Travel Diary - Sherry

Back to Melbourne!

I am trying my best to remember what happened in those few days. so my recollection might some broken here and there.

Day 1 - 13 May
Touched down in Melbourne and drove straight to Wilsons Prom. I was sleeping the entire ride and Erin had to do all the driving as I was so exhausted from juggling between house renovation, my new job, my old job, and my own piano lessons. We went to grab a bite around Erin's workplace before going on the road. We arrived at the motel a few hours later at around 3-4pm and I just keep sleeping whenever I could possibly sleep. Woke up for dinner then went back to sleep again till the next morning.

Day 2 - 14 May
Went to hike Mount Oberon for a view not as awesome as Grampians. But it was ocean facing this time. So still thumbs up. The hike is in a zig zag form so prepare for some steeping in certain turns. We went to squeaky beach as well. Was really curious about what squeaky beach actually meant. The sand squeaks! When you apply friction from your shoe against the sand. Its cool how mother nature is always full of surprises. We headed back after the hike + walks around Wilson Prom. So guess what, yes I slept all my way back to Erin's place and waking up just for lunch and slept after dinner again. Never felt this tired before. But was so rejuvenated after. ;D

Day 3 - 15 May
We headed into the city as I am finally awake and I wanna go walk around and do some shopping. So we walked around. We had some not that great lunch and Erin treated me to some good beef steak. Didn't manage to actually buy anything this time but had fun going on a date like this.

Day 4 - 16 May
Erin's graduation. The reason why I went to Melb this time. Its nice to see that we are both stepping into the workforce around the same time and trying our best to make things work. :D Hopefully things will go on smoothly and we can figure it all out together. So proud of you. Went to did some last min shopping at Fountain Gate as I was flying off the next day. It's never easy.


Day 5 - 17 May
Departure back to Singapore. Took Emirates, so had some time to get some breakfast before heading to the airport. Airport is always the place where the happiest hellos are from and the hardest goodbyes are made.

Will be heading back to Melb in October for Erin's birthday. Might be heading to Sydney as mentioned by Erin, or just great ocean road again. Till then :)

*I will upload the pictures on another separate occasion.

Hey yo. This is a way overdue post from January. The trip basically consist of shopping, massage, meet up with some friends there and tailoring some business wear for work. 

Before I start talking about perth, I wanna say that this trip was really random, even more random than NZ. It was planned a month prior to Perth. I did not have many days beforehand to plan it thoroughly. Had only a few days before I flew off to Melb to really plan it.

So my main aim in heading to Perth, was basically for some quokkas, then see how different Perth and Melbourne and Tasmania is. Perth was unexpectedly dry, much drier than Melb or Tassie. In that saying, we got pretty lucky with the weather with clear sky every single day. HOWEVER, the sun was burning so bad there that all of us got sunburn. My sunburn even mutated into skin rashes on my arms. Pretty scary. The only reason I can think of my arms being so burnt was due to the long hours of driving everyday.

Another thing was we are consistently being pestered by houseflies throughout our entire trip.

Day 1 - 13 Dec 2016

Flight to Perth was at 13:10, but we took off late and there was a delayed and we touched down only at 18:45, which was a little way out of scheduled time. So we cleared custom and went to our rental car after 5hours + of flight. Lucky for us though, the flight there was pretty empty, so we could all get an entire row to ourselves each. Other than the fact that there are plenty of kids running around in the plane, creating nuisance.

So, after we touched down, we drove straight to the supermarket to get grocery items before it closed then checking in to our Airbnb apartment. It was a really nice apartment, felt new. Although there were spider webs here and there. Think everyone enjoy the apartment a lot. So we had out late dinner and rest for the night.













































Day 2 - 14 Dec 2016

We woke up early and drove down to Hilary boat harbour to hop on the Rottnest Fast Ferries. Due to the weather forecast, and we thought it will be cold, we dressed in the wrong attire. Could've head down into the sea water if we have took the right stuff there. So we went around the island and I found my quokkas !

Family was amazed with the aussie sea and sky and land. Well bascially everything. Especially after staying in city area for the longest time. Even the trip to Bangkok and Krabi can't beat that. So we stroll around, took the bus and hop on and off places, went for the free quokka tour which lasted less than 30 min then head back to the main land at our ferry time at 4.30pm.









 Family also did pay for the lighthouse tour which I opt out as I have no interest in the history of the lighthouse. So I sat down below the lighthouse with the volunteers and had a chat about Perth with them. Felt like I learnt more information as compared to climbing up the lighthouse. Haha. Well, to each interest is. So after being continuously burnt with no sun screen the entire day. We all turned dark and red. Can't trust the weather forecast anymore. Its warmer than expected and sunnier than expected.

Oh, I got lucky meanwhile as I managed to see some dolphins swimming in the sea on the way back to the mainland. So lucky me?

That night after our meals and laundry, we decided to head out for star gazing. Google maps decided to play a prank on me and made me go the wrong direction into some really wild area, and I saw so many road kills, and animals that were trying to cross the road. Thank god I didn't knock any down. Think I even got lucky, able to see wild deer in Perth. Had never seen a wild one ever before. So we stumble across a road killed wallaby, a few kangaroos, a wild cat, and a wild deer. Just in one night. All this in the wrong road that Google take me to.

So Dad had to use another gps to find our way out and then yeah star gaze for a little. Sisi saw shooting stars for the very first time in her life, and mum was too cold to star gaze and hide in the car the entire time. Dad tried his photography skills which I still have no clue how the pictures turned out to be. Well, the amount of stars and the close-ness proximity can't beat NZ in any way. We saw the shape of the milky way. But because of the full moon, our chances reduced to zero.  Then dad and mum got really tired. So sisi sat in front with me, and screamed whenever she sees a wild animal on the road.

Quokkas around the lighthouse area:
They basically eat anything green.





West End, Rottnest

Day 3 - 15 Dec 2016

Another early day we set off for the Yanchep National Park for some wild Koalas and then to the Pinnacles for the limestones. This two places are run together, so one parking fee will entitle to both places. Then we head down to Lancelin Sand Dune for some sandboarding and everyone entire have some injury or was dead tired from climbing up the sand.


















Oh so after Pinnacles, we had lunch at the Seashells cafe, of course, with flies hovering over us. Made me felt so ew.


The Pinnacles

Lancelin Sandboarding:

The board were rented at $10 each, comes with a chalk to help slide down better.








Day 4 - 16 Dec 2016

We went to the Caversham Wildlife Park which I felt is overrated too. Although we get to interact with the Kangaroos, they are so well fed by visitors, they don't move around at all. Just laze there and wait for food to be served to their mouth. Quite spoilt yeah, those kangaroos. So we continue getting burnt while looking for animals. It felt more like a zoo than a wildlife park/ reserve. The animals are all locked up. Like really locked up.

We managed to take pictures with the Qld koalas too.




Then that very night, we decided to have a better meal and went out for some steak. Sisi and dad had the spare ribs while the rest of us had steak. But it can never beat the one I had in Christchurch. After the meal, we drove into the city and took a look around the city and how it is like. Felt really boring and left for home after.

Went out to star gaze again another time, this time somewhere closer, at Yanchep lagoon. Took some more awesome pictures, while I felt so tired and slept in the car after seeing a few shooting stars.


Such lazy kangaroos:






View towards Perth City:


Day 5 - 17 Dec 2016

This was the day we head down south. We head down to Busselton Jetty then check in to our next apartment then head off for the Boranup Forest, where we got lost in the forest and took a path that seems more like for trekking than for the car. Thank god we got the full insurance. Had some scratches here and there because of that. Then we head down to Hamelin Bay and see some wildlife stingrays. They are HUGE. Although I don't understand why they are swimming around the shores.

Now that I think about it, maybe they are eating(?). Never know what stingrays eat to begin with. My lousy knowledge on the biodiversity. Then after we head down to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse in Augusta, and it was closed. But I walked another path that seems to have been pave before and found a damn awesome view for sunset. So we waited there for about 40 min for the sun to set on our last night before heading back to our antique apartment. It was quite creepy to be honest. There were photos of the ancestors hang on top on the wall and many antiques. I don't think I will dare to stay in the house alone. Although the place was so huge, its like a mansion. There is even canary and all sorts of things there.













Day 6 - 18 Dec 2016

The final day in Perth, marks the final day of my mad driving for consecutively 6 days. It was HELL. I will never do it again. Parents could've drove but I was too scared to let them drive. They give me a heart attack when I watch them drive here and there. So I decided that I should take over the wheels since I can't sleep anyway when they are driving.

So this day, we drove back up to Fremantle and had the fish and chips with some seafood. It was nice. We visited the Fremantle market too as we had some time to spare then left after walking around the tourist populated town. Drove back up to the airport, returned the car and took the plane back to SG.
It was a really draining trip for me. Driving non stop and taking them around. Never felt this tired on a trip since Europe. But I am all good now ! More or less regenerated and ready to start heading back to what everyone call reality.


Oh, will upload more pictures when I can :)
Can't wait till the next trip out again. Blog soon again :)