Western Australia

I often think...."Can I get any farther away from home?"  

Well, actually yes!  Living in Singapore you are a short, 5 hour flight away from 

WESTERN AUSTRALIA!  A land of beautiful beaches and gorgeous landscapes. 

Spring Break 2012..Bryants head down under!

WARNING: 9 days in Australia= lots of pictures!

We started our trip in the charming little harbor town of Fremantle.  

We stayed right on the water, ate fish and chips and just enjoyed 

the town's beautiful parks.  Coming from Singapore,

 it was so nice to have so much open space around us!  At so many times

throughout this trip we felt like we were in Texas....sigh.

AMAZING PARKS EVERYWHERE!
KIDS WERE IN HEAVEN. 

HAPPY

FREMANTLE IS AN ARTSY LITTLE TOWN FULL OF GREAT MARKETS,
CAFES AND STREET PERFORMERS.  WE SPENT ONE DAY HERE.

UGGS ARE MADE IN AUSTRALIA AND THEY WERE EVERYWHERE!
YOU COULD BUY THEM IN ALL THE SOUVENIR SHOPS!

HELLO INDIAN OCEAN!

DON'T GET TOO EXCITED FOR US.....ALL TARGETS
ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL


Our second day down under we hopped on a ferry and headed for
Rottnest Island.  Rottnest island is a small protected island about 15 miles from
Fremantle.  The island is named for a small animal that you will find roaming all over
 called a quokka.   The first explorers that found the island mistook the 
quokkas for rats!  This is where the island gets its name.."Rott-nest"..."Rat-Nest"...
They did not look a thing like rats to me!  They hop like kangaroos..
It was a great day biking, beaching and enjoying the beautiful little island.
The beaches were stunning!  So many pictures...


THE PRINCESS IN HER BUGGY

DERIC, LUKE AND LIV ENJOYED SOME SNORKELING...

WHO NEEDS SHOVELS?

THE KIDS DECIDED TO DIG THIS HUGE HOLE...I THINK
THEY THOUGHT IT MIGHT TAKE THEM TO TEXAS

TIME TO HEAD BACK TO THE FERRY...A FEW STOPS THOUGH

FOR THE GORGEOUS VIEWS!

THESE ARE THE QUOKKAS THE ISLAND IS NAMED FOR...
OKAY SO I CAN SEE HOW THEY WERE MISTAKEN FOR RATS..

RATS THAT HOP LIKE KANGAROOS!

Good-bye Fremantle!  Roadtrip time!  Time to head South to the Margaret River Region!  

We can't wait to check in to our little chalet in the bush!  Deric did a great

job driving us on the wrong side of the road.

So I can now add "being charged by a kangaroo" to my list of experiences.

I was getting my camera out of my car after we arrived at our little chalet in

Margaret River.  I heard a loud thump getting closer and closer to me!  

Out of the bush this guy came!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!  Heart attack....

Luckily he was a friendly fellow..He stopped right at my feet! 
 "FEED ME" I think he was saying.
Little did we know we were in for a week of kangaroos!  
They came to our back porch daily for food!  
I really think had we done nothing else but sit in our little
yard and fed these guys the kids would have been happy!

LILLY IS SHOWING THE KANGAROOS THAT SHE TOO CAN HOP

Our first outing in Margaret River was a canoe/cave exploring trip. 

We ate Aboriginal food, climbed on our bellies through a dark cave 

(well, not Lilly and I!) and enjoyed some beautiful landscape!  

BTW, The Aboriginals were the first peeps to live in Australia.  

We heard about them alot on this trip!

Our tour guide Chris was awesome.  He taught us a lot about the history of this

 beautiful region.  He fed us foods the Aboriginals ate like emu and alligator 

( and Kangaroo, we felt a little guilty but they were good!).  

He was funny and great with the kids!  

Part of our river tour involved touring a cave that a group of shipwreck survivors

used to live in.  The kids and Deric climbed through a small space that they had

to get on their bellies to get through....Um...I said NO THANK YOU TO THAT.

Here are the 4 of them squeezing out of the small tunnel (it was a 30 ft crawl)...

Once again...NO THANK YOU!

Ahhhhh...daylight....and one very dirty family!  Great river trip...We were pooped

and excited to head back to our little cabin in the bush.

WEEEEE'RE BAAAAACK

One evening we went on a "kangaroo safari".  I booked this little adventure

 before we left and before I knew we would have our own pet kangaroos 

in our back yard. It was fun though seeing the kangaroos in their natural habitat. 

 These were much bigger and not tame.  It was also fun riding around in this old 

truck through the Australian bush!

According to the land owner Neil, this is a 4000 year old "Grass" Tree 
that grows only about 25 mm a year on the granite surface 
in this part of the world... that's old!!

There is Neil now bringing his horses over so the kids could feed them carrots!
Lilly kept calling him COWBOY!

AUSTRALIA AMAZES HER

LIKE I SAID..WE REALLY DIDN'T NEED A KANGAROO SAFARI

WHEN WE HAD THIS EVERY MORNING AND NIGHT!

THE LITTLE JOEYS WERE SOOOOOO CUTE!

The rest of our week in Margaret River we:

HUNG OUT AT MORE BEAUTIFUL BEACHES...

Explored the rock coast... can you spot Deric and Luke back on the rocks?

STOPPED BY A FEW BREWERIES...

PLAYED GIANT JINGA...

BREWERIES WITH PLAYGROUNDS! (genius)

WE FED MORE KANGAROOS...

LILLY LOVED CHATTING WITH THEM...

WE PLAYED AT AN AMAZING MAZE....WELL, SHOULD I SAY WE 

EXHAUSTED OURSELVES TRYING TO GET OUT OF THIS MAZE!!!

THIS IS AN AERIAL SHOT OF WHAT WE WERE STUCK IN FOR A WHILE..

LILLY AND I GAVE UP AND TOOK THE EMERGENCY EXIT...  

CAN YOU FIND THE WAY OUT? IT WAS NOT EASY!

THIS MINI-MAZE WILL ONE DAY BE  FULLY 

GROWN..I PREFERRED THIS ONE..I COULD SEE MY WAY OUT

IN WE GO..NEVER TO BE SEEN FROM AGAIN..(KIDDING)

GET US OUT!

AHHHH..FREEDOM! TIME TO DRIVE THROUGH A KARRI TREE

FOREST AND TOUR ANOTHER CAVE....(OH JOY! A CAVE!)

THESE PICTURES DO NOT DO THE BEAUTY OF THIS FOREST JUSTICE!

TIME FOR ANOTHER CAVE ADVENTURE...MOM IS SO EXCITED!!

ALL KIDDING ASIDE...IT WAS AMAZING.

THIS IS THE HOLE THAT THE CAVE WAS DISCOVERED THROUGH...

THE HOLE WAS FORMED BY TREE ROOTS...  IN THE LATE 1950'S 

AN EXPLORER VENTURED DOWN THIS NARROW 40 FEET LONG

 HOLE HANGING ON A ROPE ONLY TO DROP INTO THIS DISCOVERY...

LILLY FOUND THE CAVE FASCINATING...

After the cave we drove to the very Southern tip of Western Australia where the 

Indian Ocean and Southern Ocean meet!  The kids and Deric toured the 

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse which is more than a 100 years old.  These are some of

my favorite pictures!

SOUTHERN OCEAN IN THE BACKGROUND..

TO THE LEFT OF THIS LIGHTHOUSE IS THE SOUTHERN OCEAN..

TO THE RIGHT IS THE INDIAN OCEAN...

JUST A TAD BIT WINDY UP THERE!

LILLY TOOK A PRETEND NAP WHILE WE WAITED FOR THEM

WE ENDED OUR MAZE-FOREST-CAVE-LIGHTHOUSE DAY WITH DINNER

AT THE BREWERY...WITH ANOTHER AMAZING PLAYGROUND!

HELLO?  WHERE HAVE Y'ALL BEEN ALL DAY!

WE'RE HUNGRY!

Our trip ended up in a little town along the beach called Busselton.  

The weather got a little cooler which was so nice for us!  The highlight though 

was not the beautiful beach we were staying so close to....it was the FLYING FOX.  

The Flying Fox would be what we Americans call a zip-line.  

Right on the beach, in front of where we were staying was this 

amazing contraption that my kids could NOT get enough of!

So that's all I got!  I am not sure what I loved the most..the beauty, the people or the

 fact that I got to spend 9 straight days with my amazing husband and family...a rarity.

Cheers from Singapore and HAPPY EASTER!