Buddha’s Day & Multicultural Festival | Melbourne

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

This past weekend, at Federation Square, the annual Buddha’s Day and Multicultural Festival took place. It celebrates Buddha’s birthday and promotes cultural awareness and inclusiveness. There were many interactive opportunities, including a tea ceremony and an art installation. It was really cool to see people learning about a culture they weren’t familiar with, and participating with open minds. The food was also very, very good!

dragon and buddha's day signdragon and buddha at federation squarebuddha-13

buddha festival at federation square

Alms giving ceremony

buddha-21

Bodhi Tree art installation

woman and girl at peace tree at buddha festivalwishes on the peace treepeace and equality wishbudwomen cooking tempura at buddha festivalSoup at buddha festivaleating laksa soup

taiwanese tea ceremony at buddha festival

Tea ceremony

buddha statue and sign at federation squarelighting candles by buddha statuecandles lit for wishesbuddha prayer fountain and statues

buddha-33

Bathing the Buddha

performers in kimonosbuddha-26buddha-20dragon at buddha festival

Advertisements

Melbourne | Parliament of Victoria

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

Another touristy post!
Living in Melbourne, I have always wanted to tour Parliament. I never got the chance until recently. We only did the short tour (15 minutes), which was extremely rushed, but still really interesting. I would recommend taking one of the longer tours, because there is so much information! I got the impression that the guides prefer leading the longer tours, too.
Here are some quick photos I got of the building and details.

parliament of victoria signpeople taking pictures in parliamentparliament-3red and green books on shelfhallway with columns and statuesparliament-11ceiling and chandelier in librarylarge room and statue in parliamentceiling with angel statuesred benches of parliament

Animal Portraits | Wildlife Habitat Port Douglas

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

A cool thing about a lot of wildlife sanctuaries in Australia is that you can feed the animals. They will come right up to you, even grab your hands, and it makes for fun photo opportunities. I took these at the Wildlife Habitat in Port Douglas.

animals-16wallaby eating green leafred and blue parrot looking while eatingkangaroo nosekangaroo feet on woodkookaburra in a treetwo pelicans on logwalking red and blue bird with long toes

Fun fact: This is one of the few places in Australia where you can hold a koala!

Immigration Museum in Melbourne

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

Australia has a very interesting and dynamic history of immigration. The Immigration Museum is full of surprising facts and amazing stories! They have an exhibition that chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi, and a British immigrants exhibition that closes this Sunday. I think the ‘Identity: yours, mine, ours’ exhibition should be seen by everyone. It is a wonderful opportunity to teach kids about diversity and acceptance.

immigration-1immigration-10immigration-11immigration-13immigration-15immigration-16immigration-17immigration-18immigration-19immigration-20immigration-21immigration-22immigration-23immigration-24immigration-25immigration-27

Melbourne | Queen Victoria Summer Night Market

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

We have lived in this city almost 2 years, and we still do the tourist things. Everyone thinks we’re tourists anyway because of our ‘accents.’ I love the Queen Victoria Night Market because you have tons of local shops and food all in one place. Clothes, art, books, souvenirs; they have everything, in all different price ranges. You can get drinks, dinner, and dessert (see sangria, nachos, and Nutella loukemades below). There is also entertainment, like live music and street performers. Most weeks even have a theme; this one had flamenco and salsa music.

Today is the second to last summer night market! I already can’t wait for the winter one.

market-2market-3market-2-2market-1-2market-1
The band is Malcura. They were awesome.

market-3-2market-4

Bonus pictures courtesy of my husband: a performer chose me as an ‘assistant’ and I had to basically pull the sword out of his throat. It was so weird and I was thoroughly embarrassed. I cannot control my face in most situations, so here you can really see me freaked out. Haha!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Mount Macedon

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

We took a day trip to Mount Macedon recently. It was beautiful and everything was so well-kept. There are a lot of small walks to drive to that offer incredible scenery! The Top of the Range tea room is very cute and gives you the chance to enjoy a glass of wine with a view. We will definitely be back again!

macedon-2

Memorial Cross

macedon-1

Major Mitchell Lookout

macedon-3macedon-5

macedon-4

View at Camels Hump

macedon-6

Sanatorium Lake

NGV Triennial in Melbourne | Flowers and Skulls

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

Two of the most visually striking displays at the NGV Triennial are Yayoi Kusama’s Flower Obsession and Ron Mueck’s Mass. One involves an explosion of bright red flowers, and the other is a room full of giant human skulls.

When you walk in to Flower Obsession, you are given a flower sticker to place anywhere you want in a recreated living space. The flowers have now taken over, illustrating a hallucination the artist had as a child.

woman looking at flower roomNGV triennial flower stickerngv triennial-20looking inside flower room

“They killed all those giants! How sad!” -my husband, who sometimes thinks he’s 12.
One hundred individual skulls sit in the historical collection galleries of the NGV. It is so strange and cool.

giant scull in art museumbig human skull on pilepile of skulls by old artngv triennial-36man photographing giant skull

More photos of the NGV Triennial to come!

New Zealand | Routeburn Track at Milford Sound

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

In continuation of my New Zealand posts (here and here):
We spent one day in Milford Sound (probably not enough). The first half of the day was kayaking. I didn’t take my camera for that. We saw penguins and a dolphin swam right next to us! It got really windy, though, and it was a lot more work than I thought it would be. After that, we went on a hike to the top of a mountain (the Key Summit Alpine Walk on the sign below). It was absolutely beautiful, and I wanted to just share a few pictures from the top! The last one is me; my husband took it.

NZ-11NZ-12NZ-13NZ-14NZ-15

New Zealand | Road Trip in the South Island

/ Christina Hardcastle / 1 Comment

As we continued our New Zealand adventure (see last post), we didn’t have much planned other than we would rent a car in Greymouth and drive south. We took the TranzAlpine train from Christchurch to Greymouth, which was very relaxing and beautiful. We walked around Greymouth a bit before starting on our road trip adventure. It was a few days of spontaneity and getting lost in the best way!
We walked to a view of the Franz Josef Glacier, where the biggest amazement was seeing how much it has receded so quickly. At least half of the 45-minute walk used to be covered in ice, less than 100 years ago. The only way on the glacier now is by helicopter (we didn’t splurge).
We stopped by many random beaches. One had a coffee truck right on the side of the road. One had a pod of dolphins jumping right by the shore. We stayed as long as we could stand the sand flies.
We stopped at scenic lookouts, short walking tracks, and even a distillery. Eventually we made our way to Te Anau, the gateway to Milford Sound (which will be featured in my next New Zealand post!).

NZ-16

Franz Joseph Glacier

NZ-17NZ-18NZ-19

NZ-20

Knights Point Lookout

NZ-21

Dolphin at Ship Creek

NZ-22NZ-23NZ-24NZ-25NZ-26NZ-27

A First Birthday Party | Melbourne Documentary Family Photography

/ Christina Hardcastle / 2 Comments

My first documentary family session of 2018 was a birthday party! Sharee turned one year old, and her family threw her an intimate party in the backyard. The weather was perfect, and she loved her cake (made by her mum!). Her big sister had fun with bubbles and the trampoline. Next year they’ll be running around together!
So grateful this beautiful family let me share in their day!

happy baby girl at her birthday partybaby girl reaching for her birthday cakefamily at first birthday partybaby eating cake with messy mouthgirl blowing bubblesgirl in pink shoes on trampolinemom hugging daughterblack and white photo of dad with baby girlphoto of phone photobirthday girl in pinkman at birthday party

Melbourne Latin Summer Festival

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

This past weekend we checked out the Melbourne Latin Summer Festival. It was a small festival set up in the Royal Botanical Gardens. We saw a lot of amazing salsa dancing and ate some great food. One band that I really liked was the Huanchaco Band (last 2 pictures). They made some beautiful music!

latin flagscouple dancing salsacouples salsa dancing in the parksalsa line dance in the parkcolourful jewellery for sale at latin festivalman making cuban sandwichessandwiches on grillburritos on grillcuban sandwich cut in halfman with guitar in parkwoman and man in bandband playing in the park at festival

And now I want to learn how to salsa.

New Zealand | Around Christchurch

/ Christina Hardcastle / 2 Comments

My husband and I just turned 30, and to celebrate we went to the south island of New Zealand for a week (as you do). For the first couple of days we stayed in Christchurch. I had no idea how much the earthquakes affected it; the whole city was under construction! Still, we loved Christchurch. There is so much to see and do. The new buildings are awesome and there are some really good restaurants. This post is dedicated to what we mainly did there: sample the local alcohol 😉
We started at a Mexican restaurant (we’re from Texas, we just need Mexican food sometimes). They had all kinds of tasty margaritas, but their salsa was just not spicy enough for us Texans. The next day, we went on a wine tasting lunch tour in the Waipara Valley, which was AMAZING. We had so much fun and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Drank some awesome white wines, and met some hilarious people.

Featured places:
Mexico Restaurant
Canterbury Leisure Tours
Waipara Hills Wines
Greystone Wines
Torlesse Wines

Margarita in christchurch restaurantman at christchurch mexican restaurantwinery in waipara valley NZwine bottles and glass in winerywine glasses on tablelunch platter at winerywaipara hills winery scenerynew zealand winery scenehappy winery owners pouring wine

Stay tuned for a couple more posts featuring our trip to New Zealand!

Day in the Life – The Stewart Family

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

What are the best souvenirs for grandparents who come visit from the other side of the world?
Photos!
These grandparents decided a short day in the life session was the perfect way to document their time spent with their family. We went to the park, made pizzas, and spent quality time at home.

Here is a tiny sample of their four hour day in the life session in Hawthorn East.

stewartditl-4stewartditl-2stewartditl-6stewartditl-7stewartditl-9stewartditl-11stewartditl-15stewartditl-16stewartditl-17stewartditl-18stewartditl-19stewartditl-23stewartditl-27stewartditl-30stewartditl-50stewartditl-31stewartditl-41stewartditl-38

National Gallery of Victoria

/ Christina Hardcastle / Leave a comment

I went to the NGV last week to see the Festival of Photography, and then I just walked around admiring everything. My favourites were the William Eggleston and Ross Coulter exhibits. The former is a window to the past, while the latter is a kind of modern take on performance art.

Photography is so diverse and amazing.

NGV-1NGV-7NGV-8NGV-9NGV-10NGV-11NGV-12NGV-13NGV-14NGV-15NGV-6