Laven Lim: Day 8- To Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

22 May 2016- Day 8

Woke up from the dramatic motel in Colac, we head to have ODDFELLOWS for a cafe style breakkie.

(This area was more of countryside so we saw old folks around and no other Asian except us.)

This cafe food taste extremely good too! Well I just realised they do have 4,9 stars rating in Facebook. Thumbs UP!

Not only for the food but I can see they were putting in effort in the interior part too.

Pretty Shin Liew in da house!

Unique shape of tea spoon for everyone! Table of goodness for happy hungry people~

Hmm guess they don't do fancy coffee art don't they?

After this we added another Maccas soft serve before start our journey..Too much food seriously haha!

On the way to Sovereign Hill Ballarat...

We were suddenly having a New Zealand kinda view..

Why said so? See the photos we took under a cruel cold weather with strongest wind ever since I've been here.

High Way photoshoot lol!

Surprisingly met Grass Mud Horse 草泥马 which we can't met in zoo along the high way!

With a very calm face on us. Meh.

Not long after, we finally arrived in Sovereign Hill!See the not-usual-size horses! That was the coach rides.

There's total 48 check points in the whole museum. Sovereign Hill basically tells story of Ballarat's first fabulous decade
following the discovery of gold in 1851, under guidance of exhibits and interpreters, daily activities
to reveal stories of great Australian gold rushes to anyone enter the hill.

Our first station was Chinese Camp at the left after entrance.

We saw some traditional Chinese houses who do business e.g. medicine, groceries shop.

So the family of LIM owned a medicine shop lol! Edmund Lim and Me took a photo with our shop, literally.

After that, I head to one of our favorite, and all favorite I think.It's the GOLD PANNING!
So, who don't want to try their luck to dig some gold home?

They DO exist ok? Just not as big as nuggets but small like a sand here.

Well, we spend around 30 mins washing the stone and sand to get some gold but I only manage to get a tiny little dot
when my both hands turned red in cold water!

Luckily, the local know how to do the best way and he so kind to give me some...
Bought the bottle $1 from Goldfields store for safely bringing some gold home Yay!

Try to see some gold?

Next, we went to Red Hill Mine Tour just cross the road. The tour was about 10 mins, following a speaker guide in the dark underground.

It was quite creepy with dim lights and uneven steps but overall worth to explore.

Water fall inside the tunnel?

The screen showing a playback visual on Ballarat gold miner found the biggest and purest gold nuggets long time ago.

Climbing up back to sunlight, we join the crowd to enjoy a very macho Redcoat soldiers performance before Gold Mine tour.
The gun shot was soooo loud!

So we need to sign up for Gold Mine tour, and they have 3 different tours to choose from,

"Journey through the Labyrinth of Gold", "Trapped" and "The Secret Chamber".

I think we went for the "Trapped" which took 45 mins because the story showed underground was a very sad one,
it's about story of the New Australasian No.2 Mine disaster in Creswick. 27 men were trapped when a sudden inrush of water broke through.
Only 5 survived.

They were showing the story by projector, speaker, lights and brilliantly made 3D face shapes on wall, a black glass surface in bottom
to reflect the village houses which actually located on top of the space.

The true story was a little too sad for us on a happy tour, and too dark for any photos.

We then watched the Candle Maker to cheer up from the mood.

The workers in Sovereign Hill dressed well, super friendly and photo ready always. Heh.

He was the Redcoat Soldiers Commander

And some of them even playing music for you~

And next stop, also my favorite and kids favorite I assume, the Bowling Saloon!

If you happened to watch Korea Running Man episode in Sovereign Hill, you will know Yoo Jae Suk played bowling here to gain star, but failed.

That was a fun game using wooden bowling, and I strike with left of 2. Not bad.

Spending a full day here is a must so we got to see the Blacksmith, Metal Spinning, Wheel righting which not using even a nail
and gold pour with the workers wearing most traditional style of Sovereign Hill conducting workshop which gain us so much knowledge.

Of course shopping too! How can I not buying authentic brass and bronze bracelet from the professional one which cost me only $8?

And Shin in love with the definitely chic glasses! Too cute to handle!

The $150,000 Gold Pour conducted by a funny man.

Can you imagine this melting pure gold took heat up to 2000 degree Celsius?

And the second one cold down in shape, but cold down means still having 900 degree Celsius!

And yup, we did touch the gold after it completely cold in water. It was like *Tink! I touched it I touched it $150,000 pure gold!

Having too much fun times in here, but we not gonna stay in Sovereign hill hotel..

Therefore we exit to drive back in Melbourne before the sun goes down.
(In here, the sun goes down early about 5PM so we always thought it was midnight when actually 9PM.)

We were back in Melbourne at about dinner time. Grabbed burgers in car and heading for Korean Fried Chicken.
The burgers are cheap and good though,

Yayyy Gami Chicken & Beer Korean Restaurant! How many types of food we tried in Australia apart from Aussie food lol?!
On your left is spicy one, on your right is honey one, and center is a pan of corn cheese~
It taste better than Kyochon 1991 Pavilion KL, if you wonder. Yummy!

After this, we were moving to our dessert place, Ice Cream!
Ridiculous right? Hahaha ridiculously GOOD cuz we were heading to eat Ferraro Rocher flavor soft serve ice-cream at IL DOLCE FREDDO.

I'm definitely a fan of Ferraro Rocher and same goes to these ice cream!
They have best flavors of soft serve in town i think. All look and sound delicious!