Australia Day 9-- rottnest island

Sarah and I were up and out of the house by 715 to catch our 815 ferry from Fremantle to rottnest island. Rottnest is home to cockers. Marsupial rodents that are about the size of a basketball. And only live on Western Australia. Rottnest is a 20 minute ferry ride out in the Indian Ocean and is free of cars. You have to hike or bike the entire island. It has numerous different beaches and some homesteaders. There is a general store and a dome (nice coffee hot breakfast food chain) as well as some original homes and a hotel complete with beach bar. It was one of the original English settlements and it's name stands for rats nest island because of the cockers.

We arrived early to Fremantle so Sarah drive me around the town complete with the coffee street and the Fremantle prison which was in use until 1993. The original prisoners were responsible for building it. We then parked the car and got our boarding passes printed in time and boarded the ferry sitting at a 6top with a family if four.


Arrived to rottnest and headed straight to dome for breakfast and a chai. Had the breakfast wrap and a large chai latte. Mmm. Sarah had the big breakfast (eggs bacon mushroom toast tomato). After we set out for the lighthouse met a group from Ireland (Sarah called their accents) and down along the shoreline. Basin beach is the most popular beach, but it was rocky and packed. So we kept going to the next bay which had the gorgeous white sand beach some boats and tons of flies. (Houseflies). I laid out my towel and began soaking up some rays. Sarah went for a walk while I got my tan on. After a few hours (and 9 dead flies later--these flies are dumb flies, I killed them all with my hand as they do not feel you coming and just sit there--and I had hand sanitizer for afterwards) we started the trek back to the main side and the pub. Had a cider both an apple and a pear cider we order the Italian share plate with a bunch of different meats on it and just took in the atmosphere of the island before our 430 ferry ride home.



Once we got back, Sarah drove me around to see the sights of Perth. Along the water front and up to kings hill to overlook the city. Gorgeous. Then we went and picked up Jackie, her roommate who was watching deadly 60. You know. Steve Irwin like dude who travels Australia in search of deadly things. They were catching tiger snakes in Perth. (Freak out) we then went back to Fremantle to the microbrew and enjoyed two plates of nachos and a pizza (and an IPA) outside on the patio. The ambiance is something that northbound needs to recreate. It was quite nice.

It's funny, there is absolutely no tipping of servers in Australia and you usually have to order your food or drinks and then have a seat with a number and they'll being your food to you. This place had table service but we had to pay for it immediately when we ordered.

After dinner we walked the shoreline admired the warning crescent moon over the water and stared at Orion (who is upside down in the Southern Hemisphere). Then returned home to Sarah's, swapped pictures watched two episodes of buck wild and went to bed. Off to Alice springs in the am.

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Australia Day 8--Perth

Arrived at 745 am to find Sarah waiting for me at baggage claim. Oh! I had to wait for my check in at the airport because I scored an emergency exit row window for the three hour flight :-) yes! And I had to pay 40$ in taxi fare to get to the airport not yes. Anyway.

Sarah brought me back to her house where I got a hot shower and to unpack a few of my things. I also did my laundry and we hung it out to dry (life lesson).  Bless her heart, she knew I was couchsurfing so she gave me her bed. Anyway, we made our plans for the weekend vineyards Saturday rottnest island Sunday and departed for some breakfast, coffee, and the caversham wildlife park to feed a kangaroo and pet a koala.

Stopped in midtown for a breakfast omelet and a chai. Then made our way to he animal park. 25$. You could only per the koalas until 1 so we worked our way there. But we fr distracted by the kangaroo part. Actually fed some kangaroos. Saw one with a Joey as well. They were quite small for kangaroos but I don't think I'd wanna be in an enclosure with a big kangaroo, it's like the tigers in Thailand, I'll hold the baby others all day but get me out of the big ones.

After the kangaroos we went to pet the koala. Super soft. They were all sleeping as they typically sleep for atleast twenty hours a day.

After that we went back to the other enclosures. Saw a kookaburra (sitting in an old gum tree....) and a dingo (who does not look capable of stealing a baby), some cockatoos, an emu and I'm sure a few more Australian animals I am forgetting about. Then we headed to the margarette river chocolate favored for some free chocolate samplings.

Then the vineyard your began. Started at a friend vineyard. Meh. Has three samples and moved on. Across the street was a vineyard where we got 16 samples for 5$. Our server was rather stressed. Would pour is a glass basically throw it at us and run away. Thy was until a group of three girls (mom and two daughter in laws) and their sober driver son showed up and started cracking jokes and really loosened up the server. Sarah and I had a great laugh. After we went to a brewery and ordered a meat and cheese tray? Which I had been craving since the beginning of the trip and a hefe.  We decided to go to one more vineyard, the ugly duckling,  sure enough we pulled in and our friends of four were bellied up with a bottle themselves. We invited ourselves to join them ordered a bottle of white and continued to shoot the breeze until the vineyard closed down (a half hour late because of us). The group are kiwis. Meaning they are from New Zealand. The girls are married to the oldest and youngest son and then the boys mom was with as well. The stories that were told are definitely nowhere near appropriate to be discussed on here. But. After we closed down the vineyard they invites us back to the moms caravan in the caravan park. She lives in a camper. And rv actually. And so Sarah and I joined and the stories and wine continued to flow until the wee hours of the night. Best night yet. Meet some random people run into them again. It's like fate we had to spend the rest of the night having the times of our lives. :-) made it back to Sarah's and I was out just before my head even hit the pillow.
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Australia Day 7-- Adelaide

Arrived to the airport after having to catch a cab to the bus station with enough time to drop my bags and buy some breakfast. Boarded and passed out against the window.

Arrived into Adelaide and found my way to the bus stop where I waited about 30 minutes for a bus to brin me to the shopping center where tony was going to pick me up. After only about 3 hours of sleep I was exhausted. Got the bus facebook was tony and waited at the shopping center about 20 minutes for him. We dropped my bags at his house and headed to the city center for a look through the market.

The plan was to tour the am and make some dinner and camp out on the beach and watch the sunset. The problem was it was only about 60 degrees which is way too cold to swim. So we went to the indoor market complete with fresh everything. Grabbed a coffee, which woke me up a little. Picked up some tomatoes and onions and bread to make bruschetta later then went back to semaphore which is the suburb right along the beach where tony lives. We stopped for a flatbread for breakfast complete with eggs ham cheese and aioli. Mmmm. The. I was ready for a power nap. It's cold out anyway and I did see the center of Adelaide. 

Slept for about an hour and a half then we decided to enjoy the afternoon by listening to pandora and watching some cricket while having some lemonade vodkas. Went to the beach for sunset and it was horribly windy. This beach is very shallow so it keeps the great whites away. Just the baby ones can make it that shallow. The rest wait beyond the drop off. (Yup. Did not go swimming)

After sunset we called it pretty early as I had a 630 am flight to catch so we set up my taxi to the airport and called it a night.

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Australia Day 6-- great ocean road

Woke up at 930 with a slight headache. Showered and packed my day pack to get picked up five blocks from phills apartment but first stopped for a chai and a breakfast sandwich to eat along the way.

Met the bus to the office and switches to the appropriate bus there before setting out on the fourteen hour excursion. It took about an hour before we hit the great ocean road. From there we went through three small towns angleseas, Lorne, and Apollo bay. We stopped and took some breathtaking pictures of the shoreline. We even had lunch provided in Lorne at a beach. Met Nur and her sister from London. They are now living in Sydney and just seeing what else Australia has to offer. Super nice people.

We made it to the otway light house after driving through an eucalyptus forest dense with koala.  The views were gorgeous and the lighthouse was erected in 1848 after a few shipwrecks. Grabbed a caramel piece (with chocolate frosting. Oh so good and calorie packed) then made a couple stops to see the koalas and then to the twelve apostles. We had 30 minutes to capture the pics in the daylight before we ventures onward for our 9$ fresh fish and chips and lac ard cove before coming back to the twelve apostles for our sunset viewing.

The fish and chips were quite good (and plentiful) and the lac ard cove was spectacular. In the late 1800s a ship crashed along the shore and two line survivors were swept into the cove complete with 200 foot rock cliffs surrounding the entire thing. The dude was able to climb out and go for help to rescue the lady.   Absolutely breathtaking pictures.

We then hurried off back to the twelve apostles where we as a group decided to go down Gibson stairs and watch the sunset through two of the apostles from the beach. It was a gorgeous sunset. Pinks and yellows and oranges.

We then loaded in the bus back to Melbourne which took three hours. Was dropped off right infringe of phills house. Packed my bags. Took a three hour nap and off to the airport for Adelaide. 

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Australia Day 5-- Melbourne

Woke up at 630 am and packed up the rest of my things, and woke up sean to take me to the airport for my 9am flight. Got there by 7 am and waited in a half hour line to check my bag. Good thing I paid online the morning for my bag as I guess it turns wicked expensive. After I do that I was queued through security. Did not need to take off my shoes. Did not need to take my liquids out, did not need to take my jacket off. It was rather nice. Also, no one besides the baggage check lady looked at my passport. Ran into Natalie and her friends. (The one I sat next to on the flight from lax to Syd. ) they are headed to cairns, ate breakfast with them and said so long. We are on the sam returning flight to lax so we will swap stories. Got my seat and passed out.

Woke up after touchdown texted phill my Couchsurfer letting him know I arrived. Hopped the bus into the city center and waited about thirty minutes for the free tram to get the ten blocks to his house. Had I not had my backpack I would have walked it.


Phill was slightly hungover from the nye party and when I arrived I voted for an hour nap before seeing the city. Woke up at 2 and we departed for the city. It was drizzling. Stopped for breakfast (ham and cheese omelet and a chai ) then decided what better way to kick off the year than doing a pub crawl (self created) throughout Melbourne. It was a great time. We first had to start with a bloody then had microbrews some even from his hometown.


After awhile we picked up a bottle of wine and stopped at a restaurant in Chinatown as had dumplings (potstickers) and phill started informing me of the drop bears and other deadly creatures there are here. Apparently I should have packed some denim jeans because the snakes fangs cannot penetrate them. Maybe my gentleman host in Alice springs will loan me a pair. Haha. Drop bears are marsupials similar to koala bears but bigger and they hang out above walkways waiting for warm bodies to walk underneath them, then they drop out of the tree and go right for the neck. (I think I'm being gullible, but I did not do any research) apparently vegimight a bread spread that locals love and is very salty can be used to ward off drop bears. As is putting toothpaste behind the ears.

After Chinatown we headed back to phills (as he has to work in the am and I got no sleep the night before). Poured a lowball of scotch and put on Topgun and I fell sleep. Great ocean road trip tomorrow!

Australia Day 4-- New Year's Eve in Sydney!

Woke up around 10 am and showered quick before joining sean and his friend Gretchen for a coffee and a stay at the beach. We first had breakfast at his garden consisting of Greek yogurt and fresh berries.

After breakfast we went to rock dale beach where we could see the airplanes taking off from Sydney airport. Today, I applied SPF 50 after frying the tops of my calves and the areas touching my bikini. Ouch. We laid on the beach for a good four or five hours. It was very relaxing. Not a surfer beach like bondi and it was also in the area known as little Lebanon. People were setting up their blankets to watch the 9pm fireworks display while we were there too.

At about 5 we decided to head back to Sean's and shower and get ready for our New Year's Eve night out. We decided to catch the 9pm fireworks display at rock dale and then head up to observatory hill to watch the midnight Sydney fireworks. But first a drink from a townie bar complete with live karaoke. (I still have not eaten since my yogurt this am. Dying of hunger.....)

Had a coopers ale then we drive right up to the rock dale beach which we arrived at 858 and parked illegally. This firework display lasted a good half hour. Then hopped back in the car to drive into Sydney fr the fireworks. Stopped at darling harbor and picked up sushi pizza and a water for the display.

Made it up to observatory hill and a car had pulled out right as we arrived. We got prime street parking. This was the beginning of our lucky night. The queue into observatory hill was about 30 people long as it had reched it's capacity. So we headed down closer to the bridge only to be barricaded off. Luckily, sean knew the ranger (police officer) that was blocking off this section and she let us through. How lucky!!! The people in this section had been waiting for hours. And it's 1105pm and we slip right in. Next is the battle to find a spot to sit where we can see the bridge and the opera house. Fear not, we meandered our way all the way down the hill to the front side of the bridge and we could clearly see both the bridge and opera house. Found a spot in the grass Inbetween some other parties and had a seat and waited the thirty minutes for show time.

Happy new year

Skipped a barricade and weaves our way through thousands of people to watch the fireworks underneath the harbor bridge! Happy new year from Sydney Australia