Gold Museum - Ballarat Trip (Part 1)

Finally I’m sitting down here to blog about my Ballarat trip which we went in November last year. Ever since I saw the photos of Ballarat, well Souvereign Hill to be specific, I knew I had to go there. It's a place where you'd feel as if you just hopped onto a time machine and travelled back in time to the 1850s!!! I'm not going to spoil the surprise here as I'm going to have a whole long blogpost on Souvereign Hill itself, stay tuned :P

After I finished my PTE test, I knew I had to go on a getaway trip. My life was incredibly crazy at that time and I really wanted a break to go somewhere far where I could just forget about everything else behind my head. Since Chernie was on her short semester break before the commencement of her summer subjects, we decided to just go to Ballarat to our Saturday and Sunday there. It’s our first time travelling together as well so we were very excited!! Plus, it’s time for us to bring our new cameras out for an adventure too!

The original plan was to travel there by V-line and get around the city and Souvereign Hill by taxi or Uber. However, after working out the Maths we realised it’s not really cost-effective. Then, we found a cheaper and more convenient option. To weigh the pros and cons:
 
Plan A - going there on our own 
-tram fees to get to Southern cross station for V-line $3.8
-V-line ticket (1 way) approx $14
-cab fare to get to Souvereign Hill approx $15-20
-Souvereign Hill and Gold Museum tickets $54
Biggest advantage: Having all the freedom to do whatever we want without having to take anyone else into consideration
Biggest downside: Having no where to put our luggage

Plan B - going there with a tour
inclusive of transporation, Souvereign Hill and Gold Musuem tickets $68 + $4 tip for the tour guide
Biggest advantage: We'd arrive right in front of the Gold Museum and wouldn't need to purchase our tickets in a queue. We could opt to drop out from the tour at any point of the day to follow our activities but the other travel destination (ie a visit to a winery) would not be refunded.

Eventually, we went with PLAN B. Thinking it's the easier way out! 

In summary, our travel itinery will be something like this:

Day 1:
Get on the bus at Lonsdale Street >> Gold Museum >> Souvereign Hill >> our AirBnb place >> Dinner at Pizzeria >> Recharge for the next day

Day 2:
Breakfast at a local cafe >> Lake Wendouree >> Tour the Ballarat City >> Lunch >> Back to pick up luggage >> To train station to go back to Melbourne city

After rambling about this trip for so long, now we are finally in the tour bus.

It took about 1-1.5 hours to get there. I didn't keep track of the time because I was too busy Snapchatting away.

Our first stop was Gold Museum

The Gold Museum acts as the extension of the majestic story of the city of gold, Sovereign Hill in the 1850s.

The tour guide told us the story about how the migrants arrived in Victoria and started the gold mining business.

The gold museum's not really big. Prolly around 45 mins will suffice.

Golden nuggets. Can I just have one of these and I wouldn't need to work forever.

This light house kinda thing's really amusing in the middle of no where.

We were not allowed to take any photos in the souvenir shop of the gold products so I could only take a photo with the lavender teddy bear. The souvenir shop sells a great selection of fine jewelry and giftware BUT my advice is not buy any souvenir BEFORE you head to all of the souvenir shops in Sovereign Hill. Just in case you'd have to carry all the shopping items around. 

Gold Museum Ballarat
Bradshaw St, Ballarat Central VIC 3350
(03) 5337 1107

Next stop to Souvereign Hill! There will be crazy lots of photos coming up stay tuned!