Sunday, January 30, 2011

Margaret River

We had an extremely indulgent day today. We started off by going to mass in the most beautiful church. It's all light stone, wood and big open windows. We were immediately spotted as newbies, and the priest knew we were Irish after just one sentence! 


Then we went on a winery tour. We got to go into all the different parts, and taste about ten or twelve different wines. Nyom. We met Pauline and Paddy for lunch, and then went to the fudge factory, where we got free tastings. We followed this with a trip to the chocolate factory. Where we also got some free tastings. Is anyone surprised that we both have heartburn now???

The church in Margaret River

The grounds of Leeuwin Estate. 



The chocolate factory. John is hiding!



Margaret River


Saturday, January 29, 2011

Margaret River WA

Yesterday we left Perth (fortunately - the temperature there today was 40 degrees, with rain - not pleasant). It was a long enough drive down, about 3 hours altogether. We stopped for lunch at a cafĂ© and the less said about the better. Further down the road we stopped off at Bussleton, to meet Pauline and Paddy. We walked down part of the jetty, and had a good aul' chat. 






Today - well they say a picture says a 1000 words. So today is mainly based on photos. Emily drove us to see some caves, down to the coast and to a national park to climb a tree, which unfortunately we couldn't climb due to the current Cyclone warning. :( 


Below: A few of the formations in the cave. 









The Indian ocean is to the right of the lighthouse, the Southern ocean is to the left. 



Very windy here. 



Yep - that's a bird on John's head!


The tree we wanted to climb. No harness or anything, though there is a net around the spikes, but you can't really see it here. 

Kangaroo!!!!

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Australia Day and Rottnest Island

Yesterday was Australia day. We had planned to go to Freemantle yesterday morning but neither of us were feeling to well so we left that out. I headed into Perth with Emily to meet Sinead, a friend from school. We had coffee, and then we headed down to the riverside for the fireworks. We were quite early, so we just lay around on the grass, The atmosphere was brilliant - just like a big party, and there were loads of planes. The fireworks were pretty amazing! I tried to get photos, but it wasn't easy. They let off fireworks over the river, and also from some buildings behind us. It was very cool to see the fireworks reflected in the buildings!







Today we went to Rottnest Island, a small Island near to Perth. We got the ferry over, and had a few hours to spend there. The place was gorgeous. We used the bus service going round the Island and took the tour of the lighthouse in the middle of the island. We also visited the church on the Island, to say a prayer for my Uncle, who died a year ago today. 
There were heaps of beaches, so in the afternoon we just picked one and headed into the water. The Island is home to little marsupials called Quokkas, which don't exist anywhere else in the world. They have no natural enemies as dogs, cats or foxes are not permitted on the Island, and they are very very tame, and sooo cute.











Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Perth

We had an overnight flight, and arrived in Perth nice and early. However passport control had other ideas - the entire passport checking system for the whole of Aus crashed just before we got through, leaving us standing in a queue for ages. We finally got to the other side, and were very kindly picked up by Emily who is acting as our host, driver and guide while we are here. (She is treating us soooo good!!).

The first thing I noticed about Aus is the smell - it smells very nice here. And the sky is really blue.

After a little snooze we headed out to see the pinnacles - some random limestone things sticking up out of the desert - very unusual and very pretty! It was quite windy and we got blasted by sand. I also managed to get sunburnt in the car. We had a two hour drive there and back and I loved seeing the countryside.