Australian Getaways

Southwest WA Day 1: Myalup, A’maze’n Margaret River and Hamelin Bay Beach Park

Posted on January 8, 2023 by Mel

We headed off today for our first “family vacation” with my bestie and her two kids in tow. We all drove from Perth together in her 4WD.

We left Perth at 9:30am and stopped in at the Old Coast Road Brewery in Myalup as stop 1 after about 90mins of driving. This was a good stop for us as we did our food shopping the day before so didn’t need to go into any major tourist towns to get anything on the way and it gave the kids lots of space to run around if they wanted to. The brewery had some great beer options (including a few low % ones for drivers and stein sized takeaways) and we were lucky enough to organise our lunch stop to be at the same time as some friends of mine from Canberra who were coming the opposite way!

Stop 2 was at “Amaze’n Margaret River” which was another 90 mins away and has a hedge maze and mini golf on site. They also have a little cafe for those looking for a coffee spot and some scones. It was $26 per adult ($18 per child) to access the maze and that was without the mini golf. As we arrived around 3pm they did say we might struggle to get nigh activities done before closing at 5pm so we just did the maze. We found our way to the centre lookout quite easily but did have to use a little bit of google maps assistance to get out haha.

We then drove our final distance of 30 mins (with a short stop for fresh bread) to arrive at the Hamelin Bay Holiday Park where we had a 6 person ocean view cabin booked. Now, booking this was a pain in the butt! They open Dec/Jan bookings by phone on May 1st and I rang over 200 times (across 2.5hrs) before I finally got through and the only 2 nights were left in January one these dates. So we took what we could get. This cabin is fantastic though – right on the beach, sleeps 6 (1 queen bed, 2 single beds, 1 trundle bed, 1 rollaway bed) and is fully equipped including a Weber BBQ with gas bottle. There is no phone reception or wifi here which is sort of awesome and sort of a challenge. They also run off bore water which is good to know before you arrive as you need to bring your own drinking water.

As well as the amazing stingrays (see photos further down) we also saw plenty of very chonky kookaburras.

We walked on the beach, paddled with some friendly stingrays and watched the sunset before a few games of “hand to hand wombat” and bed.

Categories: Australian Getaways, western australia | Leave a comment

Bali: day 5 and 6 (Jimbaran)

Posted on December 20, 2022 by Mel

Today (Day 5) we stayed in the resort and spent most of the day lounging by my favourite pool and listening to the ocean.

For dinner, we visited Kisik Restaurant which is right down on the cliff face at Ayana Resort. It serves fresh seafood which you select and specify the amount you would like.

The view is SPECTACULAR. I booked a couple of weeks ahead so I would say we had one of the best sunset spots for dinner and I loved watching the waves crash up against the cliff.

Dinner consisted of satay sticks for an entree, salad, soup (with a non shellfish option for me), a skewer of assorted sea creatures for B and a swordfish steak for me…and then a chocolate mousse for dessert! All the food was excellent (as were the cocktails) and I can’t fault the service. I have given this place 5/5 on trip advisor.

On the way back up to our main hotel area we walked through Rock Bar which was absolutely packed! Very different to our first night there. You can see from the photo below what a spectacular venue it is down on the ocean.

Day 6 was our last full day in Bali and was a very lazy day. There was more reading by the pool, more cocktails and more naps in cabanas.

We finished the day off with another visit to the Thalassotherapy Pool at sunset (I love those jets – all 60 of them!) and dinner at Hon Zen Teppenyaki Restaurant.

Hon Zen was the most expensive place we ate at while visiting this resort but holy cow, it was worth it! We had the Teppenyaki set menu which was around $180 AUD each but included A5 graded Wagyu beef. B really loves his Wagyu….and we have eaten it in Japan a few times so the cost wasn’t exactly a surprise for us.

A tip for this restaurant – when you book ahead make sure to clarify you definitely want the Teppenyaki at the grill. We had some miscommunication around this but they were able to make some space for us so we were very lucky to sit and interact with Tony the chef.

Home tomorrow!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Leave a comment

Where to in 2023?

Posted on November 7, 2022 by Mel

With travel restrictions lifted in most places and four vaccinations each – where are we going in 2023?

Current booked trips are:

– Hamelin Beach and Pemberton in January with family

– a surprise WA destination for Bs 40th birthday in early April. We can’t travel internationally around his birthday due to school holidays and my SILs wedding so he’s agreed to a drivable week long adventure

– Phuket in April/May!!! I am so keen for this

Where else? Maybe Vegas. I could visit Vegas. Oooooh or Europe. Or even Bali since I have jetstar vouchers. Hmmm.

Categories: Australian Getaways, Phuket | Leave a comment

Day 4: Albany long weekend

Posted on September 25, 2022 by Mel

This morning we enjoyed a lovely sleep in and some baby goat watching from the warmth of the cottage. The miniature horses were also chilling out the front of the cottage so I made sure they got some love!

It was a bit of a gray and drizzly morning so while we waited for the rain to clear up we headed to Duckett Mill Winery and cheese factory. We had a delicious tasting board with wine/cheese pairings as well as one of their famous toasties for an early lunch.

After lunch we headed to the Denmark Animal Farm to pat and feed some very cute baby animals. It was very muddy (yay rain) but still pretty cool to get to interact with all the animals.

After the animal farm we took advantage of a slight break in the weather and explored Elephant Rocks and Green Pool beaches. There is some amazing rock formations down this end of WA.

We then headed back towards Denmark with a stop at Bartholomew’s Meadery (yummm honey and mead) and some beer paddles at Boston Brewing. Phew! Now back to our farm cottage for some relaxation, treats and goat pats. Home tomorrow

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Day 3 Albany long weekend

Posted on September 24, 2022 by Mel

Today we checked out of our accomodation in Albany to head to a farm stay in Elleker (halfway between Albany and Denmark). On the way we stopped at the Whaling Station for a walk around and history tour. Definitely worth a visit! We arrived right on 9am when they opened which was a good call as by the time we left at 11am the car park was completely full.

After the whaling station we drove out to the Treetop Walk in Denmark. It’s about an hour drive from Albany but it was absolutely amazing! When it’s busy there are some wait times but the 600m long walk up 40m through the tress was accessible, easy and really pretty. I don’t like heights but felt okay the whole time as it feels secure and has a good height on the enclosed railings. We also walked through the ancient tree walk which had some red eucalypts that were over 600 years old.

From here, we drove to our farm stay and checked in. It is a gorgeous little cottage on a working farm with a bath overlooking the paddocks. They also have baby goats!!! Dinner was homemade scones and a cheese platter from the farm owner as well as some bubbly.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Day 2: Albany long weekend

Posted on September 23, 2022 by Mel

Today we started off with the free breakfast at our bnb – the name of this accomodation is Beach House by the Bayside. The brekkie was delicious! They even made me a small one as I wasn’t too hungry. We then set off to play tourist for the day – and take lots of photos.

We started at the mounted memorial at the top of Mt Clarence.

From there, we drove back down to the National Anzac Centre. We visited the newer part (which is paid entry) and also did the free one hour tour up the hill to the gunner mounts.

The views were spectacular there and it was such a lovely morning (glorious sunshine) you could see way out into the bay. After our visit here, we drove about 15 mins out of Albany centre to Monty’s Leap Winery. We did a wine tasting and enjoyed their vineyard platter for lunch. They are quite an expensive option for a meal but the food was really good – they were also totally booked out even for a Friday lunch so worth planning ahead. We also bought some wine mmmm wine.

After lunch we visited a bunch of the natural tourist sites including the gap, the natural bridge, misery beach and the blowholes. The blowholes weren’t blowing sadly so we will have to come back again to that one on another visit.

Tonight, we booked dinner at the top rated restaurant in Albany – it’s called Majuba Bistro. The food was amazing. So good in fact we missed a mains photo. Delicious local wines accompanied delicious food. Definitely book ahead for this one as they were booked out all weekend by the time we arrived on Thursday night.

After dinner, we had a nightcap at Liberte Bar (best walk in sign ever) and then were in bed by 8pm. We booked a ride home with Albany Taxi Cabs and even though it was a busy night they were on time for our booking and the service was fantastic.

Tomorrow, we change accomodation and are off to a farm stay (WITH BABY MINIATURE GOATS) halfway to Denmark.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Day 1: Albany long weekend

Posted on September 22, 2022 by Mel

We drove from Perth to Albany today with a few stops along the 4.5hr drive at Riverside Roadhouse (mmm pies) and Kojonup. The drive was a fairly quiet one despite the unexpected public holiday for the Queen.

Our first two nights here we are staying at Beach House by the Bayside in Middleton Beach. It’s a lovely little bnb with a 2 min walk to the beach, 5 min drive from the main restaurant strip and a spa bath in the room.

Tonight we opted to walk down the beach (which took about 30mins) to have dinner at “WAs best fish and chips” Hooked on Middleton Beach Fish and Chips. The walk was just lovely along the dog beach. Plus….dogs!

Our walk brought us down to Rats Bar which has some…interesting….google reviews. We thought the service was good and they had all local wines which was lovely. It was quiet while we were there but had definitely picked up when we walked back past at 6pm.

The fish and chips for dinner was delicious! You definitely need to book as they were almost fully booked from 6pm and the only reason we got in was because we were quite early. They also use home made tartare sauce which was nice and thick. Yum.

Now I’m off to drink champagne out of a water glass while I sit in the spa.

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Day 7-8: Monkey Mia to Geraldton to Perth!

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Mel

We left Monkey Mia around 9am and headed for the Ocean Park Aquarium in Denham. I had booked the visit here on the theory we would get into the shark tour with a booking but they don’t actually allocate booking times so lesson learned…no point booking ahead for this place. Instead we arrived at 8:30am and had a great breakfast before their first tour at 9:20am. The breakfast views were next level.

The aquarium tour was amazing! Probably one of the best aquariums we have been to and I saw a tiger shark for the first time ever! His name was Boof. Best shark name.

We then drove the 4.5hrs to Geraldton with a short roadhouse stop at Billabong Roadhouse again. Our accomodation in Geraldton was at the Ocean Centre Hotel as I picked something easy, quiet and with an attached restaurant. We arrived in Geraldton around 3pm to an easy check in at a lovely ocean front room.

The attached restaurant was actually shut due to easter so I booked dinner at Skeeta’s which was a 5 min walk from the hotel and had amazing tapas and cocktails with a view of the marina at sunset. They were busy though so you definitely need to book.

We had breakfast at Dome on the beach and then left Geraldton around 9am for the 4.5hr trip to Perth on the inland road. Apparently the coastal road is nicer but for us inland was a slightly shorter trip – about 25 mins saved. We stopped at Badgingarra as the halfway point to stretch our legs (great pies, gross toilets) before being reunited with the fur babies!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Day 6: Monkey Mia Resort, WA

Posted on April 14, 2022 by Mel

We started the day very early! Lots of people had said feeding the dolphins at Monkey Mia is super crowded and adults rarely get picked (especially in school holidays) so it would suck. Instead, we were advised to head to the jetty well before the first 7:45am feeding time and enjoy the dolphins swimming in peace. Then when everyone crowds in for the feeding….go to breakfast! This turned out to be excellent advice as due to covid they actually aren’t allowing guests to feed them, which they didn’t mention at all until just before feed time.

After our dolphin visit we went to brekkie at the local boughshed restaurant and then prepared for our marine reserve catamaran cruise on “Aristocat 2”. This is the only your vessel around here that is legally allowed to enter the conservation zone twice a day. After researching online, it was highly recommended that the morning tour be taken over the afternoon one as you are more likely to see wildlife – although as with all animal cruises they can’t guarantee anything. I was pretty disappointed with this experience to be honest. They obviously can’t control the wildlife but watching the skipper talk to customers for most of the time and not look for any wildlife to point out to us was….disheartening. Letting people ride in the boom net was also a 45 min waste of time that could have been better spent hanging out with some animals! In the end we saw 4 dolphins and 2 dugongs. Photos are terrible.

Dugong mum and calf

After returning, we did some napping/souvenir shopping/people watching/dolphin spotting before having dinner at the Boughshed. i had to book ahead for dinner as they fill up pretty quickly apparently.

Tomorrow: 4.5hrs to Geraldton for a one night stop then another 4hrs home!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Day 5: Kalbarri to Monkey Mia, WA

Posted on April 13, 2022 by Mel

We left Kalbarri with the intention of stopping at Hamelin Pool to walk the boardwalk. Unfortunately this has still not been repaired since the cyclone smashed it apart in 2021 and without the access to the walkway you can’t see much of anything – instead we stopped at Billabong Roadhouse for a delicious toastie and leg stretching.

Then we travelled through to Shell Beach. There is only one other beach in the world made up of billions of tiny shells instead of sand! The shells all come from one specific animal and the beach is close to 100km long. That’s a lot of Dead tiny animals.

From Shell Beach we drove another 20 mins into Denham (to stop at the IGA for supplies) before continuing on to the Monkey Mia RAC resort. We had booked an ocean view cabin when the option came up to stay here. We can see the beach and ocean from our balcony so could watch dolphins frolic on the shore and emus roam around.

I had booked a scenic flight (flight option 2) with shark bay aviation, paying the extra for a private flight. It did not occur to me that this meant we would be in a tiny 4 seater plane!! Eeek. The views were amazing though.

We made it back to Monkey Mia with about 5 mins before sunset and then enjoyed a gorgeous hour long sky changing colour while drinking moet on the balcony. We also watched a pod of 4 dolphins swim back and forth in front of our room!

Categories: Australian Getaways | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blog at WordPress.com.