On our first full day in Perth, day 6, we decided to do something just plain fun and for the kids. We ponied up the money for Adventure World. Adventure World is mostly a water park with several kid friendly rides and some adult only rides. I decided not to take the camera as it would have been one more thing to carry. We arrived shortly after opening time and rode all the "dry" rides we could. We had to skip a few as Jay and I were the only ones tall enough. Sam was not tall enough to ride one of the rides, but it worked out as it was next to a ride that he was the only one small enough to ride. I rode very few rides. Not because I don't like to ride, but because it makes me really ill to ride anything other than a roller coaster. One of the rides that I rode made me quite a bit green and it was a family friendly ride. Moving quickly in circles just makes me ill. We had our usual picnic lunch and then changed into out swimmers. We then spent the next 3 1/2 hours playing in the water. It was a very hot and sunny day so all went pretty well. Unfortunately, Sam was only tall enough to ride one of the tall waterslides, and then only with an adult. He went on it twice with Jay. We stayed until the park closed at 5 and then headed back to the 2 bedroom villa and made dinner. We ate picnic lunches and made dinner at the villa or cottage almost every night in order to keep down our costs. Over the entire vacation, we only ate lunch out twice and dinner out once.
On day 7, we headed to Fremantle. Fremantle is the major port in Perth and is supposed to be a "must see" attraction. I'm sure that it is nice; however, it's not very kid friendly.
We did go to the Western Australia Maritime Museum and the Shipwreck Gallery Museum. I thought they were both really well done museums.
 |
| Confiscated Indonesian fishing boat. Taken because it was fishing in Australian waters without permission. |
 |
| Tom, attempting the rowing machine |
 |
| On the rowing machine and laughing at Jay |
We also visited the Roundhouse, which is Western Australia's oldest public building. It was intended and used as a prison.
On day 8, we drove up to Yanchep National Park. It was supposed to be a day filled with walking, hiking, etc. We were expecting a much nicer park. I think that the park has seen nicer days. I forgot my camera on this day. The park is supposed to have a large lake that you can boat on, but the lake is dried up. There is a cave at the park and we visited it, but it was a shallow, small cave and not much to it. The day was sorta disappointing.
Day 9 was spent doing a kid activity again. We visited the Maze. The Maze has a large timber maze, two pine tree mazes, a right turn only maze, a left turn only maze, garden chess, disc golf, mini golf, emus, kangaroos, and birds. We had an enjoyable day. There was a large bird that had learned to talk, named Henry. Sam says that Henry was the best part of vacation.
On day 9, we drove up to the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles are large columns of limestone that rise out of the desert. No one is quite sure how the Pinnacles have formed, but they are there. It is also a little strange as the desert is very near or touching the beach. The beach has very white sand and the desert is very tan.
 |
| The Pinnacles range in height from a few centimeters to several meters. |
 |
| Tom (blue shirt) and Sam (yellow shirt) walking on the Pinnacle Desert Trail |
 |
| The much lighter sand in the background is the beach. The fuzziness of the beachy area is due to the very strong winds that were blowing sand everywhere. |
 |
| Jay and I both thought this formation was interesting because of its shape, its isolation and its little tree growing from the top. |
Day 10 was spent doing a kid activity again. We visited the Maze. The Maze has a large timber maze, two pine tree mazes, a right turn only maze, a left turn only maze, garden chess, disc golf, mini golf, emus, kangaroos, and birds. We had an enjoyable day. There was a large bird that had learned to talk, named Henry. Sam says that Henry was the best part of vacation.
Day 11 started out with a few loads of laundry, and then we decided to explore inner city Perth. We had the plan to visit three places, but never made it past the first. We spent the entire day at Scitech. Scitech is a small science discovery centre and planetarium. We paused at lunch time to eat a picnic in the car before heading back inside. The kids really enjoyed it. We missed going to Kings Park and the Perth Mint that day.
Day 12 was Good Friday and our scheduled day to visit Rottnest Island. It was a bad day to go because it was a busy day to go. We were unable to rent bicycles (no cars on the island) because they were all rented out. We rode the ferry over at 9:30 in the morning and stayed until 6 pm. First we walked.
Rottnest Island was used as an Aboriginal penal colony and is an island about 18 km from Fremantle. The island has many inland lakes and is home to the quokka.
The quokka is a small marsupial that looks just like a large cat-sized rat. It hops like a rabbit and is only found on Rottnest Island. There are many, many quokkas on the island.
After walking about 7 km, we arrived at the top of Oliver Hill. Oliver Hill is where Australia dug in and installed a 9.2 inch gun in the late 1930's. It is the only gun from WW II that is still in place today.
We paid the $15 for the hour long guided tour that showed the gun and the tunnel system underneath. Our volunteer guide was very informative. The gun was placed on Rottnest to help protect the port of Fremantle. It was very difficult to place the gun because all the hills are made of sand. Tons and tons of concrete had to be poured into the hill after the sand was dug away. The gun was never fired in anger, but it helped protect all the American submarines that used Fremantle as a base during WW II.
After our tour, we managed to snag a free ride down the hill on the train. We then walked to one of the beaches and swam for the next two hours, until it was time to head back. We walked about 8 km throughout the day, and we didn't even see half of the island.
Saturday was our final day/travel day. After packing up and cleaning our villa, we drove through Kings Park. We regret that we didn't get to see more of it. We should have skipped Yanchep and done Kings instead. We then quickly went to the Perth Mint. There, we got to learn all about the Western Australia gold rush, got to see the world's second largest gold nugget, got to try to lift a gold bar, and we got to see a worker pour a gold bar. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the mint. We wish the mint would have talked more about actually making coins and money in the mint, instead just the focus on gold, but still a really neat tour.
We then boarded our flight and flew to Sydney and drove 3 hours home.
It was a very enjoyable trip overall!
