Raining today. Yes we asked for rain as we had not seen it for such a long time, but OK I have had enough already!

Spent the morning catching up on some work and then when tasting tour was in order. Went to a nut factory, Margaret River Nuts and Cereals, where they grow their own macadamias but also package up heaps of other nuts and make real yummy muesli.

Then off for some chocolate tasting at Margaret River Choc Co. We managed to spend hakf an hour in the cafe with a fresh made hot chocolate and a chocolate fondue, kids very excited. could only taste plain chocolate and their stuff was fairly expensive  ($20 a block) so no purchases here

Then some wine tasting on the way west towards the coast. Visited a small surfing town called Gracetown. Good surf but not much of a beach. Also today with the rain, prob did not see it in the best light.

Found a lovely Olive plantation, Olio Bello, on the way back. Fantastic little place, good products, and yummy sounding food, shame it is not lunch time!!

Back via Cowaramup, which has a cow on a pole, rather odd if you ask me!  

Drove to what we thought would be a cool caravan park on a farm, but no phone reception, so this was not for us. Drove back 30km’s north (yes from where we had just come) to another Farm park (which was also a big 4 park).

Checked in and found there was a cheese factory 5 minutes walk on one side and a winery 5 minutes walk on the other. I think Josie was in heaven for a moment there. Anyway we did take advantage with a walk to both and some very good wine tasting in the afternoon.

Back at the park, met some other fellow travellers with kids of similar ages. Also fed some of the local animals including donkeys, cows, goats, and a vey large bull!

Of course today we visited the Busselton jetty, which is a 2.6 km long jetty. We did all the touristy things, including the lunch on the water front, the train ride out to the end of the jetty (I could have walked faster but all part of the experience), and the underwater observatory.

Big kids and little kids loved it! Also interestingly it was all run and maintained by a community group (including maintenance of the jetty), and what a good job they did.

Seeing the fish, coral, crabs, etc growing naturally was very good. Also seeing the various levels of the jetty, allowed us to see different plant and animal life as we slowly walked down the viewing tower, down to 12 metres deep.

Today drive south to Busselton, and on the way stop at Terri and Graeme’s place for a lovely morning tea. Terri and Graeme have been friends with the Ezzy’s for many years and used to baby sit Josie (a long time ago!)

took rest of day to get down to Busselton.

Stayed at a lovely park  (big4) in Busselton.

Decided to catch the 10:30 ferry as we did not think we would make the 7:30 one! Ok trip across but a bit wobbly, which made Harry, Charlotte, Emily and me) all feel a bit sick. Bit no one managed to feed the fish!

Rottnest was a lovely place, very relaxed and relaxing. You felt like you really had left the fast pace of the city and moved to a holiday place, which normally takes a week or so to do.

1^st off we saw some Quokkas (large mammals, that look a bit like a rat bit are as large as a rabbit.) Happy to see them as this was one of the main reasons for coming, and we had discovered on the way over on the ferry that a Quokka was a nocturnal creature that was mainly active at night. Luckily no one had told the Quokka’s this as we managed to see quite a few over the course of the day.

We took a bus trip around the island to see all. Some great beaches to swim or snorkel, but not so good today as blowing a bit. Also saw heaps of moorings for boats from Perth, stacked really closely together in some bays.

Had lunch on the waterfront, shared fish and chips, yummy!

After lunch the kids got to experience the water park on the beach, fun blow up things to climb and bounce on.

Then back on the ferry to Hillary’s Boat harbour (north of Perth), on a much smoother ferry (no one felt sick this time).

In the morning we visited Scitect again as we had not completed all the todo from the day before. We saw a planetarium show that showed the night sky for perth on thr 12^th November, and also advised us the space station would be going overhead at 8pm tonight.

Kids loved Scitech and I think would be happy to stay there all day.

In the afternoon the plan was to go to the Maritime Museum in Freemantle. Josie had ideas that we could fit in some shopping at the factory outlet mall on the way but unfortunately there was not enough time to do too much damage to the credit card today.

We ventured back to Freemantle (yes we are going around in circles!), and enjoyed the visit to the museum where we got to see Australia II (the boat that won the Americas cup). Also as part of the Museum we got to go onboard the submarine Ovens. I said to the front desk I wanted to do the sub tour and they said sure, so you want a ticket to the Museum and Sub Ovens. I thought maybe we only get to see the galley of the sub, not realising the sub was named “Ovens” after some general!

The Sub tour was cool and the kids loved it. Apparently the men on the sub would not shower for weeks when on board so the sub stunk. When they decommissioned the sub it took a couple of year for the smell to go! When you do a tour like this, you realise the cramped conditions and dangerous nature of the work. Certainly not for me!

Today we visited the Aquarium, which was very well set out and displayed. The kids had a great time seeing the sharks and rays in underwater walkways. Also they loved the touch pool that had fish you could touch. Both big and small kids liked this!

There was also heaps of coral and reefs that were natural, nice to see as often these are all man made in most displays.

After lunch we visited the Scitech, for the kids big and small. This is a very cool place with hundreds of science based displays that are hands on and teach kids some science at the same time. We saw a show called high voltage, which had Charlotte's hair standing on end, Emily holding a light bulb, and Harry getting rubbed with a balloon (but that is another story - well static electricity anyway). It was so good we ran out of time but luckily the nice people there gave us a ticket we can use to go back tomorrow and finish the visit. So roll on tomorrow ....

Today I got to see the famous Perth Mint, and saw gold being poured into a Gold Bar. we also saw the 2 nd biggest natural gold nugget in the world and touch a gold bar worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars. Now if I could only find one of those just lying around!

Down to the waterfront near the bell tower for some lunch (beer, pizza in a posh pub) which was suprisingly good food. Then a look at Perths famous Bell tower. A bit disappointed that that you had to pay to visit the tower (about $40 for the family) so we just did the cheap look in the shop as it really did not look worth the money.

Was going to go to the Sciencetec (Science stuff for kids) bu this closed at 4 pm so we decided to go off then to the shopping mall for some retail therapy for Josie and Charlotte. Dinner at a the food hall, we had forgotten what choice would be available after being in so many small towns recently, so had quite a nice experience!

Off today to Kings Park and the botantical gardens. Very impressive. We did a wild flower walk, unfortuately most of the wildflowers had already finished. Anyway the talk was informative and interesting for Josie and Me, the kids enjoyed the running around, rolling on the grass etc that kids love in the park.

They had an elevated walkway that I had heard a bit about, but I found it a bit disappointing as it really lifted you above a fairly mundane park of the park. Had a very cool fountain there.

The park is made up of a number of smaller developed areas with natural bush in between, which made it quite nice as each area was not full of people and each area could be quite different. On the recomendation of the Guide from the walk we ventured off to the adventure playground and coffee shop. Wonderful place, kids got to play, and Josie and I got to eat cake and drink coffee in relative peace and quiet!

From there we decided it was too late to cook dinner (or was it we were too lazy...) so we drove down to the waterfront to the Famous Cottesloe beach and had fish and chips on the grass overlooking the beach. Great sunset but we were supprised to see so many swiming while the sun was setting a) 'cause it was damn cold, and b) 'cause a shark ate someone there a couple of weeks ago!

On the way back to the van, did a tourist drive along the water. A number of little suburbs and beaches, which were very much a mixture of new and old houses.

Today we moved caravan parks from Freemantle to north of Perth. Much nicer park, and not so windy as out at the beach.

Drove out to the beach and had a bit of a look around the coast etc.