Blogs from Busselton, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Today was our second day in the Busselton/Margaret River area. Our plan was to explore the area around Cape Naturaliste and some of the beaches nearby. Although the morning was wet and windy we decided to head for the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse via Bunker Bay by driving westwards through Dunsborough.Bunker Bay was spectacular with trees growing down to the edge of the beach and a long crescent of golden sand. Despite looking out to sea, we saw no whales but enjoyed the 2km walk along the beach.Next stop was the lighthouse which sits on an elevated peninsular overlooking Bunker Bay and the Indian ocean. Over 35,000 whales make an annual northward migration passing up this coastline and we had hoped to see some. It was raining heavily when we arrived but eased as we departed for ... read more

Day 5 – Saturday This was a chilled and relaxed day, It was the Voting day for Australia, although I couldn’t vote I felt the atmosphere of the town coming together and getting to visit one of the schools in the area. We went around Nick’s our friends house where I got to play with his 7-month-old Labrador cross Border collie puppy, sitting outside throwing a ball what felt like for hours. When we arrived back in Bunbury at Carla’s house we were great friends and helped hoover and clean out her car, due to there being more sand on the floor than at most of the beaches. Soon enough the car was a good as new again! Later that evening we got to enjoy a Dinner Party, Where I sat at the bar in their ... read more

Today we needed to pickup provisions from Woolworths and use McDonalds' free wifi before setting off on the days activities. Our first stop was the Princess Royal Fortress which commands the main harbor of Albany; the fort was built in 1893 after a pre-federation agreement to share funding by the existing colonies. Britain supplied the armaments and the fort remained combat ready between 1895 until 1956 when all Commonwealth shore defenses became redundant. The site served a variety of purposes over the decades but has since been restored and now houses a first rate memorial to those who once manned the site and/or fought for Australia in the First World War. Albany is important as the first and second waves of troops left here for Egypt and then Gallipoli and the town was the last sight ... read more

Hi Friends, This is the first of our Travel blog - we are nine weeks away from the "big trip" and boy are we counting down!! Hope we turn into proficient "bloggers" and we have plenty to write about as we eat and drink our way around Europe. Hoping you enjoy keeping up to date with us this way! U&L... read more

Its now early March and we have returned to Western Australia and are on our way again. We went back to NZ in mid October for a wedding, caught up with everyone, had a good Christmas with our family and friends, and generally had a good time. However, the weather was hopeless! Several times I caught myself thinking that the winter wasn’t so bad, when in fact it was December or January. Not a lot of rain, but cloud and wind and more cloud and wind! We flew from Auckland to Perth via Melbourne, crazy, but we saved $NZ400 on the two airfares compared with flying direct. How does that work? Direct should be cheaper than multi-stop?? The probable answer is the West Australian mining industry because about 80% of the passengers on that flight were ... read more