late night hot spring session so we planned our day around that. We had brunch, went for a walk to the coast, went cheese tasting, Strawberry farm, enchanted maze gardens, dinner then hot springs.

Ethan mentioned that he wanted to visit the Enchanted Maze Gardens. Chris and I actually wanted to visit this place about a month back but didn't end up going in because we thought the facade looked like it was designed for children and not suitable for us - it also rained that day, which drew us even further away.

We were really blessed with the weather on Saturday. It was forecast to rain that whole weekend but it was such a beautiful sunny Spring day. Chris and I were actually glad we didn't go in the last time because the rain would have spoilt everything as the maze gardens is entirely outdoors. Going in Spring made it so much more enchanting and beautiful, the flowers were in bloom and the trees were luscious green! Look how perfect everything is.

It really is so beautiful inside. The sculptures are perfectly cut out! Really impressive. It's not easy to maintain such a big high-maintenance area!

The lady at reception recommended we visit the Tube Slides and The 3D Spooky Maze first because they close earlier compared to the rest of the park. Good call from her because our favourite hang-out for the day was at the Tube Slides. Too bad it's super tiring because you have to lug these huge tubes

up a super steep hill before you can slide down and get sprayed with water. What's not to love?

Can't say the same about the 3D Spooky Maze. In my opinion, it was quite lame. You walk through these rooms with your funky 3D glasses on and the painting on the walls appear in 3D. I have to admit, I did get freaked out (at the very end, when the air machine popped and steam touched my leg). Props to me for freaking out the others! :P

Whilst we were going through the gardens, we looked up and saw these people tree surfing! Omgoodness, looks like so much fun but too bad, you require a booking to participate. Will definitely find time to go back there to tree surf!

Finished off a jam packed day with a relaxing night at the hot springs.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ETHAN :)

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Hello Spring x Happy Father's Day

September is finally here, which means Spring! It’s been a very dull and wet winter so it’s great to finally have some warmth, sunshine and colour in our days! Yesterday also marked my dad’s 23^rd Father’s Day! We celebrated by bringing him out to lunch and then to dinner, it’s always great to get together as a family to celebrate an occasion.

Yesterday was also the first time I went to visit my God Sis. If you know me well, you’ll know she passed away back in 2009. It’s been so different without her here with me which made it so difficult to go and visit her. But yesterday, together with Chris, his mum and my parents, we went to say hi. I know she’ll be upset because I delayed it for so long but I’m sure she would have loved having us there. We also took the time to visit Chris’ dad and Nanna whilst there. I’ve never seen a cemetery so busy before.  It was literally chock a block at every turn. Thankfully, we parked near the entrance which was just in front of a short cut turn to the exits!

That’s my daddy

 I love him so much x Happy Father’s Day, daddy! 

Look how young daddy still looks! Forever handsome x

and this is how much Jim loves dad :P

Also, a huge thanks and crazy amounts of love and respect for my eternal Father. Thanks for keeping me on track and loving me wholeheartedly x

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Wetlands

So happy that the weather is starting to warm up. Melbourne's weather has been crazy this August. According to the bureaus, it was the wettest August since 1991. It wouldn't be Melbourne if it didn't include a few warmer days in the mix. If you're a Melbournian or know anything minute about Melbourne, you would probably know that we have a 4 season in 1 day policy, which in my opinion - sucks! It makes it so hard to dress and even more difficult to plan road trips away. 

Because August was a really disgusting wet month, when we hit a slightly warmer day, we wanted to take advantage of it. We walked to the wetlands near my place to feed the ducks. It such a calming, quiet place that I love to frequent in the warmer weather. As you can tell from the above pics, Spring is very close!

Feeding ducks wouldn't be complete without the swarm of seagulls -argh! They're super cunning and really fast, I think about 4/5th of our bread was eaten up by them. I was quite annoyed at them so in my bad mood, I mentioned to Chris that I heard from friends that if you feed seagulls panadol, their stomachs will explode - fun fact for the day. (well, not exactly that fun if it's true and probably not even a fact.)

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