Gold rush!!!!!!!

Jessica, Siaw Tze, Calvin, Ryan and I finally went to Ballarat as planned. It was quite an eventful start for the day as Ryan and I got a bit lost on the way to take the rented Hyundai Sonata. We spent 10 minutes more walking on the entirely opposite direction just to reach a housing estate…LOL…we also could not get a proper Melway but since we had google map, it was alright.

I was just enjoying the rural view when I noticed white specks on the grass.
“Snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I exclaimed.

It was so windy and I could barely open my eyes!

We got so excited that we even pulled over at the side of Western Freeway to take pictures of the snow. To add on to the excitement, we also had a small detour to Kryal Castle. It was a mere 3 degrees there but the view was awesome!



Afterwards, we finally reached Sovereign Hill. It is a town specifically designed for tourists. We had fun taking photos and watching various shows. There were horse carriages, bowling, bakery, gold digging site, diggers' residential areas etc...When Ryan got a speck of gold, he was so excited. Too bad we did not get to take a photo...

And there was a Snow Magic show when artificial snow was blown out by machines. We also watched how gold bars are moulded.

It was 'snowing' but you can't really see it in the picture :(
All the staff were dressed in those costumes.

We managed to rush to the Gold Museum too and were dazzled by GOLD!




We even stayed and watched the Blood on the Southern Cross show. I should say the show is worth $32.00 except it was kind of too long and we nearly fell asleep…LOL….the ‘stage’ is the actual-sized replica of Ballarat in the old times, depicting the carnage of gold diggers due to a clash with the government. It was a pity that we were not allowed to take photos, so those who are interested will have to experience for yourselves :p

If you are interested, have a look at this website: Sovereign Hill, Ballarat

The last stop was Eureka Center. We expected it to be closed (this is Australia anyway), but to our utter disbelief, Calvin blurted,"It's opened 24 hours!" just to find out in time that it actually said," 24 HOURS touch screen...."

The famous Southern Cross flag.

I was struggling to stay awake on the way back by chatting with Ryan. And HE was the driver, not me! Thanks Ryan for driving us around :)

However, all the fun will soon end with yet another semester with information overload...