Blogs from Albany, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 13

To all interested blog readers, please be advised that if you click on any of our photos it will enlarge them for you and give you the option of a slide show allowing you to enjoy them hopefully more... cheers Kornies5... read more

(Excerpted from my book Our Summer in Australia and New Zealand, Amazon.com) The seaport town of Albany, located in the southwest portion of Western Australia,near where the great Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean, is about as far as one can get "to be far away" without falling off of the edge of the world. By the way, Australians pronounce the name AL as in the mans name and Beny. The city is notable as a former whaling port of some importance, the main point of departure for the WWI ANZAC Armada, a terminal for Australia's timber exports from its abundant forests which provided railroad ties (sleepers in Australia) for English railroads being built throughout the British Empire in its glory days. At the time of its founding in 1826 there were no settlements anywhere in ... read more

It's now June and we have been back in New Zealand for over 4 months! (seems like forever some days!) Time to round off our travelblog which we didn't quite finish before we flew out of Perth on January 27, 2009, bound for Wellington. Last time we wrote, we were in Perth for Christmas - spent the day with Blu's brother Ross, his wife Laurin and her family. Funny not to be spending it with our kids- first time ever without one or both on the day! Boxing Day we went down to Bunbury to spend the day with niece Ros and her extended family and had a very pleasant day - except on return to Perth that night I threw up a few times and was sick for the next week or so. Oh well ... read more

Actually in Albany, Cliff’s apartment room booking fell through last minute and we ended in Grey Street Cottage, which hardly cost any more. This was a real find: fully furnished, well appointed, polished wood floors and a beautiful garden; there great views of Princes Harbour from the front veranda and it was a short walk from the main street of Albany. We enjoyed visiting the Mt Romance Factory (sandalwood and emu oil products), taking a drive to the coast, surveying the mighty wind-farm, seeing the coastal wildflowers and seeing the view from the ANZAC lookout on Mt Clarence above the city. Albany is the oldest settlement in WA, and also where the famous Australian Light Horse Brigade was assembled before setting out for service in North Africa and the Middle-East during WW1.... read more

Albany was cold, real cold and windy we didn’t feel much like doing much the first day. But the next day was better so we headed out to explore. Our first stop was Whale World, this was Albany’s old whaling station that closed down in the 1980’s. The tour around it was pretty gross, they explained ever step of the whaling process from chasing and catching the whales to bringing them to the station and slaughtering them. It has some great stuff too like a massive blue whale skeleton, and a 3D movie on whales shown in a converted storage tank. Next stop was the Tree Top Walk at Walpole, this was great fun, a bit freaky because the ramps are 40m high and they moved as you walked on them. The tingle trees where incredibly ... read more