Melbourne Travelogue 04: Point Addis + Angelsea Fish & Chips + Memorial Archway

We spent a lovely afternoon at Cunningham Pier and Bells Beach. Thereafter, our journey on the Great Ocean road continued towards Point Addis, which promises breathtaking view of Bells Beach and the surrounding reefs. It was a short 15 min drive from Bells Beach to Point Addis.

From the main road, you will drive through a long stretch of road to reach the look-out point. The best thing about driving in Australia - not much traffic! No traffic lights, no jam - just driving and enjoying the splendid scenery.

We walked through the elevated platform and wow, the stunning blue ocean came into sight. I don't think I will ever be tired of the view. Even though we were looking at the same ocean from Bells Beach, somehow, the water looks more blue here.

For the nature enthusiasts, you can explore the marine environment within the park. The sub-tidal waters support a wide range of fish and algae species, as well as seals, dolphins, brilliantly coloured sponge gardens and extensive rhodolith beds. The limestone reefs are abundant with marine life.

We decided to take continuous shots and test out telepathy. Glad our chemistry worked out for the last pic :)

Looking over across to Bells Beach. It certainly looked different from another angle and we tried to figure out where we stood previously.

The best thing about taking pictures against the ocean backdrop .... you don't get hoards of tourists inside your picture, ha! All of us patiently wait for our turns to take pictures, but this is not the case at the Twelve Apostles where we encounter a lot of those infamous tourists from you-know-which-land.

Clumsy me dropped my lens cover when I was packing the camera. It slipped through the crack of the wooden platform. I was quite sad, but I quickly surveyed the surroundings and climbed over the wooden platform to retrieve it from underneath. Leecher handed me the tripod as a stick as my short hands couldn't reach the cap. I managed to retrieve the cap and posted for a victory pic before climbing back. Thankfully there wasn't many people in the area if not I will be so embarrassed. 

Point Addis
Access from Point Addis Road, off the Great Ocean Road,
between Torquay and Anglesea

 

Hunger pangs strike us and we realised that we didn't had a meal since our brunch at Lavish Cafe. So, we made a stop at Angelsea to refuel our tummies. Since Leecher had a craving, we headed to Angelsea Fish and Chips for a seafood feast. Leecher surveying the menu outside the shop, deep in thought on what to eat..... Erm, I thought he wanted fish and chips?

Leecher placed an order for the seafood feast/platter and waited patiently for the food, as this little outlet is a takeout restaurant. Once the orders are placed, the chef will start whipping out your orders to ensure the freshness. 

Deep-frying in action! 

With our box in hand, we headed over to the park and enjoyed our feast. The serving was so huge that we had difficulty finishing the chips. We packed the chips along in the car to munch on later #dontwastefood. The feast, consisting of fish fillet, scallops, calamari and crab-meat (crab-stick actually) was really fresh! Well, I think they are fresh since we are near the ocean, lol. 

Angelsea Fish and Chips

83 Great Ocean Road, Anglesea Victoria 3230, Australia

Tel: 61 3 5263 1122

I had planned a lot more stops but we had to retire for the night as I wanted Leecher to rest early since he must be tired driving the whole day. Thus, we moved some of the stops to the next day and headed straight to Memorial Archway. This was strategic planning as we have the whole place to ourselves instead of squeezing with bus loads of tourists.

This archway was built as a tribute to the soldiers from the First World War who were engaged in the construction of the GO Road. Alongside the arch, there is also a sculpture commemorating the returned servicemen, which was commissioned and placed during the 75th anniversary of the road celebrations. Most importantly, the memorial arch provides a great photographic opportunity for visitors entering Lorne.  

 See, no tourists or cars behind us! 

Leecher, pretending to be part of the team who built this magnificent GO road.

We get the whole place to ourselves for tons of picture opportunities, but lazy me is only going to edit a couple to be uploaded. The rest shall be archived in my HDD. We retired to the AirBnB apartment for the night and I'll be back with more of our adventures soon. 

Memorial Archway

Great Ocean Road, Eastern View, Victoria 3231

❤ ❤ ❤ Read the rest of our Melbourne adventure here ❤ ❤ ❤

A. 8 essential items for your road trip in Melbourne 

B. Melbourne Travelogue 01: SIN > MEL 

C. Melbourne Travelogue 02: Start of the Great Ocean Drive 

D. Melbourne Travelogue 03: Cunningham Pier + Bells Beach

E. Melbourne Travelogue 04: Point Addis + Angelsea Fish & Chips + Memorial Archway

F. Melbourne Travelogue 05: Split Point Light House (Aireys Inlet) + Devil's Elbow

G. Melbourne Travelogue 06: Fun at Beach + The Bottle of Milk + Erskine Falls 

H. Melbourne Travelogue 07: Teddy's Lookout + Lorne Beach Pavilion

I. Melbourne Travelogue 08: Sunrise and Sunset at 12 Apostles

J. Melbourne Travelouge 09: Loch Ard Gorge + London Arch + The Grotto + The Arch + Bay of Martyrs

Birthday Dinner at Morton's Steakhouse

Leecher got himself lucky since I did not have any birthday celebration for 2 consecutive years. We ended year 2014 with a belated birthday "celebration"/dinner on Boxing Day courtesy of Kaiwei & Yanni. See, even our friends were so sweet to plan a celebration for me while my own hubby just fake ignorance. Haiz, what is the world coming to?#marriedlife

The guys arrived earlier and ordered one round of drinks before sending this pic over to the chat group. Yanni and I arrived later - thanks for the pickup! - and joined them, while they head for their 3rd round. We had to gently remind the boys - Leecher in particular - to slow down since we still have a bottle of red to finish.

I have always enjoyed Morton's lychee martini, but I decided to go for Chocolate martini first. Sweet, but the alcohol content still kicks a punch!
 

Morton has renovated their place since the last visit (a good 4 years!), from cozy to modern. The restaurant was brightly lit, and even boost a view of the open concept kitchen. We sat at the other end, hence we couldn't catch the chefs in action apart from through the lens. Even though the place has changed, the service remained. Top-notch, if I may add. 

 
Leecher eyeing for his dose of red wine, since we'll be having steak.  
 
 We started off with a lovely loaf of bread. The crust was crispy, the bread was so delicious - either on its own or paired with butter. It was a torture not to order thirds (we had seconds!) as we need to save stomach space for the main dishes.  
 

A bottle of red to go with our mains.

Steak, my favourite! The meat was tender and juicy, literally melting in your mouth. Omg, I'm feeling so hungry right now.
 

Mac and Cheese for sharing, awesome comfort food. This is easily one of my favourites, given that mac & cheese tend to be cloying after a while. One of the best mac & cheese I had was at Overeasy & I found the same love at White Rabbit, since both belonged to the same Lo & Behold Group.

Jumbo lump crab-cake, still as yummy as ever.    

Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me :)  

 

Morton also celebrated my birthday with a complimentary chocolate lava cake, topped with vanilla bean ice cream and candle by the side. Leecher blew out the candle on my behalf, for I didn't want to "celebrate" the birthday due to Baby Bro's passing a year ago. Anyway, the cake was delicious, but what stole our hearts away was the New York cheese cake. Once again, Morton doesn't disappoint and I'm looking forward to the next visit! 

Morton's The Steakhouse 

Mandarin Oriental Singapore
Fourth Storey, 5 Raffles Avenue
Marina Square, Singapore
Tel: 65 6339 3740

Skirt, W Hotel

Happy Jubilee Birthday, Singapore! When 7th Aug was declared as a public holiday, I had a strong urge to jet off to another country since we'll get 4 days off. However, we decided to stay behind and celebrate our homeland's 50th birthday in true blue SG spirit. Since we are celebrating the nation's birthday, I thought it would be nice if I can finish up on Kaiwei's birthday celebration at Skirt, W Hotel as I'm a year too late in documenting this *grins*

 

Our dinner venue, Skirt. Located at W hotel, this was one of the best restaurants in Singapore for good quality steaks. I've pledged my loyalty to Morton's, nevertheless I'm always game to try out new steakhouses. Leecher called weeks in advance to secure a table and also to inform them that we will be having a birthday celebration. 

We were shown to our table at a secluded corner, though on hindsight we should have requested for the booth seats since they looked so comfortable. If you're looking for a long dinner at Skirt, strongly recommended to request for booth seats.

We ordered a bottle of sparkling water as we pondered over the food choices. Subsequently, they opened another bottle, without checking with us first if we would like another bottle. I certainly don't mind paying for it, but I would appreciate that we were informed beforehand instead of knowing it through the bill. 

Love the copper pans! If I had a chance to renovate the kitchen again, I'll incorporate this into the design (provided Leecher doesn't kill me first), tsk tsk.  

Tai tai training part #2 (^^)

Bread promptly arrived at the table once our orders were placed. Boy, the bread was so tasty that we had to resist ourselves from filling our hungry stomachs with it. Nonetheless, we did requested for 2nd serving halfway through our course.

Red wine to go with our steaks. 

The cow symbol embossed on the table mat. 

Getting engrossed with ceiling decorations that I almost forgot to look through the menu. They kinda reminded me of the kinetic rain sculpture at Changi Airport, except that this stayed fixed instead of moving. 

I think we had the 4-course meal and some ala carte for sharing. I couldn't find the exact menu online anymore, so this is really based on my memory. We had Asaparagus, Mushroom Textures and Beef Carpaccio with raspberry and confit egg yolk. The starters wowed us over, so it was off to a good start!

 

Check out Yanni's very pro DSLR! My Olympus paled in comparison, lol.  

Next, lobster bisque served with garlic cream and torched petuna ocean trout served with cauliflower and radish.

 

Both Kaiwei and Leecher gave 2 thumbs up for lobster bisque. Initially I thought the garlic cream would be too overwhelming but it was just nice. As for ocean trout, it was just ordinary.

Before the main dishes are served, you'll be presented with two tiny bottles. The bottle of the left is for the steak (which will be served later) while greenish transparent bottle is a drink that helps to cleanse your palette.

Bottoms up!

Truffle fries for sharing before we embarked on our carnivore journey. 

Black Market Sirloin with braised lentils and celeriac, together with full blood wagyu grain fed, Blackmore MS9+. We had to send Kaiwei's steak back to the kitchen for it wasn't cooked the way it was supposed to be as Kaiwei had asked for medium rare but it came out medium. They changed the plate for us, but it wasn't the type of mistake that you'll expect from a restaurant that specialize in steak.

Grainy pic taken with iPhone 5S :(

Lemon Meringue Pie served with tea sorbet and Banouffe Pie with torched banana. 

Even the waiter had a hard time with my point-and-shot camera.

The birthday boy with his cake. While others have complimented greatly on Skirt for their excellent service, I beg to differ. It is no doubt that they provide service, but it was normal at best. When we made the reservation, Leecher had already indicated that it was for a birthday celebration. We reminded them again on the birthday celebration when we arrived at the restaurant (when birthday boy went to park the car). When desserts were served, there was still no sight of the birthday cake. I thought that they might have waited till we finished desserts before they served the cake. After we finished desserts and they cleared our plates, still no sight of the cake. Leecher had to walk away to remind them and you know what, they forgotten about it! Despite 2 checks - once during reservation and another one when we arrived, they forgot about it? This is not acceptable!   

A parting shot at the carpark of W Hotel with Yanni :) Check out her long legs, lol! I look like a dwarf next to her. Anyway, I doubt I'll return to Skirt anytime soon after this unpleasant episode. There is a reason why I pledge my loyalty to Morton. 

Skirt, W Hotel

Sentosa Cove, 21 Ocean Way

Singapore 098374

Tel: 65 6808 7278