Long time no see, Melbourne! Day 1 - arrival and hit the beach! @ C'est LA viE

Hooray, finally this day has come! So happy to be in Melbourne again after 5 years!

This time is with my family, and would be a longer period than last visit, and also will make all my way to the wild, explore the hidden gem of Melbourne, Yippie!

Our flight was at almost midnight, had to take air asia this time too as MAS is way too pricy.

Dinner at Nam Heong was really pricy yet bad in quality, I shall have proposed having something else at Family mart....

Thankful that this night I was able to sleep quite well on the plane.

We reached Melbourne international airport around 5am in the morning, weather was great and chilly than we thought!

It is supposed to be in summer, but the wind really feel like we are approaching winter time.

Custom had improved way faster than my last visit, with lots of automated system and machine, and queue is way shorter than last time.

After getting a sim card from Optus, we hopped on the van provided by our car rental company (East coast car rentals), our journey begins!!

(Note: There is a Optus shop right outside the arrival gate, and the staffs are very helpful, they provided various data and phone plan for travellers and also including the service of changing sim card for you, which is so convenient for electronics freak like us lol, price are also very reasonable, and overall coverage considered quite stable throughout our travel period).

The shuttle brought us to the car rental company which is like few mins away drive from the airport to collect our rented car.

I was collecting some informative cards from the booth provided in the company, these would be useful for my travel journal =D

The documentation and payment procedure is very smooth, just like what i had encountered in NZ, staffs are friendly and helpful.

They also professionally explained the car condition and parts that are important during our rental period.

The car we rented is Toyota Altis, which is in a good condition and newly arrived according to the staff. Car rental service in Aussie is way expensive than in NZ, most rental company insist consumer to purchase the insurance as road in Aussie can be quite wild, especially chances encounting wild animals are higher than in the kiwi land. It is advisable to purchase the insurance to avoid any further charges in case any incidents happens.

After collecting our car, we directly depart to our accommodation at rosebud.

The distance between our accommodation to the city centre is very very far, almost an hour drive (with no jam), and passed a few tolls..

Reason being living this far is because the accommodation is obtained via exchanged credit through a travelling membership which my dad had joined since i was a kid, the systems maybe effective ages ago but definitely not now when internet is widely accessed and various accommodation options are out there.

However, since we still have lots of balanced credit, we will use it all before it get expired in end of 2019.

The place we stayed actually is a country club with golf field, and is located at the mornington penisula area right at Rosebud.

The wind is even chilly here, the receptionist told me it is a bit unusual this time having such cold air, but i am quite happy with the chilliness as i prefer cold air more.

of cause, it is a bit concern if our clothes are warm enough.

Lunch easily settled at the cafe located in the accommodation, but there aren't much options, but better than nothing.

My brother and mum got the fried shrimps with chips

while myself getting hamburger, with a glass of hot chocolate.

mashmellow with hot chocolate! only have this combination in the Oceania~ Miss this so much~

We got a whole 2 floors house this time during our stay, such a luxirous accommodation.

Overall the room are clean and tidy, very well equiped, but there is no free wifi =.=, moreover, there will be no staffs after 6pm, meaning you need to call for emergency line for help after dark.

As the place is quite suburb located, so can be quite inconvenient.

We rest for a short while, then moved our way to the local grocerries, I miss NZ and aussie products so much!

We went to Woolworth, the popular supermarket in Aussie, while there is not many in NZ, or they are transformed into "Countdown"

Oh i remember i did buy this a few times, easily to be baked and get some vege, a meal done.

OMG, my beloved creamy yogurt, i am going to eat them everyday during this trip!

Oh i spotted minion!

Ya, remember the flower bouquet that always selling is reasonable price right you stepped in the supermarket~

Minion's sunscreen! wow...

Also in mousse! wow!

See how much we bought, cause we couldnt resist the chips, candies and chocolates!

We even dropped by the bakery house outside the supermarket, and bought some pastries.

Then we went to grab dinner at the small town closed by, we had kebab this time, i remember during our family trip at gold coast, we also had kebab on our first night.