12 Apostles attempt 2 and Brighton Beach in the winter - Day 3 in Victoria, Australia

7 February 2019

#ThrowbackToSeptember2017
Hello 朋友们(friends)! Happy Chinese New Year!! I'm spending CNY in Hong Kong this year at my uncle's so since I'm having my short sembreak at the same time, I've decided to pick up my long forgotten Australia Travelogue! Without any further ado, here's what I did on my 3rd day at Victoria, Australia(last last september :'D).

By the way, this is part 2 of what I did during my Great Ocean Road-trip so if you have not read part 1, you can read it HERE. Rest of my posts related to this Aussie trip will also be listed at the bottom!


First things first, a quick recap. During our first visit to the 12 Apostles, we arrived late afternoon and the weather wasn't exactly photo-friendly thus we made a second attempt on the following morning(thank goodness we decided to stay a night at Port Cambell). Next morning, just before heading to the 12 Apostles, we made a quick stop at Gibson Steps first.

Here you get to see the Two Survivors.


I know a lot of people would head down to capture more photos but it was drizzling when we got there so we made a pass and captured a few photos from above instead.


I procrastinated so long to write about this trip my hair colour has probably changed 3 times since this bright pink LOL.

Once we're satisfied with our touristy photos at Gibson Steps, we took a short drive to the 12 Apostles. By the time we got there it was no longer drizzling. We were lucky that the sky was starting to look pretty clear too!












The 12 apostles (well, what's left remaining at least) looked clearer compared to the day before despite the slight haze/mist going on! Just when we were about to leave for our next destination, we also spotted a double rainbow! Can ya'll spot the 2nd rainbow?

About noon-ish we began our road trip back to Bella Apartment at Southbank, Melbourne to stay a night before catching a domestic flight to Uluru(Ayer's Rock) next morning. As we were driving back, we made a quick 1-2 hour stop at Brighton Beach for some mandatory 'Melbourne tourist photos'




Every bath house is painted differently, giving you many photo ops!


Spotted cute birdies too!


This trip was when the iphone 7plus just came out so here we are testing out the iPhone portrait camera LOL 


Randomly snapping a few tourist photos with my then pink hair! Thinking back, I really do miss my pink hair but I guess for the next few months I'm gonna have to grow my hair out and treat my hair fall/dry scalp problems first before playing around with colours again :( Plus I really can't  stand how my hair colour fades to a golden retriever brown after a month+ so for now I'll just keep my hair dark.

PS. If you rented a car for your trip, there's an outdoor carpark right in front of Brighton Beach. Carpark rates are approximately 5$ per hour...? (I can't remember exact prices though) 

Just before sunset, we checked into Bella Apartment again for one last night. Just like the previous nights, we got a city view again :>

For dinner, we wanted to eat at an Italian restaurant called 'Gradi' located within Crown Melbourne. It was dinner time and since we didn't make any reservation beforehand, there was a long waiting time ahead of us. 

At the time, we were already super hungry, so along with an hour++ waiting time, we left our contact number with the waitress and walked over to the nearby Ten Miles stall at Crown Food court area for a snack.


Ten Miles serve what we call 'zap fan' a.k.a mixed rice dishes. They also have fried rice/noodles to pair up with the dishes.

Just to fill our stomach a little, we all ordered a plate of noodles + sweet and sour chicken to share while we wait for a table. Can't remember exact prices but I do remember that 'zap fan' here was yummy and affordable(or at least compared to everything else at Crown)!

After maybe an hour or two wait, one of the staffs finally contacted us to inform us that a table is available. When we got there, we probably had to wait for another 10minutes-ish before we were actually seated.


Entrance of Gradi

Linguine Pescatore ($38 AUD)

Spaghettini al Granchio ($39 AUD)

Margherita Verace ($27 AUD)

Overall I think the food at Gradi was just alright?? Perhaps it's because I've tried better pastas back in KL so after seeing so many good reviews on Gradi, I've set my expectations a little too up there.

I'd say the pricing at Gradi is just a tiny bit pricier than your usual italian restaurants in Melbourne (plus it's in Crown Casino itself), so pricing wise, I think it's pretty standard(but after converting to MYR, your wallet will cry la). The waiting time on the other hand was probably what made our dining experience not that great because after we were seated, we still had to wait another 20-30minutes for our food to be served.

All in we waited almost 2 hours for pastas that tasted just okayyyy so it was clear that dinner that night wasn't exactly satisfying :( Pastas aside, personally I think the only one worth ordering again was probably their famous Margherita Pizza.

With this said, this dining experience was from one year++ ago so who knows maybe they've improved since then. Despite the long wait and so-so food, the staffs there were all in smiles though!

and that is all for now! Until next time!!

- candy-

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