Rottnest Island

How can you go to WA and NOT visit Rottnest Island! We only had 1 day in Perth so we decided to make the most of it... by leaving Perth.

We had booked a dive in, as Doug is really trying to encourage me to scuba dive as much as possible! Turns out that Rottnest Island has the second best diving in WA (behind the Ningaloo Reef) due to an odd warm front that comes through. We jumped on the boat and got all kitted up. It had been almost a year since my last dive so I was pretty nervous. I had a minor freak out in the water due to not being able to equalize properly, my leg cramping and feeling like it was hard to breathe but Doug calmed me down and away I went. The first dive site was quite deep so we were only in the water for 45mins. It was also really rough water which made the dive quite exhausting! We then sailed into a secluded cove and had lunch. As the water was getting rougher the crew decided on this cove as our second dive site - which I was more than happy about! It was far calmer and shallower which meant the water was warmer, it was easier to swim and the coral and fish were very colourful. I felt like Ariel in the Little Mermaid!

The dive boat then dropped us off at Rottnest Island around 3pm. We went straight to the bike hire, then got some maps and planned out our day. We did a quick circuit of the main pretty beaches before deciding that the most important thing to do was obviously secure our Quokka Selfies.... well, my Quokka selfie - Doug wasn't really that interested. We spent over 2 hours cycling around the island and hunting down Quokkas. Turns out they love the pines that fall off the trees so they were good Quokka bait - not that we really needed it, Quokka's are so friendly and inquisitive they'll just come up and sit next to you regardless!

After finally getting multiple Quokka selfies we settled on a beach nearby and chilled out until the sun went down (which is really early in WA!). Our ferry back wasn't until 7.45pm so we had an early dinner at the pub on the island. We then took a very rough ferry home and packed up our stuff :(

Home time first thing in the morning! Our flight is at 9.15am, but then we're driving straight down to Sorrento for New Years Eve! Happy 2020!

- K x

Margaret River

After a big Christmas Day we threw whatever we thought we needed in a bag and drove to the airport. Our flight was the last one out at 11.15pm and the terminal was pretty quiet with nothing but McDonalds open – lucky we were full from Christmas Lunch! Doug and I boarded the plane for a largely un-eventful flight. We then jumped in our hire car (12.30am Perth time, 3.30am Melbourne time) and drove 3.5hrs down to Margaret River. By the time we got there (4am Perth time 7am Melbourne time!!) we were exhausted and just collapsed.

Day 1 officially started with a biiiiggg sleep in, we then headed to a café just down the road from our accommodation on the beach for brekky. We then ventured 40 minutes south to Hamelin Bay, the beach was beautiful but the main attraction is the wild stingrays. They're so friendly and come up right to the shoreline so I even got to pat a few of them! We then had a very quiet night at the local pub and an early night.

Day 2 we decided to go on a food & wine tour. The bus picked us up at 10am sharp and by 10.30am we had already had 3 glasses of wine! We ended up going to 4 wineries in total. We also had a lunch of locally made cheese, crocodile meat, smoked kangaroo (sooo yum) and other bushtucker berries etc. We then went to the dairy factory - with amazing cheese and icecream and finally a brewery for Doug. By the time we got home we were exhausted so Doug just made some lamb cutlets and we watched a movie.

Day 3 - the weather was PERFECT so we got ready for a beach day. We drove 40mins north to Smith's beach for a few hours and then decided to go to Eagle Bay Brewery for a yummy lunch. Doug then took us to one of the most spectacular beaches I've ever seen, being Castle Rock Beach. The water was sooo blue and the rocks were this amazing red colour. I sat down and read for a few hours and sent Doug off with a snorkel. He came back and advised me that he'd found a secret beach with no-one on it. We walked over what felt like 1,000 rocks and managed to get there. It was even more beautiful than the beach before it and we sat there until the sun went down

Day 4 - Unfortunately the weather wasn't great and we needed to check out at 10am. After a quick stop at the Margaret River Fudge Factory and Bussleton Jetty we made our way to Port Bouvard to see Brian's brother Colin and his wife Mandy - as we were going to be staying at their house in Perth for the next few days. We got there at 2.30pm, fully intending on it being a quick stop to pick up the keys and ended up staying there till 9pm before heading back to Perth.

- K x