10 Days Couple Trip to Australia | Sydney & Tasmania (Part 2)

After long procrastination (as usual 😂), finally I managed to write the continuation of the part 1 to our 10 days couple trip at Tasmania =)

DAY 6 - Tasman Island Cruise

The most awaited highlight of our holiday !! I can't believe it that I will have the chance to experience this with Eddie 😍 We checked out from Port Arthur Motor Inn in the morning and reach at Pennicott office around 9am as they need to do briefing and then take us using their own bus to the harbor to board the ship =) The cruise started at 10AM and ended around 1PM (exactly 3 hours) but, these 3 hours are the best 3 hours trip I have (I have to admit that it gets a bit cold but all good haha)

I might or might not write a single post for this cruise; if I ever do, I will update the link here so you guys can have more pictures or videos to look at. Meanwhile, please scroll below for pictures or if you are planning to Tasmania already, please visit their website by clicking here and check out what kind of cruises you plan to have to (they have different type of cruise 😄)

Harbor view

From the cruise, the view is amazing !

Another amazing view =)

Rocks and rocks . Eddie's favorite 😃

After the cruise ended, we were sent back to their office and continue our road trip to Swansea. It took us around 2 hours, hence we reached our accommodation at 4ish in the afternoon. But guys, it was totally worth it when we saw our room. Such lovely and spacious place for us to stay for a night!! Belinda (the host) is extremely friendly as she suggested us what to have for dinner (she helped us to make reservation at Saltshaker) as well as what time we need to leave the studio after checking our planned itinerary. Totally recommend you all to stay at this place if you happened to be at Swansea =)

En route to Swansea =)

Our accommodation (front look) at Wagners Cottage, Swansea

View from Saltshaker Restaurant

DAY 7 - Freycinet National Park 

We had fruitful and lovely morning breakfast as Belinda has supplied us with whole loaf of bread, there are eggs, coffee, tea and even Nespresso 😍😍We decided to check out as per the time Belinda suggested to us and started our long drive again to Freycinet National Park. As per mentioned on my previous blog post, remember to have your holiday pass for vehicle ready to enter all the national parks at Tasmania. Else you will need to pay multiple times on every entry =)

There are quite a number of tracks if you have the time to explore it all. We only did explore few things since we don't have much time (only around 3 hours+). I wanted to go Wineglass Bay Beach, however, we will need to track 1000+ stairs steps down (and up) which will take a long time according to Eddie. So, we decided to just explore Wineglass Bay Lookout, Sleepy Bay, Honeymoon Bay, and Cape Tourville Lighthouse.

I really enjoyed walking in here as the wind breeze is cooling and I can see wonderful creations by God. I got bit scared while walking at Cape Tourville since we were walking on a bridge which is 100meters above the sea level 😨 (yeah I'm bit scared of height) but again, managed to walk through it after keep on holding to the handrail as well as Eddie's hand 😃 If you have the time and energy to walk around, enjoying nature, this is definitely the place you don't want to skip =) Scroll down below for more pictures taken here =)

Wineglass Bay signboard

Wineglass Bay Lookout

Wallaby spotted 😍

Honeymoon Bay

Sleepy Bay

Sleepy Bay

Sleepy Bay

The view is just amazing from Cape Tourville 😍

Walking down the bridge at Cape Tourville

The Lighthouse =)

Once we were done exploring this place, we stopped by Freycinet Marine Farm for lunch as one of my friends mentioned that this place has legit mussels (which obviously really good recommendation !) before we continued the journey to St. Helens; another 1.5 to 2 hours drive. We were quite tired after the whole driving (more like Eddie's driving HAHAHA since I don't have any license and don't know how to drive 😌) hence we decided to just roam around the area and went to get some grocery for our dinner (not sure of which restaurant to go, so in the end we chose to just eat in our unit). 

DAY 8 - Binalong Bay, Bridestowe, Cataract Gorge Reserve

Checked out at 9AM, we straight head to Binalong Bay since we knew its gonna be double long drive today. There were quite a number of entrance to this place; we went to Cosy Corner South and Cozy Corner North. The water was so clear that I fell in love and tried to keep playing with it although my hand felt a bit numb (please note even it's mid of the spring, the water is just still very cold haha)

Once done taking pictures and looking at the scenery, we went to Bridestowe; hoping to see the lavender field. It took around 2 hours journey and I have to say this is the longest journey we had compared to all the previous days. Worth it? Meh for us, cause WE DID NOT SEE THE LAVENDER ON THE FIELD !! Damn sad right, my hope was crushed just like that. Oh well, at least there was still a bit lavender for us to see. Probably not our luck yet 😞

With the famous Bobby the Bear 😍

No Lavender yet =(

After had our Lavender - Vanilla ice-cream and successfully surprised the employee that we bought 50 hand-soaps for 50 different people , we continued heading to Launceston. Was totally in love with the houses at Launceston and the landscaping is definitely awesome. Houses sit on hill, and when it was sunset, the sun rays shining over layer by layer (people won't definitely know what I'm talking about here LOL but I don't really good in explaining things) If you have chance to visit, you'll understand this (I HOPE! Hahaha)

We visited Cataract Gorge as it is the main touristy place aside from Cradle Mountain. We took the chairlift which cost us $30 (for two); it's a return ticket =) The view is amazing ! You can walk around as well but we were kinda lazy and it was bit late too, hence we decided to just take it easy =)

As for dinner, we treated ourselves at Cataract on Paterson. We totally didn't know about this place and just simply choose from Google Maps 😂 Warned you, it's better to have a reservation else you got to wait for at least an hour to get a table (just like us haha). Since we were on the wait list, we walked around the area, watched sunset, and then went back to the restaurant to have our meal. That's the end of our first night at Launceston =)

Love the sunset so much 😍

DAY 9 - QVMAG Museum, Brisbane St shopping

We were supposed to be on Cradle Mountain, but after weather check and time check, I asked Eddie to cancel the plan. It was totally disappointed but good decision at that time as I don't want the two of us rushing here and there without able to enjoy the last two days of our holiday. So, I checked out what we can do around the area and just chill.

We woke up later compared to the previous days, head to Sweetbrew to have our late brekkie, and then head to the museum and spent good 2 hours 😂 We tried to find Tamar Valley lookout, but we just couldn't find it (both of us were quite lost even with GPS). We head straight to Brisbane St and did some window shopping (he managed to buy a jeans and shirt LOL).

At the 2nd floor of the museum exhibition

We went back to rest really early (around 7ish) without having dinner since we kept on snacking on our way LOL. I remembered that we watched Harry Potter (can't remember which sequel haha) and Real Steel. Then around 9ish I told Eddie let's grab Maccas cause I wanted to eat fries and bought more things at Coles to bring it back to Singapore 😄 We slept quite late and managed to see the stars and moon (it was full moon!!) and I really wished that my holiday will keep going without having to go back to Singapore the next day...

DAY 10 - Back to Singapore 

Well obviously all holiday must comes to an end, and we finally must go back to Singapore =(

Once we checked out, we head to Seven Monks Cafes & Wares for brekkie and then went to the airport. We returned the car there, quite hassle free (just have to drop the key to the designated area since there's no one at the counter)

We waited for check-in counter to open (reached too early LOL) and then we got our coffee at Hudson coffee. We transit at Melbourne for an hour (no direct flight from Launceston to Singapore =)) and reached Singapore around 10ish at night =( 

Returned the car at the allocated car park area

Runway at Launceston

Window seat view Melbourne - Singapore flight

That's the end of our holiday =( I miss the blue sky and breezy wind at Australia =( I vowed that I will be back again to explore different place and to explore Cradle Mountain !!! 

Please click here for the first part of our couple trip =)

10 Days Couple Trip to Australia | Sydney & Tasmania (Part 1)

No more long procrastination !! Finally posted the first part of my long awaited holiday that passed few weeks ago. I definitely don't want to be back at Singapore because the reality sucks. But again, without this, I'm not gonna have the money to travel HAHA so just got to suck it up and face it !! 😂😂

Not to bored you with my introduction, I finally have the chance to visit Tasmania !! We flew to Sydney first as I need to fulfill my bridesmaid duty before flying to Tassie. So we spent 2 nights there and flew to Hobart and started our little adventure ❤ We planned the road trip started at Hobart and ended at Launceston☺I'm really blessed as my boyfriend, Eddie, really planned so much for our trip and he makes sure everything goes smoothly. Love you deep deep my boyfriend ❤❤

Both of us agreed that our highlights throughout this trip are Mount Wellington and Tasman Island Cruise. Without further ado, I'll start from our flight itinerary and hope this post will help you in the future for references if you have intention to visit Tasmania =)

DISCLAIMER

All hotel or restaurant names / brands mentioned in my blog never pays me anything. So this is not a sponsored post and don't worry, I'm writing in purely my honest opinion =)

PS: I've split this itinerary into 2 posting as I realized it's way too much to cram everything in one post and I don't want people to keep scrolling down and feel bored =)

PPS: If you are driving and plan to visit the national park at Tasmania (which you definitely need to LOL), please remember to have your holiday pass for the car, cost around $80 (Australian dollar) =)

Flight Itinerary

We've been searching for the most reasonable ticket price for our trip and in the end, we decided to take Qantas, cost us at SGD 1,915.20 for two. The reason we took this because Scoot and the other airlines almost cost us the same (and the luggage is only at 20kg 😞) There's another choice, Singapore Airlines, but it's freaking expensive for me HAHAHA. But hey, Qantas is good as well =)

Our flight itinerary as per below; we departed from Singapore to Sydney, then from Sydney to Hobart, and the holiday comes to an end where we departed from Launceston to Singapore. Since there's no direct flight from Launceston, we got to stop by Melbourne for short period for transfer.

One day before our flight, we got contact from Qantas that our flight from Singapore needed to be changed to 7:30pm flight as we might not be able to board the flight that we booked. We were quite shocked as this never happened to us. Eventually we agreed to changed our flight and realized we took Airbus A380 (better plane compared to Airbus A330). But oh well, what's more important is that both of us traveled safely and back to Singapore in one piece =)

Flight Itinerary (before we got switched to QF 2 on our departure from Singapore)

Car Rental

I have to admit that car is really important if you travel at Tasmania (unless you've planned to just stay in one place and purchase one day tour package). Eddie booked our car from rentalcars.com; they connect us to different brands of car hire such as Hertz, Europcar, and Avis.

At first, Europcar employee at the counter (Hobart Airport) asked Eddie if he wants to upgrade to BMW (not sure which series) by paying additional $40/day. I told him to think properly if its worth it or not as we will be on roads. Eventually he chose to stick with the first plan (thank God cause we are saving at least $280 !!). To our surprise, we got upgraded to Mitsubishi Outlander !! At the time when we booked it was written that we will only get Kia Cerato Sedan or similar. Outlander is definitely good car and one of the things I love from this car; I can use Android Auto (not available in Singapore yet), connects my phone immediately to the LCD screen mounted in the car and allows me to access my Spotify and Google Maps =)

We paid total of SGD334.71 for 7 days booking. Additional info that you want to know; if you are not the one driving, better don't make the booking cause once you booked, you are the only one meant to drive. They did not allowed other people to drive unless you pay another AUD$50 for additional driver (we saw this situation happened when we returned the car at Launceston Airport)

Our car for the whole trip =) Taken at Wagners Cottages

Accommodation

We booked our accommodations at Tasmania from Agoda.com and Booking.com. Here's the list of the places we stayed:

• Montacute Boutique Bunkhouse
• Port Arthur Motor Inn
• Wagners Cottages
• Sweetwater Villas
• Aberdeen Court Apartments

Meanwhile at Sydney, we stayed at Meriton Suites Chatswood, arranged by the groom and bride =)

I'm planning to write down several notes on the accommodation on a separate post; this will become super long entry if I wrote it down here 😃 The most impressing place to stay for both of us is at Wagners Cottages. Wonderful host, beautiful place, and it's super cozy !! For more details on the accommodation, I will write in on another post and I will update on the link here =) (finger cross that I'm not procrastinating that long HAHA)

Itinerary (do take note all cost from here onward will be on Australian Dollar =) and again sorry that I'm super long-winded with my story HAHA)

DAY 1 - Bye Singapore, Hello Sydney !

Nothing much that we did on the first day, since we reached early morning at 7am Australia Time (AUST). We took the train from International Airport to Central Station and changed train to Chatswood. It took us around 30+mins and cost at $19+ for one pax. Hence, if you are travelling with families, I think it will be better to take the taxi or Uber (they are using Uber instead of Grab).

Reached at Meriton around 8.30am, but because we can't check in, we left our bags with concierge and went to grab brekkie at Salt & Light. Then, went back Meriton to check in and sleep until 2pm (too tired as we did not sleep properly during flight). Afterward, we visited University of Sydney; the uni that I used to attend to, and took quite a number of pictures. 

We had our dinner separately as I had dinner with the bridal party team at The Ground in the city. Went back to sleep at 10pm (we never sleep this early LOL) as I have to be

Salt and Light, near to Chatswood Station

University of Sydney building which has become a tourist attraction nowadays.

DAY 2 - Bridesmaid Duty

Woken up at 5:30am and showered. Bride mentioned that I need to be there (Meriton North Sydney) by 6:30am to get make up done. So I took the Uber and reached on time. But, it urns out that there were slight miscommunication and the make up artist only reached at 7ish. Oh well, at least we still managed to be at the reception place (Sergeants Mess) on dot (probably a bit late, but nah, guests always can wait for the bride aye haha).

Morning sunrise from Meriton North Sydney Level 29

City view from Meriton North Sydney

The place is beautiful, ceremonies went smoothly, and the bridal party off to take another photo shoot at Bradleys Head Light Tower after the wedding lunch. There is bit of problem in the transport (three of the bridesmaid were stranded LOL) but again, we managed to solve it (thanks to Uber ! haha). I did not join the after party with the bridal party as I just want to sleep and rest before heading off to Hobart the next day.

Bradley's Head Light Tower

DAY 3 - Bye Sydney, Hello Hobart !

We took breakfast at Cafe New York. Food was so so, not too bad; if you have other choices, please go to your other choice, cause I rather regretted that I came here (I rather go back to Salt and Light, but we would love to try different places since we are on holiday).

We took Uber to Airport at 12pm (flight at 3ish) and encountered such friendly driver; talks to us for the whole journey about everything and anything. Thanks to him, the journey felt shorter and the conversation topic was very  broad that we can learn quite a bit from him =) Touch down in Hobart at 5ish in the late afternoon, took our car at Europcar counter. Then we head to Montacute for check-in, which took us around 20 to 25mins.

Greeted by the Devil at the Hobart International Airport (near to the luggage carousel)

Once settled down, we try to search surrounding if anything worth to check out. Since it's already late and no shop opened on Sunday night, we decided to just take a stroll while making our way to go the dinner place that I've booked. We passed through the Narryna Heritage Museum, then took a stroll at St. David's Park, passed by St. David's Cathedral and finally had our dinner at Urban Greek (recommended by a friend of mine). That's wrapped up our first night.

Narryna Heritage Museum (from outside of the gate)

At St. David's Park entrance =)

St. David's Cathedral

The cute pet at Montacute Bunkhouse =)

DAY 4 - Mt Wellington, Old Hobart Town, Richmond Bridge

Started the journey with our first stop at Mt Wellington and it took us almost 45mins (you can reach around 30mins timing) cause Eddie took the wrong route (he did not realized it until I mentioned how come it took so long 😂). We were supposed to take a sharp right turn, but we missed it LOL. But anyway, we still managed to get back on track and see the wonderful view from top =) The weather was extremely cold on that day thanks to the wind.

Panorama view from top =)

The Pinnacle at Mt Wellington

Mt Wellington

After the cold wind, we were quite famished and looking for stuffs to eat. Eddie found out a place wanted to give it a try; Riversdale Estate. However, after looking at the price and review, we decided to go Frogmore Creek. The food and wine is equally amazing with the view of the vineyard  😍 . Oh yes, they have wine tasting option as well. Totally recommended this place.

Riversdale Estate

Vineyard 

Frogmore Creek

From Frogmore, we continued the journey to Richmond to visit Old Hobart Town and the Richmond Bridge. I was quite surprised at Old Hobart Town; they really took an extra effort to build place. We spent almost an hour plus. Before we walked to Richmond Bridge (took us 15mins time to go), we had our coffee at Ashmore (located opposite Old Hobart Town) just to refresh our brain 😃 

Old Hobart Town signage =)

Inside Old Hobart Town

The garden inside Old Hobart Town

Richmond Bridge

We were quite tired from the outing; completed our planned itinerary around 4pm. We took the decision to eat pizza from Medici for our dinner, head back to our room to chill and Netflix. The pizza was not bad if you're not expecting much haha, but the smell of the pizza from the shop is definitely tempting so much that we couldn't resist. Day 2, wrapped !

DAY 5 - Officers Quarters Museum 1832, Tessellated Pavement, Port Arthur

We left Hobart town at 8ish in the morning and drove all the way to Port Arthur. Took us around an hour plus; we stopped by two places for short time (each stop around 10 to 20mins). We reached Port Arthur at 12pm. First, we went to the officers quarters museum. It was quite creepy place since it's like out of nowhere; it looks like a haunted house for me. It was bit dark, without any lighting; probably cause they will be doing maintenance service (saw the notice but couldn't really remember).

En route to our next stop =)

The signage (don't even remember why I never took the whole building picture LOL)

Port Arthur map explanation at the Officers Quarters Museum 

We continued the drive to Tessellated Pavement, just another 2-3mins drive away from the Quarters Museum. To look at the scenery, you got to walk down the passage, around 5mins time. If you are the type of person that loves to look at building and not just the nature, I suggest you don't come here 😄

Tessellated Pavement

The other perspective of Tessellated Pavement

Random shot while walking back to car-park at Tessellated Pavement

After taking few pictures, we finally made our way to Port Arthur. We purchased the entrance tickets at $90 for two adults. It seems expensive but it's included the 40mins of walking tour (introducing you to the background story of this place) and 20mins of harbor cruise =) It's one of the magnificent historic site, but I felt creepiness at one of the buildings. Probably because I know the story of the place and thinking that someone being locked-up for 23 hours with no words to be uttered, no face shown to the public, and even you're outside, your name will be hid too; too much to take in for me. I rushed Eddie to get out of the place ASAP as I can't stay in that place any longer.

Port Arthur

Isle of the Dead & Point Puer Boys' Prison from the harbor cruise

Panorama view of The Penitentiary

The Asylum. Now it has been turned to a cafe and museum =)

Inside the Separate Prison

Eddie helps to take picture at the Church building

One the houses in the historic site

After spending almost 4 hours taking picture and learning history, we decided to head to our accommodation to check-in and rest before having our dinner at 1830 Restaurant & Bar; located inside the office to purchase the entrance tickets. Can't imagine people willing to spend money to do Ghost Tour at Port Arthur as it looks extremely creepy for me haha (we can see the buildings from the restaurant). Finished with dinner, we went back to rest and prepare for special highlight of our holiday, Tasman Island Cruise 😍😍

That's wrapped up the first part of our couple trip itinerary. You can continue to read on the second part of the itinerary by clicking here =) (link will be updated by end day or tomorrow =))