Melbourne Day 10 Healsville Sanctuary, Bruno's Art Sculpture Garden

9 June 2014

Healsville Sanctuary is the best place to see Australian wildlife in their natural habitat. It offers visitors close-up encounters to the wildlife including koalas, kangaroos, wombats, emus, birds and many others. 

Finally we got to see some huge Red Kangaroos (real close up) towards the end of our journey. We took some time trying to find the pouch on the mothers' belly but to no avail. Perhaps there were not many mommies.

The Brush-tailed Rock Wallaby inhabits rugged, rocky areas of south-east Australia. They are currently are recognized as three genetically distinct populations. The southern form of this species only exists in two small isolated populations in Victoria, with less than 30 animals in each. 

The sturdy Common Wombat is native to Australia. It looks like mouse to me:)

Tasmanian Devils are the largest carnivorous marsupials in the world today. They are endangered by the Devil Facial Tumour Disease which caused tumours around the mouth, face and neck of Devils.

Australian Pelicans have light skeleton, less than 10% of their body weight, enables them to stay aloft for up to 24 hours and reach altitudes of 1,000 to 3,000 metres.The pouch of a Pelican's bill holds around 13 litres; It is useful for catching fish but also can attract a mate by turning bright red, blue and orange during courtship.

Emus are native to Australia and are found across most of the country. Emus cannot fly but they can run, and reach speeds as fast as 29km per hour

You must not miss koalas in Healsville Sanctuary, far better than seeing them in Phillip Island where you could hardly see them clearly sitting high up on trees. It is not surprised to always see them sleeping. We were lucky to see two of them awake for a while though.

It was a freaking cold morning (5 degress celcius) and sunshine turned out to be our favourite. Everyone of us was enjoying sunbathing while having snack

Bruno's Art Sculpture Garden
This garden hosts a collection of unforgettable characters hand crafted by Bruno from clay and fired onsite in his kiln. Bruno has created a world rich with fantasy and insightful beauty derived from his imagination and inspired by his journeys to some regions of the world. The garden was unfortunately destroyed by a bushfire in 2009. Bruno's passion to art has not stopped him from restoring the garden and today, which is why we got to see this amazing garden today.

Melbourne Day 9 Puffing Billy Railway, William Ricketts Sanctuary, Pig & Whistle Tavern

8 June 2014

Puffing Billy is Australia's oldest steam railway and one of the finest preserved steam railways in the world. It travels 24 kilometers through beautiful forest and fern gullies of the Dandenong Ranges from Belgrave to Gembrook. We however only stopped at Lakeside and took the same way back. The open-sided carriages allows passengers to see the stunning view, and what makes them more special is that passengers especially the young ones sit with their leg hanging out of the carriages. 

Pie in the Sky has won numerous gold medals for their pies and after visiting I felt it was overrated. The pies were not pleasing to my taste and so I prefer the Beechworth Bakery. We went on long weekends and the crowd drove me to mad as I didn't expect to see this in suburb. The frustration of seeing people cut-queuing (the line wasn't obvious) and the slow service had caused me to put higher expectations on the pies. 

William Ricketts Sanctuary is a place of beauty and tranquility for its natural setting and the mystical sculptures half hidden among ferns along the pathway. There are 92 ceramic sculptures of people and animals.

We had dinner at Pig and Whistle Tavern nearby for my belated birthday, mothers' day and fathers' day celebration. It was a long dinner as the food was served quite late. However we did not mind for the waiting as we ended our itinerary early and it was warm in the tavern. We ordered fat chips with sour cream, pumpkin and pesto pizza, porterhouse steak, roast pork belly and chicken parmigiana. Not to miss out was of course a dessert, a raspberry cheese cake (very different than those normal cheese cakes) with two scoops of ice cream. This dessert was the most impressive among all we had. Total damage of the dinner was about $110.

150g steak served with sauteed potatoes wilted spinach and shallot & bacon sauce.

Slow roasted pork belly served atop bubble and squeak , creamy mash with wilted rocquet, chilli jam & jus.

Crumbed chicken breast topped with napolitaine sauce, shaved ham and cheese served with fries and salad