Picnicking seems to be really big in Melbourne. Over the last week, we saw so many people having picnics in Melbourne that we decided to try it ourselves.

Only I’m not really the picnic sort because there was this one time that I tried picnicking in Singapore and I ended up getting bitten by red ants. We wanted to do something different and romantic so I made sandwiches, bought a real picnic mat and packed everything into my little basket all prepared for a leisurely day out in the sun.

And then of course I had to set my mat down on an ant’s nest, which resulted in me getting attacked by a colony of very angry ants.

But after doing the touristy thing for several days, we wanted to soak in the Melburnian culture and experience the city like a local. So my sister, who’s like an expert because she spent the last year and a half studying here, took us to Queen’s Lake Park for a breakfast picnic.

It’s got a nice lake with water fountains, birds of various species, several playgrounds and lots of open space for picnics.

We packed all sorts of nutritious fruits and breakfast options but the kids were only interested in eating Red Rock chips. I knew we shouldn’t have spent all that time making sandwiches and just gone with the bag of chips. They were all “I need to share my bread with the birds because they are very hungry,” but it was all a ploy just to get rid of their sandwiches to get more chips.

The playgrounds were a nice touch. We had at least 3 to choose from and this was the one we went with. The kids spent over an hour climbing, swinging, see-sawing and sliding to their heart’s content. As far as playgrounds went, this was pretty similar to the ones we have back home, except that they used wood chips as floor padding instead of the spongy material we’re so used to. It was so very um, natural.

It was the perfect way to slow things down a little after all the long drives and crazy sightseeing. Also, just glad there weren’t any red ants to be seen.

Seeing how much the kids love animals, the Melbourne Zoo was on the list of places we had to visit. Plus it’s located right in the city, which was like 5 minutes from where we were staying.

The animals were basically the same ones as those we have in the Singapore Zoo but the cool weather was divine. Even though the sun was out, it was nice not be be all sticky and sweaty and gross. We set the kids loose and we didn’t even break a sweat sprinting after them around the park.

It was ingenious how the animal enclosures were done. We could see all the animals up close, even the lions. I mean, there was a fence but I could pretty much stick my hand in to touch it if I wanted. I thought about reaching in to stroke the lion but then there was a chance I’d have my entire arm eaten right off. Which was why i didn’t, obviously.

All the animals were so close I could shoot them on my 50mm lens without any zoom.

Then we went on the outback trail to get up close with the classic australian outback animals. All the kangaroos and emus were just running free on the trail so we had to brief the kids to be quiet just in case they aggravated the animals and got themselves attacked by a kangaroo.

Truett was all “Shhhh, we need to be quiet, we cannot disturb the animals.”

We even got to see the elephants up close in the Asian-looking elephant village. The kids asked me what the words on the sign meant and evidently Bong Su means elephants. Or something.

And so I leave you with a video of Truett chasing birds. He didn’t catch any but he tried really hard so that’s 500 points for effort.