Sunday, 18 September 2016

Trip to Hunter Valley Gardens

My friends from the church, Cik Eli, want to go to the Hunter Valley Gardens with her daughters, but her husband doesn't want to come along. Therefore, she asked me to come with them. At first she said she will pick me up around 10 am this morning, but we departed from my place at 11 am. It's not because of me, I was ready to go at 10 am. Usually, I don't like to wait for too long, but at this time I'm not angry or anxious while waiting for her, because I know it's hard to handle two children, 4 and 6 yo. 😅😅

Hunter Valley Garden Entrance
We arrived at noon, because from my place, near The University of Newcastle, to Hunter Valley is an hour drive. We pay the tickets for two adults ($29 ea) and two kids ($18 ea) and we got a map of the gardens. Time to explore all gardens. I want to upload the map I got, but I fold it and can't make it straight anymore. So I search for it online and this is the only picture that looks like the map I got. 😁😁😁

Hunter Valley Gardens' map
source: www.100roads.com

Because we went there with children, we can't go on our own. We should choose between following the children or asking the children to follow us. Mostly, we just follow the children, so we went through the Amphitheatre to the Rose Garden. I took some pictures around there, while the children didn't want to take any pictures. I will put the pictures between the text. 😊😊

Tree with colourful flowers
Elyana, cute little girl
Rose Garden without any rose 
The lights ready for Christmas
near Amphitheatre
Wheelbarrow full of flowers

Waterfall at the back of the Gardens
Ginger-breads ready for Christmas 😂😂😂
Found some yummy cakes on the way 😄😄

An open book near the Storybook
Garden's entrance
The sun in Australia is different from Indonesia. In Indonesia I can walk under the sun without sunglasses or sunscreen, but I can't do it here. The sun is too bright for my eyes. 😣😣 I had to put on my sunnies. My eyes were full of tears before I put it on. 😢 Thanks God I didn't forget to bring it, so my eyes were safe from the Australian sunlight.I tried to take pictures without sunnies on, but I still wear it on some pictures.

From the Rose Garden without rose, we walked through the waterfall to the Storybook Garden at the back and we found some ginger-breads and cakes ready for Christmas on the way there. 😅😅
A wall story
A big red chair inside
the Storybook Garden
Calissa read a story about
Jack 'n Jill


I'm hungry, let's have a lunch here
Calissa and Elyana beside a fountain at
the Border Garden

After finish with all the story inside the Storybook Garden, the children said they feel tired and don't want to walk anymore because the sun is too hot. However, when we arrived at the Border Garden, they started to throw pebbles into a fountain. They were wishing all good things for them every time they throw a pebble even though it's not a wishing fountain. When I see them running all around the garden, it reminds me of my sister. I remember how I used to follow her whenever we went somewhere. I hope I can bring her to Australia and come here again with her. 😢😢😢
Border Garden from the lookout with a beautiful sky above it

After we stopped them from all the wishing thing, they started to run away from us. They want to go to the play area near the entrance. While Cik Eli run after the kids, I walked to the Brokenback Brumbies. I don't know why they call it brokenback and I also don't know what brumbies are. 😜😜 They look like a horse, but shorter than a normal horse. There's also a colourful garden in front of it with some trees without leaves.
Brokenback Brumbies
A garden across the Brokenback Brumbies
A snap of the Oriental Garden
Because the girls didn't want to follow us anymore, we decided to follow them and we saw the Oriental Garden. We told them that we can have a rest there and see some fishes in the lake. However, we have to walk trough the cafe area to go there and they asked for ice blocks. After buying them ice blocks, they can ask them to follow us again, so we walked to the lake and showed them the fishes. While having a rest there, I took a snap of the garden around the lake. It's beautiful, but I think it'll be more beautiful when the cold whether is gone. It's officially spring, but it's still too cold, some trees are still 'naked' without any leaves on them. 🙈🙈
Panorama picture of the Oriental Garden
Me on a bridge inside the Oriental Garden
The kids really wanted to go to the play area at this stage. We can't ask them to come following us, so we told them we'll leave them there and keep walking. Thanks God they want to follow us, so we told them it'll be the last place and we can go to play area. We walked trough the Amphiteatre area once more and Elyana started to run and sit there. 😧😧 After a sort visit to the toilet, we went to the Formal Garden. When we pass the lake in front of it, the girls run towards the lakes and their mom followed them, afraid if they slip and fall in the lake. While waiting for them, I took a snap of the Formal Garden and the Wishing Fountain. Even though we found the real wishing fountain this time, Cik Eli stopped the kids from throwing any pebbles into the fountain. Dark clouds start coming at this time, but Thanks God it didn't rain when we were there. 😇😇😇
Formal Garden with Wishing Fountain at the back
A view of the Indian Mosaic Garden from a tree
Calissa in the Indian Mosaic Garden
Finish with the fountain, we walked to the south and arrived at the Indian Mosaic Garden. At this point, I was amazed. 😱😱 I can tell that they really have an amazing garden. They made some holes on the trees so people can take pictures though the holes. We didn't stay in this garden for too long because Elyana started to run towards the Chinese Moongate Garden. Even though it looks like we following her, we still can take pictures at the gate. This was the last garden we visited and we walked back to the gift shop in order to exit. 
Half ready for picture at the Chinese Moongate Garden
The view behind the Chinese Moongare Garden
For full information about the place, visit the Hunter Valley Gardens website here.
Hunter Valley Gardens, Australia's largest display garden
At last, we went to the play area and let the children playing. We stayed there for half an hour and went back. On the way back, we stopped at a KFC near the gardens and had our lunch there. I wanted to pay my own lunch, but Cik Eli paid them for me. Thanks Cik, I hope we will have another trip somewhere else. I love to take the pictures of the girls, they are so adorable. 😍😍😍😍

Thanks for reading my story. I still need to improve my English, but I hope it's getting better. See you all in my next story. I might repost something from the past to keep this blog alive after a long time. ☺☺☺ 

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