Melbourne Trip: Hot Air Balloon Ride in Yarra Valley ~ excel^^adorable

On the way to Melbourne from Grampians, we stopped at this vineyard for wine tasting. Of course, we didn't taste the wine, it was part of the tour. This place is said to be the oldest winery in Melbourne. We went into the cottage to have a look on the storage. Menarik!

We were brought to the basement where oak barrels were kept. These barrels are used as the vessels to contain the wine; for fermentation or as storage since the longer it is stored the tastier the wine will be. The oak barrels adds up additional qualities to the wine. One that I could recall is it gives distinct flavour to the wine; the flavouring agent will be smeared on the inner surface of the oak barrel.

These are the new empty barrels. The old ones which contain wine in them have labels on them. I remember I saw one labeled 1996! That was like 16 years ago!!!

Hehe saya rasa ini comeyl (^^)

Chris dropped us off right in front of our hostel. We were starving but it was raining.. The temperature was almost freezing, and our coats and sweaters were very thin

RA: Mat Salleh punye jaket lagi tebal. Bajet btol ar kte nih

We ventured out to find food anyway.. So hunger-driven..

It was our first time in the city so it took us some time to understand the streets and how the city tram works. But it was already late. The free city circle tram was no longer in service at that hour. So we just walk to the famous Flinders Street and was surprised to find how close it was. There, we got ourselves 3 large size Lord of the Fries with Italian and African Sauce, 3 Chicken Briyani and Kebab. Kuat makan!!

O ya, about the Balloon Ride. I made the booking about 2 weeks before our departure to Australia. The price quoted to us was $315 per pax but MR found out how to get 15% discount. That's by mentioning Melbourne Official Visitor Guide during booking. The thing about this 15% discount, you won't get a full refund if the flight is cancelled. Alhamdulillah ours went well as planned.

So, the day before the flight, we have to check in with the pilot by calling a number and listen to the weather report and confirm the meeting time. The phone call happened to be answered by a recorded message which I failed to understand because the guy has this very pronounced Australian accent. I have to ask the receptionist at our hostel to help me out with the check in because I can't fully understand the instructions.. Every 'i' was pronounced 'oi' . Like for example 'fine' in Malaysia, we pronounce in 'fain' there it's 'foin' Adeh.. Bila perkataan yang panjang dan laju, they sound so alien to me...

So we were instructed to wait for the pick up transfer at 3.45 am. We didn't sleep early despite knowing that we have to wake up so early the next morning. We were revising our itinerary that night because we were planning to go straight to Philip Island after the Balloon ride.

Kenapa lelaki itu seperti bersedia untuk diambil gambarnya..?? Hurm.. haha

SN and AM didn't join us. A van waited for us outside the mansion at about 3.50 am. It took about 50 minutes to get to Yarra Valley so all of us just doze off since it was pitch dark and nothing to see outside.

We were brought to this very nice restaurant set inside a vineyard. There we were served with coffee and tea. The place look very luxurious; with the glossy laminated wooden floor, the bar, the tables and chairs, the porcelain tea cups and the shiny cutleries.. Terasa kaya sekejap :p `

We were then introduced to our pilot, Dean, who then gave a safety briefing. The group were then brought to a grass field from where the balloon ride would start.

The take off point is chosen based on the direction of the wind. The point where we started was a slightly slanted grass field. There were kangaroos hopping about when we arrived. Quite a number of them. The basket for passengers was not that big but it could accommodate about 18 passengers at a time including the pilot. But the balloon was massive! It took some time to inflate it.

And once the balloon was inflated and ready for flight, we have to jump into the basket as quick as possible. So those who are fit and could climb the basket faster are to hop on first.

Honestly, I was quite nervous as the balloon leave the ground. All of us were standing and we cheered during take off. I looked down; because I was never afraid of heights as a climber. But then suddenly there were butterflies in my stomach. I felt some kind of odd movement in my bowel. Like something was churning inside.. Suddenly everything below shrunk.. And I inhaled a deep breath and tried to calm down. I think I was nervous because there were no seat belts haha and there was a time when we almost hit the trees but our pilot wass an expert. he manage to elevate the balloon before we hit the trees. Ngeh!