Day 4 in Melbourne, Australia: Exploring the Royal Botanic Gardens & Shopping at South Wharf

After two consecutive days of venturing out of Melbourne, finally we decided to explore the city itself. Our first stop of the day is one of the city's most famous parks: the Royal Botanic Gardens. As the shuttle bus and free tram does not start that early, we strolled from the city centre to the Shrine of Remembrance. At a leisurely pace, it takes about 20 minutes.

At the Shrine of Remembrance, you will see rows and rows of medals earned by Victoria's heroes when you enter through the visitor centre. Walk around the lower levels and you can read about Malaysia and Singapore's involvement in the war as well. Besides learning about the honourable heroes of Victoria, you can also walk up all the way to the balcony. You can get a pretty good view of the Melbourne city centre from here. Once you are done, just cross the road towards the Royal Botanic Gardens.

The Royal Botanic Gardens has a beautiful Camellia collection and despite it being close to winter, many of the flowers were still blooming. If you start to freeze up in winter while exploring, step into the greenhouse to warm up for a while while seeing the tropical plants on display! Soon, we were exhausted as the park is huge. We walked back towards the Observatory gate as the tourist shuttle bus stop is nearby. After a while, we hopped onto the free shuttle bus and headed towards the city centre for lunch.

After lunch, we walked towards QV Village and Melbourne Central which are shopping malls. As it was still lunchtime, both places were bustling with people. Nearby is the State Library of Victoria. Entrance to the exhibitions are generally free. However, if you are carrying a backpack or a large bag, you will have to deposit your bag in a locker before entering. From here, we then headed towards the Koorie Heritage Trust where we admired the aboriginal art and learnt of their history. The place itself is not too big and one hour is definitely more than enough. Note that closing time is 4pm though.

Finally, it was time for shopping in Melbourne. Our first shopping stop was the Direct Factory Outlets (DFO) South Wharf. From the tram stop, it is a just a short walk across the bridge. From the bridge, walk pass the Convention Centre and you will reach DFO.Brands on offer include Converse, Adidas, Nike, Cotton On, Calvin Klein and lots more. The DFO closes at 6pm but if you would like to catch the free tram back to the city centre, do leave earlier, as the last tram leaves at about 6pm too! If you have missed the last tram, fret not. They are many other trams which will bring you back to the city centre.