Australian Getaways

Staycation in Canberra: Jamala Wildlife Lodge

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Mel

I have been lobbying B to stay here since it first opened in 2014 but he’s always said no because the cost is….to be blunt….totally insane. He finally agreed given we have had to cancel all our other travel this year and I have had some extra unexpected income recently which paid for half of it.

Jamala Wildlife Lodge is based at Canberra Zoo. They have a variety of accomodation but I’ve always wanted to stay in a “jungle bungalow” which is approx $2000 a night. I told you….the pricing is totally bonkers! Their website says “The Jungle Bungalows are luxurious individual suites adjoining a variety of enclosures throughout the property. A glass wall is all that will separate you from a pride of lions, cheetahs, tiger or a Malayan sun bear! Regardless of whether you are relaxing in your lounge area, resting in bed or taking a leisurely bath, you will only be a heartbeat away from these amazing creatures. All rooms feature king beds, bath robes, indulgent bath tubs, optional climate control, complimentary wireless internet, music system with MP3 input, television with complimentary Foxtel and premium TV.”

So, we booked in for a night during the September school holidays. They sent us a lot of information beforehand and were very responsive to queries. The schedules they use at the moment are slightly adjusted due to covid 19 but this was our pre-prepared schedule! We also added two extra experiences to this – giraffe encounter and white lion feeding – which were booked in on day 1.

We arrived at 1pm to check in and were provided with afternoon tea at the Ushaka Lodge which was delicious. The lodge has a beautiful view over the local land and there were also some lemurs just….hanging out. Jamala provide a self guided tour for the afternoon session but we headed off on our own tour as there was giraffe feeding to be done! We fed Shabu the male giraffe and also got to meet his lady friend and 1 year old calf.

After the giraffe feeding, we met the zoo staff at one of the gazebos and collected our bungalow keys. For most people this meant from 3-7pm they hang out in their bungalow with their animals. We took a brief detour on the way back to the bungalow to feed Jake the white lion, and meet his sister Mishka.

After feeding Jake the very hungry (and demanding!) white lion with his keeper Ryan – the zoo owners son – we headed to Jungle Bungalow 5 with Mya and Melita the toddler tiger twins! I was a teeny, tiny bit excited when we walked in to this….hi there 2 year old 120kg tiger friend!!

When we were in the bath they mostly laid here and watched us….or wrestled each other!

We settled in with a bubble bath, watching tigers wrestle/nap and some champagne to tide us over until dinner. Just before 7pm we were collected and taken to the rainforest cave for dinner alongside the white lions and hyenas. The dinner and drinks were all included and the food was mostly very good – B got unlucky with a not so great steak but mine was delicious – and the paired drink options were all good quality. I haven’t been so full in ages!

This collage shows some of the afternoon tea snacks on day 1, dinner canapés + main + dessert and our breakfast choices the next day!

After dinner, they drive you back to hang out and watch your animal friends some more before you tuck in for bed next to them!

Our morning tiger view

We then woke up to sleepy tigers quite early (6:30am!) and some small pastries before heading off on an animal tour and feeding experience. We got to see dingos howl, monkeys use tools, lemurs wrestle for snacks and learn about how they are combating the rhino horn trade.

After the tour, we had breakfast (more delicious food in the rainbow cave) followed by another 90 mins of hanging out with our tiger friends and people watching because this time…we could see all the people looking into the enclosure from the viewing spots! they had privacy barriers up from 3pm the day before but they do warn you they take them down in the morning.

Verdict

A few people on Facebook asked me “was it worth the money?”. I think the answer to this has a few parts. First of all, there are not many (f any) places with this level of experience and accomodation in Australia. So choices are limited. It’s also in very high demand, usually getting in during school holidays is pretty dang hard to do! There is also the aspect here of this particular facility being wholly privately owned and funded and the work they do is amazing….we feel it’s worth paying the premium to support such a dedicated organisation and staff.

Secondly, it’s definitely not an every day thing. We had 2 overseas trips planned this year and haven’t gone on either which is how I was able to convince B to even consider this amount for one night lol. So when asking was it worth it, B said he felt it was a fantastic one-off experience that was worth doing but not something we would repeat.

Finally, we chose to go top tier with the experience on advice from others. There are rooms at the lodge for approximately $1200 a night and the giraffe treehouse is $1500 a night. The advice we had from people who had stayed in these rooms was if you’re only doing it once….go all out. Geez, I am glad we listened!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Staycation in Canberra: Norton Road Winery / Biggies BBQ

Posted on September 26, 2020 by Mel

Last weekend we went out to try Biggies BBQ in Wamboin, NSW. It’s about a 35 minute drive from our house on the north side of Canberra. It’s literally about 5 minutes past the ACT/NSW border which is why i am still counting it as Canberra!

The location for Biggies BBQ is at Norton Road Wines which is a gorgeous location. It seems they do weddings and events as well. We booked for lunch at 12:30 and arrived a little early to sit at the tasting area and taste some wines. They mostly specialise in reds and we ended up buying a rose and a Pinot noir from them.

Then it was BBQ time! There are very few – if any – places left in Canberra that do southern BBQ these days so B was very excited. I thought the brisket and pork belly were AMAZING but the ribs were not tender enough for my taste. We will definitely return though! This platter was $50 and we added the Mac and cheese for an extra $5 . They also serve local beers.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Leave a comment

Day 2 + 3:Bannisters by the sea, Mollymook

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Mel

The weather at the moment here is more winter rather than spring…very grey and drizzly. Breakfast was at the hotel this morning (a very average continental free offer) which we were easily able to make the time for as there is definitely no sleeping in here – for 5 star prices there is no 5 star sound proofing. After breakfast we saw a baby kookaburra and his buddy just chilling near our balcony.

After trying to make friends with the kookaburra and failing, we went up to the lookout just to reinforce the greyness haha

We had a bit of a rest and then headed to Cupitt’s Winery (5 min drive from the hotel) to eat cheese and drink wine. It’s a beautiful location and there were baby cows EVERYWHERE. I want one.

After lunch we spent the afternoon getting drunk in the spa bath because that’s what adults do on romantic getaways right?

Dinner tonight was at Rick Steins restaurant which comes highly reviewed. We had scollops as an entree (yum) and my main was battered local fish while Bs was ginger snapper. Both were pretty good. Dessert was creme brûlée and we had the Rick Stein seafood wine to go with it all. For a highly rated restaurant I was a little disappointed with the noise levels and lack of consistent waitstaff but the food was top notch.

On day 3 the weather was once again terrible but we still slogged through it and went to the Shoalhaven Timber Festival in Milton NSW. We saw some baby goats, cattle rustling, wood chopping and I bought a toilet roll holder made by the local men’s shed.

After some show snacks (donuts and hot chocolate) we returned to an afternoon of spa relaxation and bubbly.

The next day we drove home (2.5hrs) and then picked up a very sleepy Bear and Jet who had been having a great time at a pet hotel.

Overall thoughts: lovely town, pretty beach but not very practical, nice hotel….but not worth the 5 star rating or $$$$$ pricing. I think next time we will stick with our air bnb closer to Batemans Bay.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Leave a comment

Day 1: Bannisters by the Sea, Mollymook

Posted on October 10, 2019 by Mel

We decided to take a little coastal getaway this school holidays (without the fur babies) down to the NSW south coast. This time we went with somewhere more upmarket rather than our usual stayz beach house – so we picked Bannisters by the Sea. When you mention this place to people in Canberra they all go “oooooh fancy” because it is a little on the $$$ side but also it books out months in advance. The doggos once again stayed at Hanrob Pet Hotels who are fantastic with Jet’s anxiety.

On arrival at Bannisters in Mollymook (about 2.5hrs drive from Canberra) we got to check out the gorgeous view from our spa room. We then went for a wander in the reserve nearby and down to the rock beach.

Dinner tonight was at the Pool Bar on-site which had delicious cocktails and a very yummy tasting platter. We were also able to watch the sunlight slowly disappear with the ocean in the background and because we are on a cliff face here, the noise of the waves is really lovely. The Pool Bar was busy but not too busy (will be interesting to see what it’s like on weekends) so we were easily able to be seated.

Back to the room where we took photos of the very pretty infinity pool and I (once again) put way too many bubbles in the bubble bath and splashed around like a complete numpty.

Tomorrow’s plan is: not much! If the weather is nice we will relax by the pool and chill out or possibly explore nearby Milton or Ulladulla. There is a mountain close by I wanted to climb but….meh….it’s break time! Plus the weather is meant to be average.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 6): Melbourne Aquarium and hotel review for Rydges on Exhibition St

Posted on April 22, 2019 by Mel

We checked out of our accomodation at 11am and left our luggage behind while we went on a wander in search of food and entertainment. Given that it was Easter Monday, we knew options would be somewhat limited and I was on strict “no shopping” instructions since I had barely managed to close the suitcase after my style adventure earlier in the trip.

We opted to go to Melbourne SEAlife Aquarium to see some cute sea critters and kill some time. It was insanely busy (public holiday) and to be honest – I would not recommend it with lines and numbers like that. The customer service staff just couldn’t handle it and were totally overwhelmed, wait times to get in were close to an hour and the number of people meant you couldn’t see much anyway.

Hotel review time! We stayed at the Rydges Melbourne this year after a couple of terrible stays at Adara Collins (now called the Collins Hotel – AVOID) and a good stay at the Novotel on Collins last year,

Positives:

  • It averaged out to about $240 a night which is pretty damn good for a king suite with a ginormous spa
  • I like the option of not getting your room being made up and getting $10 food and beverage credit each day since I hate having my bed remade each day. That’s just me though

  • The comedy festival location for us was great – next to one venue and no more than a 10 min walk to any other one aside from the Spiegeltent in Collingwood
  • The bed and pillows were excellent in our room although other trip advisor reviews suggest this is not consistent

Negatives:

  • The plumbing sounds in this building are insane because it’s so old. This woke us up quite a few times as it sounds like a train coming through. The aircon is also really old and very noisy. In keeping with the theme of a very old room – the carpet is revolting. I’m not usually one to comment on carpet or furniture because “meh” but this was covered in years of stains
  • On check in they would not accept my debit MasterCard at all and then got annoyed when the only credit card I had was an AmEx. Never had this issue with an Australian hotel before
  • It is at the top end of the city so can be a pain to walk back to after events in the CBD ….it’s mostly uphill to walk back as well which could be a mobility issue for some
  • Another bloody 4 star hotel which only has a power point on one side of the bed. I don’t understand how this is still a thing!

Obviously the positives far outweighed the negatives on this trip and we would certainly stay again for this sort of room at this pricing.

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 5): laneways, Melbourne Zoo, Impromptunes again and Joel Creasey

Posted on April 21, 2019 by Mel

Another lazy lay in was followed by a laneway breakfast and a wander up Hosier Lane to see the artwork.

I then gave B two choices for the day: Melbourne zoo or Queen Victoria Markets. He chose the zoo which also seemed to be a popular spot with every single annoying family in Melbourne. So many people, so little concept of queuing. So many parents, so little control of the screaming offspring. At least the animals were cute – well the ones that weren’t hiding from the badly behaved kids anyway. Poor little platypus.

This evening we had our shortest gap between shows – just 30 mins – and we also had to make a 17 min walk between venues in that gap. It was a bit too hectic for me and I don’t think I would do it again unless the venues were closer together!

Impromptunes at the Trade Hall were excellent as always. I yelled out my suggestion of “platypus assassin” but they went with the title of “…and then I found $50” for tonight’s one night only show! I can’t recommend seeing these guys enough, we usually go to 2-3 shows every visit. We were front row again next to the musical director.

We then walked aaaaaallllll the way down to Flinders Street (way too quickly for my liking, I am not a runner) to get in line for entry to Joel Creasey’s “drink, slay, repeat” show at the Forum Theatre. As always he was a massive bitch and the show was hilarious.

Dinner was later than usual (9:20pm) and we were lucky that China Red agreed to feed us as long as we ordered quickly. Mmmm dumplings.

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 4): Rice Paper Scissors, Wil Anderson and Circus Neon

Posted on April 20, 2019 by Mel

Today started with a well earned sleep in before lunch at Rice Paper Scissors. We booked online beforehand (highly recommend) and were seated second because of this. There was quite a crowd of people without bookings waiting for them to open up at midday. We have eaten here before and love the tapas style, use your hands and shared plate approach.

Today’s share plates were bettel leaf prawns (B failed to eat the leaf and got told off lol), pork belly, steamed pork buns, marinated chicken thigh and wagyu steak with citrus sauce. Our highlights were the Bellini with pear and berries and the steamed buns!

After lunch we had a nap to allow all the food to wear off before it was time for tonight’s comedy shows – Wil Anderson and Circus Oz: Neon at the Melba Spiegeltent in Collingwood.

This is our third year seeing Wil Anderson live and his shows always draw big crowds, are always funny and are always topical. Our top tip for his shows though: don’t be late and don’t be in the front two rows! He picks on the audience lol.

We then had a snack and a Moscow mule at Locanda which is the bar attached to our hotel. Rydges on Exhibition Street does the whole “veto your room being serviced and get a $10 food and beverage voucher per day” so we had $40 of room credit to spend on pizza and booze. Mmmmm pizza. Circus Oz NEON was out at the Spiegeltent in Collingwood ($9 Uber ride).

The show billed itself as “an unapologetic, funny, and downright dirty dancing cabaret where circus meets comedy and song in an unforgivably big shoulder pads night out. This is Circus Oz as you’ve never seen them – adult, uncut and celebrating the gloriously gaudy and glitzy 80’s” which was for 18+ only. Once again, this venue and show were a highlight of the festival for us! So many catchy 80s tunes and some amazing acrobatics. I have also quickly become a Geraldine Quinn fan despite not having heard of her before this years festival.

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 3): Healesville Sanctuary, visiting Denzel and The Impromptunes

Posted on April 19, 2019 by Mel

Finally, after three years of trying I managed to book the wade with the platypus experience at Healesville Sanctuary! However, the only day I could book it was Good Friday. This left us with a transport issue because getting out to Badger Creek is a real pain in the butt without a car. On a normal day you can go train, train, bus and it takes 2hrs. On a public holiday, and with the current track works in place, the suggested route was train, bus, bus, bus, walk 2 hrs. Hmmm. So, our options were:

  • Private transfer
  • Uber or taxi
  • Book a tour
  • Hire a car

Hiring a car was out due to the public holiday and I wasn’t prepared to risk refusals or surcharges from Uber or a taxi – apparently this is very common when wanting to head out that far. The tours were a great idea in theory but there were very few that made it out to Healesville by 11am which was our allocated platypus cuddle time. In the end I went with Black Bow Chauffeurs to get us out there and it was about $50 more than an Uber but fully guaranteed. We were very lucky that our former foster dog (Denzel) has a lovely furever family who live locally and they offered to drop us back into the city after our sanctuary visit and Denzel pats, which meant we only had to transfer one way.

We arrived just before the 9am opening and it was totally dead. For the first hour we hardly saw anyone but then as it progressed towards the platypus show time (11:15am) the crowd picked up a little. It never felt busy to us though and the volunteers said it didn’t feel busy. The animals were all very active in the morning as it was feeding time so we got to see lots of movement and furry butt wriggling.

The wade with the platypus experience was AMAZING! We got to pat Kami the female platypus, tickle her belly and feed her some worms. Definitely one of the more hands on experiences we have had with meeting different animals.

After visiting Healesville Sanctuary, Debbi kindly came to collect us. The traffic as we were leaving was totally nuts! They had blocked roads as the car park, overflow car park and overflow overflow car park were full! Debbi took us to a local look out and then to visit our former foster doggo Denzel who we hadn’t seen since he moved to Healesville with them 16 months ago. He is so happy now and his family is just a perfect fit for him ❤️

After Debbi and Simon kindly drove us back to Melbourne CBD, I enjoyed another lovely bubble bath and then we headed off to the evenings showing of Impromptunes: A Completely Improvised Musical. This is the third year we have been to see their shows and they are always excellent, I usually try to get to 2-3 each year if I can as they are different topics each night. Tonight’s musical title was “French Tuck” and included hits like the closing song “Mullet”. I plan to yell out the musical suggestion “platypus assassin” when we go again for their final show on Sunday 🙂

Dinner after the show was at my favourite Melbourne dumpling place China Red and once again we got a seat with the electronic ordering so I hardly had to interact with anyone. Glorious. Their vegetarian dumplings are the best.

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 2): Styled by Sally review + Om Nom Kitchen dessert degustation + Urzila Carlson and Anne Edmonds

Posted on April 18, 2019 by Mel

Breakfast was at the Cafe Court at the Melbourne Emporium. We ate at Earl which was very….hip. I did enjoy my egg pot which was basically toast soldiers for adults. The ceiling was cool, although I have no idea how they would change the light bulbs from three floors down!

I then met up with Anne from “Styled by Sally” who was to be my personal shopper and stylist for 3hrs. I need some help with what to wear (other than oversized jeans and exercise gear) since losing 32kgs….I’ve sort of lost my personal mojo/style. Anne was great and she worked with me to build a base wardrobe around two different pairs of shoes, 2 pairs of pants and a skirt. From there we added all sorts of cute tops, scarfs and cardigans. I also bought my first ever trench coat!

After personal shopping, B came to help me carry all my stuff back to the hotel (he’s a good egg) and we had Betty’s Burgers for lunch.

After lunch, I took advantage of the ridiculous spa bath in our hotel room and once again overfilled it with bubbles.

Dinner was the dessert degustation at Om Nom Kitchen on Flinders Lane which was amazing. All the sciencey bits made the presentation look superb and the food also tasted good. I think they do normal meals as well but the dessert and cocktails were what was recommended to me so that’s what we went with.

Once “dinner” was finished if was off to our two comedy shows for the evening. The first was at the town hall main stage and was NZ comedian Urzila Carlson. We love her style of humour and really enjoyed her show last year as well. I booked the tickets really early for her show so we were front row again.

The second show was a later one (10pm) also at the town hall although on one of the alternative stage areas downstairs and was Anne Edmonds. We haven’t been to an Anne Edmonds show before (although enjoy watching her on Have You Been Paying Attention) and she was also really good.

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

MICF 4th year (day 1): Upfront and The Red Hummingbird

Posted on April 17, 2019 by Mel

After we arrived and checked in at our epic room at Rydges (ummm hello giant spa bath) we immediately went in search of a supermarket to stock up on bubble bath and snacks. Mostly bubble bath.

Dinner was at a rooftop bar called The Red Hummingbird and was tapas style – yum. This was only my second rooftop bar experience in Melbourne and it was nice, although a bit annoying you can’t eat food near the edge as it’s a smoking area 🙄 how about you just ban the smokers eh? The house drinks were $6-$7 though and the food was good and well priced.

Out first comedy show for this trip was one we haven’t been to before – Upfront. it’s a 140min recorded gala event at The Town Hall with an all female line up.

The blurb says: The queens of comedy join forces to deliver whip-smart laughs, lip, charm and chat in classic Upfront style! An epic night that sees the scene’s most irreverent comics shattering stereotypes and raising the roof. Strap in for a line-up that has fists held high and fingers firmly on the pulse. Girl power!

Hosted by Geraldine Quinn’s Spandex Ballet and featuring Fringe Wives Club, DeAnne Smith (CAN/USA), Jude Perl, Becky Lucas, Steph Tisdell, Geraldine Hickey, Celeb Five (Sth Korea), Felicity Ward, Mel Buttle, Nikki Britton, Cal Wilson, Anne Edmonds, Sam Jay (USA), Alice Snedden (NZ), Fern Brady (UK), Eleanor Tiernan (IRL), Flo & Joan (UK), Sarah Keyworth (UK), Rosie Jones (UK), Kirsty Webeck, Double Denim and Nina Oyama.

Highlights from the performances for me were: Rosie Jones and her on point delivery about living with a disability…I loved that she had so many great punchlines that worked with her CP delivery style! I also really enjoyed the musical acts including Double Denim and Flo and Joan. This was also a very inclusive, very LGBTQI+ positive lineup and that was reflected in the audience as well which was fabulous to see.

B said he enjoyed himself even though the humour was very female oriented, he didn’t have a specific highlight but said he would certainly go again next year if it was on while we are here….so that’s the equivalent to a rave review from a man of few words!

Categories: MICF 2019 | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.