Posts Tagged With: ocean

Rottnest Island!

Posted on February 8, 2025 by Mel

Peak period on Wadjemup (Rottnest island) is Dec – Feb so we initially had no chance at accomodation…but by going on a Thursday night, the day after school started I snagged a unit for 1 night at Geordie Bay.

We caught the 8am Rottnest express ferry from Northport (the best departure point if you have a car) and also added our own bikes on for $20 each. I wore a scopolamine patch and had no nausea at all

The trip is 30 mins direct but took a bit longer for us as we went via the B sheds for another pick up. It all works very smoothly with BYO bike and they load/unload it for you. As my bike is an ebike the battery mist be removable and carried as hand luggage…and the bike mist weigh under 22kgs.

When we arrived we started off on our 26km ride around the entire island. We saw some beautiful beaches.

We also saw one of the NZ fur seals waving at everyone in the water! After a brief lunch break we rode back to the settlement and collected our unit keys. We stayed at Geordie Bay with a beautiful ocean view.

For dinner we walked 1.5kms from Geordie Bay to Pinky’s. The food was very underwhelming (especially for the bonkers pricing) but there were lots of quokkas around…even baby ones.

We walked back and watched the sunset from our balcony with some cheese and snacks from the IGA near our unit.

Checkout is 9am on the island so we were up fairly early. We returned the keys then rode up to the Oliver Hill Gunnery.

We declined the paid tour and instead decided to go back down the hill for a swim at The Basin. Just as we were about to get in the chopper started hovering over and the shark siren went off…apparently there was a 3.5m Tiger shark just offshore. After awhile we were allowed in again. I stayed close to sure because it got very deep, very fast. It was quite rough in the water…I do miss the calm ocean bays in Thailand.

We saw soooo many cute quokkas! It was Joey season as well…babies!

Having not been to Rottnest for a long time (25+ years) I think staying overnight was worth it. No rush back to the ferry and it meant we were there for dusk when lots of quokkas come out to play. One night would definitely be sufficient if you make sure your days are longer on either side.

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Day 9 Vietnam: Hanoi – Ha Long Bay

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Mel

This section of our trip was done with a larger tour group with “Oriental Sails”. Overall we were happy we went with a smaller boat but of only 13 cabins but visiting the “sites” at the cave and beach was literally hell for us. Imagine 3000 rude tourists stuck in 30m square of beach, ocean and/or cave. No thanks.

We put our scopolamine patches behind our ears before brekkie. These aren’t available for sale in Australia but can be legally imparted and they are amazing – B had no nausea from it and I had minor nausea. Important to test them beforehand though as the small percentage who get side effects get some pretty wild ones you wouldn’t want to experience on a boat in the middle of a bay for the first time!

We were collected by a shuttle bus at 8am from our hotel in Hanoi and arrived at the pier around midday. The terminal was insanity with tourists and guides everywhere. By 12.30 we were (happily) on the boat! We enjoyed a welcome drink while getting a brief introduction about the 2 night cruise and the Vietnamese version of safety guidelines (so…none). We were able to check in to our cabin then.

We had a late lunch while cruising in Ha Long Bay. After about 1.5hrs, we anchored at Titop Island area. Here we had the option to join in on a guided visit to Sung Sot Cave (also called Amazing Cave) which is one of the biggest caves in Ha Long Bay. It was a pretty epic cabe once we got into it but the insane crowds were almost enough to turn us off even trying. We could also climb to the peak of Titop Island for a panoramic view of the bay or relax on the beach…both again came with about 3000 jerk tourists all shoving each other out of the way. We found far more enjoyment from watching the sunset back on the boat with happy hour.

Evenings on the boat have a few options – we can select a communal or private dinner followed by karaoke, cooking classes, relaxing/napping or even join in squid fishing with the crew. After the crew tried to kill me with a full shellfish menu (lucky me…) we watched some of the kids squid fish while we waited for the toddler in the cabin next to use to finally decide to sleep.

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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!

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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!

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Margaret River Day 3: Canal Rocks, Smiths Beach and Passel Estate

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Mel

Today initially intended to have breakfast at the Margaret River Bakery (directly opposite our accomodation) however the line was literally in the car park and I wasn’t waiting that long. We went next door to the very cute Mosaic Cafe which had perfectly good breakfast snacks and coffee….and no line!

The we headed off for a 30 min drive to Canal Rocks. Now, Canal Rocks was not on my original list of things to do as it has been closed for long periods over the last few years due to extensive storm damage. I saw on a travel page late last night some recent photos and it seems open so I thought we could try! Thousands of years of the Indian Ocean surging and crashing against this section of granite coastline has chiselled out a narrow channel between the granite rocks. A short boardwalk has been built to cross on to the rocks and you can climb around on them.

We got there around 10:40am so it was fairly quiet but by the time we climbed back an hour later it was getting busy and passing people on the boardwalk was squishy.

B went full mountain goat and climbed all the way out, I took it a lot slower (and utilised the help of a dad who was getting his 5yo daughter across) but made it most of the way! Well, until literally the last 5 metres back to the boardwalk when I slipped and bashed my knee.

Suggestions for Canal Rocks:

⁃ wear sneakers rather than thongs. You can do it in thongs but once you get to the end you will feel more comfortable on the rocks in sneakers. There is nowhere to swim here (just a little bit of an area to paddle around the rocks) so we left our thongs in the car and bath swapped shoes in the car park

⁃ If you are not willing to climb on the rocks the boardwalk is very short and you’ll end up sort of standing on a small rock, blocking everyone’s way. So be prepared to either climb on then or go back to avoid bottle necks

⁃ Be prepared for sun. So much sun. Haha this is Australia in summer so slip, slop, slap!

⁃ There is a public toilet here and a fairly large car park so lots of space

Canal Rocks is only a 4 min drive past iconic Smith’s Beach so we stopped there for a dip on the way back. It was a very nice looking beach but we both agreed we preferred Hamelin Bay yesterday.

Driving back towards Margaret River along Caves Road there were a few wineries so we stopped in at Vasse Felix (the oldest winery in the region) for a cellar door tasting. B liked the wine so much he bought a whole bunch to take home! It’s a beautiful venue and one day we will have to return to try their award winning restaurant.

We snuck into the Margaret River Bakery before it shut at 2pm for a snack – the bacon toastie was pretty good but we agreed not worth waiting an hour in the crazy line from this morning.

We then got changed and headed off to Passel Estate, a small family owned winery who also dedicate part of their land to western ringtail possum rehabilitation after bushfires. We paid for an experience where we got to your the vineyard, see the possum rehab area, have cheese and wine and recorded a complimentary bottle as well as donating a chunk of the ticket to their possum rehabilitation program. We got a bonus extended tour further into the bush to see some 200+ year old grass trees as well!

Dinner tonight was some chocolate from Margaret river chocolate company and B ate some cheese from the dairy farm. I was full from the delicious cheese platter at Passel Estate!

P.S. The mask mandate is back as of last night and applies to us so we have been wearing those indoors (as required) but they are not required outside.

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Margaret River Day 2: Hamelin Bay, Boranup Forest, Marg River Food!

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Mel

Ah, glorious sleep ins with no dogs waking us up in search of breakfast.

Initially we were going to go on a bit of an adventure today to Boranup Forest and Hamelin Bay but the weather was very overcast so instead we decided to visit some attractions closer to town and see what the clouds did. This had the double advantage of me also keeping my poor, sad, day 2 sunburn indoors to start off with.

We started the morning at Margaret River Chocolate Company. You best believe chocolate samples for breakfast was a thing! I do remember coming here both with my primary school camp 20+ years ago and with some friends around 2005ish – the building certainly stands out as distinct. The fresh banana waffles were delicious.

After the chocolate factory, we headed to the Margaret River Dairy Company. I’ve actually never been here before and didn’t know much about it but on arrival, realised we regularly buy their Camembert cheese at our local shops. While there we learnt that they still practice traditional cheese making approaches from back in the 1800s and also bought a cheese sample pack. I had to have my photo taken with the “cow-ntess” of course!

After stocking up on chocolate and cheese, we returned to the holiday apartment. We decided that the clouds looked like they were going away so changed into bathers and drove the 30 mins south to Hamelin Bay which is a gorgeous beach. There were amazing rock formations (geology nerd here) and wild stingrays that came in to the shallows for pats and treats! It was a bit windy so there were not heaps of stingrays but enough I got some photos and had a little touch before I panicked and moved away haha. The stingrays usually only come in if it is calm so they were a bit skittish and hard to photograph.

On the way back from Hamelin Bay we were going to stop at the Boranup Forest lookout but this was completely closed (both viewing stations) due to the recent bushfire. The drive through the area was very sad as we saw all the burnt out areas and closed off roads that went for kilometres.

We stopped at Xanadu Winery on the way back into Margaret River and they were hosting a Sunday session! There was wine tastings, snacks, wine by the glass, live music and outdoor games for people to play. We did a tasting, bought some wine and enjoyed the shade for awhile. I also patted ALL THE DOGS so once again, dogs win over people.

Dinner tonight was only a 2 min walk and was at the highly recommended La Scarpetta Trattoria. Again, I booked ahead using their online booking system since I wasn’t sure how busy this time of year gets down here – while we were there they turned multiple people away so booking ahead was a good call! This is not the cheapest place to eat ($30 a main) but the food was fresh and tasty.

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Day 1 & 2 Patong Beach, Phuket (Thailand)

Posted on January 18, 2019 by Mel

The travel time to get here was nuts! 23hrs from start to finish to get from Canberra to Phuket….at least we had Air Asia flat beds on the longer legs though. Oh, and I got to cuddle assistance dogs at the international check in area in Sydney!!

We finally arrived in Phuket at 10:30pm local time last night and it was a one hour drive to Patong Beach, we used a private car hire through the hotel for that which cost a bit more than a taxi but was easier after that long travelling and better for Bs motion sickness. We are staying at the Burasari Resort which seems to have the best of both worlds – a 30 second stroll to the beach and 10 min walk to the infamous Banglor Road! The resort itself is very quiet although there is a fair amount of “street noise” since we are so close to the main bars and beach. The hotel has a few pool areas but only about 20 pool lounges which were all taken by 10am. Some rooms have their own pool wade in areas from the balcony which is pretty awesome….I might consider that next time.

The room we are in is a “mood suite” and it is gorgeous, we get a free mini bar refilled each day as well as a private deck spa. I bought my own bubble bath along and may have used a little too much today….

After a day of relaxing in the spa and reading, we had some mid afternoon drinks at one of the hotel bars (Misty Bar) which was very quiet and had comfy lounges. I had a number of delicious pineapple mojitos complete with pineapple love hearts.

We then for a walk along the beach to watch the sunset and to explore Banglor Road for food and entertainment.

We wandered past quite a few bars full of very…boisterous….Australians and decided to just grab some food and then come back again another night. We had yummy chicken sticks at the local food market. Banglor Road is full of tourists, bar spruikers, locals selling wares and is possibly the first place in my life where I’ve had someone walk up to me and offer a “free fucking show” with an emphasis on the verb meaning of that middle word! Maybe another time….

Cocktail count: two delicious pineapple mojitos

Mini bar damage: destroyed (picture to follow with hotel review)

Tomorrow: sleep in, massage, cocktails, pool/spa and maybe a Muay Thai show

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Fiji time!!

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Mel

Today was the last day of school for semester one, 2018 and tomorrow we fly to Fiji for a full five nights of glorious relaxation! When we decided to do a relaxation trip I settled on Fiji pretty quickly (only a 3hr flight from Sydney) and immediately started researching for my two main requirements – a swim up bar and an ocean front villa or room. Turns out those are damn hard to find in peak season! I also initially had “childfree” as a main requirement but all the strictly adults only places needed another flight from the domestic airport so B vetoed them this time around and we just aimed for a smaller resort without a huge kids club to attract families. I’ll come back to you another time LikuLiku Lagoon Resort.

We are staying at the Doubletree Resort by Hilton which is on Sonaisali Island. It’s very close to the main island and is only a 25 min taxi ride from the international airport with a 2 min boat ride across the inlet.

We have booked to stay in a King Premium Ocean Bure (hut) facing onto the beach. The pricing was exceptionally good (this whole trip is cheaper than what it cost us to go on what we politely refer to as “the Perth trip from hell” in 2016) and the inside of the bure looks amazing!

We have one short day trip planned to visit the mud baths and the garden of the sleeping giants but other than that it’s basically all about relaxing together, drinking fruity drinks with umbrellas in them and frolicking in the water while Canberra freezes through -5C temps. Here are some photos of my recent suffering – working on a farm school site requires multiple layers, thermals, a beanie and good gloves at the moment!!

The doggos (yes – note the plural! We have formally adopted Jet as of two days ago) will have a family of pet sitters coming to stay – highly recommend Emma Lily Grace Services in Canberra – and the big babies won’t even miss us a tiny bit while they have kids to dote on them and give them all the pats they want.

Fiji, here we come!! 🏝 🍸 🍹 🏖 😎

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Easter weekend at the NSW south coast: Tomakin, Broulee, Batehaven and Batemans Bay

Posted on April 2, 2018 by Mel

We headed to the NSW south coast this weekend for our second stay in Tomakin. We chose Tomakin, NSW again because it is a small town and they have a wonderful 24hr off leash dog beach. It’s also only a 2hr (with good traffic) drive from Canberra.

Coming out of Canberra on Good Friday we didn’t really understand just how bad the traffic would be! This was obviously what people meant when they talked about “coast traffic” and we got stuck at Braidwood for a good 15 mins and then for at least 40mins trying to get into Batemans Bay. No way around it unfortunately! Coming home we left early and missed most of it, with just a short delay in Braidwood.

This time we stayed at “Mutleys on Deakin” in Tomakin and it was amazing! A huge, dog friendly home. Very affordable as well with a 7 min walk to the beach and to the local social club for meals. As you can tell from the video below, Bear was pretty excited! Accomodation link: http://wagsawaypetholidays.com.au/mutleys-deakin-tomakin.html

Every morning and evening we walked on the off lead beach and met lots of locals (and lots of Canberrans) with their beautiful dogs. Bear made special friends with Leo the Ridgeback.

This time as part of our stay we had a wander over to the Tomago River as well, which feeds into the beach we walk along with Bear. It was a beautiful area, very calm and still, but there were boats loading off the ramp and lots of shore fishing so it wasn’t really Bear-friendly. Looked stunning at sunset though, even on a cloudy day.

We also took the opportunity over the 4 days to visit Bernie’s in Batehaven again (excellent fish and chips) as well as check out the Birdland Animal Park. I read a lot of reviews beforehand so was prepared going in that it was mostly a rescue and rehab place that was small. Within the first five minutes I got to hold a baby wombat so I thought it was the best zoo visit in ages! I didn’t read anything about the wombat cuddles online so I think we just got lucky 🙂

We also saw lots of other animals (goats, alpacas, many birds, deer, kangaroos, echidnas, wallabies, koalas, more wombats…) and fed nearly all of them. I had one particularly memorable run in with a peacock which tried to steal my bag of food and then chased me. I of course ran away screaming – as you do.

It was $29 each to get in but as we got to hold the baby wombat and hand feed lots of other animals in a quiet, non-crowded setting we felt it was well worth it.

We also stopped in at Broulee Beach for a walk on Easter Sunday. Tomakin is about 15 mins out of Batemans Bay and Broulee is another 5 mins along the coast. It’s a town with few amenities but beautiful beaches and walks.

To finish this post off, here’s some “Bear in action” shots for his fans 👍😃

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Moreton Island Bridesmaids Cruise: Day 2 BOAT TIME!

Posted on January 10, 2018 by Mel

We met up with Tracey just before lunch and headed to the embarkation point. We got lucky and this one leaves from Sydney Harbour rather than White Bay Terminal! Easier to get to and pretty views.

Our room is 5083 and is midship and roomier than we thought it would be for four of us. I have one of the singles, poor Lana drew the short straw and got the top bunk!

After boarding and the mandatory evacuation drill, we headed up to the “adults pool” to hang out and wait to leave. I promptly got sunburnt and we also got delayed by 3hrs from leaving so we went in search of an early dinner (Angelos) before returning to watch the departure through a crazy storm from Deck 12.

We went to the 8pm show performance of “off the charts” and then listened to jazz in the Blue Room until bed time.

Cocktail count: A few on boarding, a few more at the pool, wine at dinner and then a few more afterwards! I really like the toblerones 🙂

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