Perth & Western Australia (Easter Break 2023)

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Day 1: Friday April 7th 2023 – Flying to Perth

Good Friday, and what promises to be the start of a very good week. Our first family holiday overseas for 4 years and pre-COVID. I’m discounting last year’s holiday to UK as that was a trip to see family although we did enjoy a week in London at the end. Not only COVID which turned the world upside down, but this is also the first blog for a decade in which time I’ve been blessed with the addition of two sons to my family.

I’ll start the journey at the airport in Singapore where we now live (we’ve been here for 8 years) after 4 years in China in Beijing and then Shanghai after my round the world trip ended at Christmas 2009. We’re flying Scoot, which is one of the low-cost airlines over in South East Asia. By the way, is there such a thing as a low-cost airline post COVID? As we’ve decided to pass purchasing the on-board meals we need to stock up in the airport. Whilst Lucas, Oliver and myself get a Subway meal for the plane, Xuelan decides that it must be Chinese food and heads in the opposite direction to Crystal Jade and buys a small banquet. We’re only on the plane for 5 hours not 15! While she waits for the food to be cooked, I go and get some Australian currency with the boys and subsequently wonder why I got so much cash given the last 10 years have seen us progressively move to a cashless society. I’m still a child of the 20^th century, I guess!

There’s a bit of a delay but nothing too bad and the journey passes without much event. We arrive in Perth around 9pm and post a short stop to get a local SIM card in the airport we exit into the distinctly cooler Autumnal Perth air to wait for a taxi. Perth airport is not too far from the city, but we’ve made the mistake of getting a taxi rather than an Uber and end up paying top dollar as its evening and a public holiday.

30 minutes later we arrive at Hostel G in the heart of Perth, which will be our stay for the next 4 nights. Whilst I’m very familiar with the hostel experience from my travels I can’t recall staying in a hostel since the kids have arrived, but they settle in quickly and a table football and pool table soon have them buzzing about their stay. We’re staying in a private room with a bunk bed for the kids and after grabbing a quick supper with food we’ve packed we’re soon asleep, the journey having taken its toll.





Day 2: Saturday April 8^th 2023 – Exploring Perth

There’s no café or restaurant in the hostel so we must self-cater for our breakfasts. I venture out of the hostel to hunt down some breakfast and find a convenience store across the street. I buy some milk, cereal, bread and butter so we have the option of cereal of toast. The kids are hungry and happy when I return. They play some table football, pool and watch the TV whilst we wait an age for Xuelan to get ready. It must be mid-morning before we leave the hostel.

We’re about a 10 minute walk to Perth train station and maybe a further 20 minutes to Swan River. It’s almost noon before we arrive at the Bell Tower on Elizabeth Quay via an ice-cream refreshment stop for the boys. Lucas, Oliver and I pay more for our tickets so we get to ring the bells. The Bell Tower opened in 2000 as Western Australia’s Millennium project, the towering glass spire located where Perth meets the Swan River on Elizabeth Quay. At noon, we hear the bells toll and shortly after out tour starts where we’re given the history of the Bell Tower and then we have the opportunity to do some bell ringing! It’s a short tour and after it finishes, we go up and down the tower multiple times trying to find the eggs as part of the Easter Egg Hunt. The kids get a prize for finding all the eggs and depart happy after their hour-long experience.

We walk back around Elizabeth Quay and find a nice Thai restaurant to eat in. We have a yummy lunch although the kids are slightly less impressed than Xuelan and I. It’s quite chilly out around the quay and after booking a boat trip on the Swan River prior to lunch, we decide it would be best to get some warmer clothes so I dart across the city back to the hostel, barely stopping for breath as I collect additional layers and make it back to Elizabeth Quay just 5 minutes before the 3pm departure.

We enjoy a 45 minute tour in the boat which stops at Herrisson Island which is a Kangaroo Reserve (we don’t see any kangaroos unfortunately) then goes up to the Matagarup Bridge where you can see the Optus Stadium in the distance – we saw it all lit up last night on the way in to Perth. The boat turns around and we retrace our journey back to the CBD and then beyond to the famous Blue Boathouse for a few obligatory pictures before our Captain who is French gives the wheel to the two boys in turn to have a go steering the boat. On the way back to Elizabeth Quay, an hour later we see a guy hoverboarding on the Swan River – now that looks cool. Something to try another day!

Once off the boat we walk back through the city and up towards Kings Park which overlooks Swan River and sits above the city and CBD. It’s late afternoon by now and it’s a great way to round out the day. We walk past plenty of flora and fauna before the boys integrate themselves in a football game. We then walk through the Botanic Gardens and beyond -walking for at least an hour. Xuelan doesn’t want to turn back despite the fading light, so we keep going and exit the park in a residential area. We’re lost but a helpful lady points us in the direction of the bus stop and the bus driver lets us on for free and before long we’re back in the heart of the city at the train station and from there it a short walk back to the hostel and that ends our exploration of Perth.





Day 3: Sunday April 9^th 2023 – Easter Sunday and an Arts Festival in Fremantle

I’m writing this blog some two months after the event and looking back now if there’s one day which was a highlight of the entire week then this could be it. Every day was good, and there was lots of variety to the trip but this day stands out. Perth is a very liveable city as most of the Australian state capitals are but if I ever lived in this part of the world then Fremantle would be a good choice.

After grabbing a quick breakfast, we walk down to Perth’s Train Station a short 10 minute walk away. We then take a 45 minute train journey to Fremantle which is part of Greater Perth, yet a city in its own right. Its known as Perth’s historic port city and lies at the mouth of the Swan River. As we leave the train station to walk into the town (Freo is more of a town than a city with a population of 30,000) I’m immediately struck by the historic buildings. Fremantle is home to a prison which was part of the convict era and supported the original Swan Valley settlement in the 19^th century which eventually became Perth today. That’s our first intended stop but before we can reach the prison we stop and watch a street entertainer for about 30 minutes which is part of the Arts Festival in Fremantle this weekend. With it being a holiday weekend there is a great vibe to the town and plenty of people out and about enjoying the Easter sunshine.

We enjoy the entertainment then stroll on through the town, past the sports oval and the market to the prison. Built in the 1850’s, 10,000 men were transported from the UK as convicts, built their own prison and much of the infrastructure of the fledgling settlement and helped shape the future of Western Australia. At the end of the convict era in 1886, it was converted into a maximum security prison, which it remained until 1991. The tour helps give us the history and background of modern day Perth and is very informative. The tour ends around lunchtime and we head down the hill to Fremantle market, which is another of the main attractions of the city dating back to 1897 and a great spot to buy lunch and other edible goodies. The boys and I grab hotdogs, Xuelan has some Turkish food, we buy some Macarons and fruits and sample numerous other culinary delights. There are crafts for sale in the market and it’s a buzz of people enjoying the Easter weekend.

The plan for the afternoon is to head down to the harbour and take in a museum, walk around the area and finish with fish & chips before catching the train back to Perth. We get waylaid in the town as the kids want to watch some more street entertainment and the town centre is now packed. Strolling through the streets admiring the architecture and the quirky shop, we reach the Maritime museum down by the harbour in 15 minutes or so. There’s an exhibit on sea dinosaurs (small and average) as well as the main one on Perth’s maritime history (better but not a must see), however the kids main interest is a wedding which is happening in the building which the manage to gate crash!

Exiting the museum in the late afternoon sun, we walk along the harbour and beach looking for the Roundhouse. The Roundhouse is Western Australia’s oldest building, built in 1830. It was the original prison of the Swan River colony. Despite the many signs we can’t seem to locate it, we go through a tunnel and then walk along a path parallel to the train track and beach and end up at Cicerello’s where we’d intended to have dinner, ahead of schedule. There’s another street entertainer performing next to Cicerello’s so Xuelan stays with the kids whilst I go searching for the Roundhouse and seeing if the Shipwreck’s Museum is still open, which was recommended by staff at the Maritime Museum.

I quickly find the Shipwreck’s Museum, but as its gone 5pm its closed for the day. I continue on and find the Roundhouse (it was above the tunnel we walked through, so we literally walked underneath it!) but that too is closed. I turnaround and walk along the harbour area before returning to catch the end of the show with the family. We enjoy fish and chips in Cicerello’s which has been an institution in Fremantle since 1903. Bellies full, we walk back to the train station and catch the train back to Perth, having thoroughly enjoyed our day out in Fremantle.





Day 4: Monday April 10^th 2023 – Quokkas and caught in a torrential downpour on Rottnest

As much as I loved Fremantle yesterday, I really didn’t expect to be back as soon as a day later! However, on exploring how to get to Rottnest Island which lies 30km off the coast of Perth, it soon becomes apparent that our best option is to go from Fremantle because its cheaper. We get the train down like yesterday and wait on the harbour for our 9:00am sailing to Rottnest. Its windy but the sun is out again for the 30 minute ferry ride.

Our first stop on the island is to pick up the bikes we’ve booked as part of the ferry tickets. Before we even reach the bike rental place, we find a Quokka, which is what Rottnest Island is famous for. A quokka is a small marsupial about the size of a domestic cat, and are only found in a few islands off the coast of Perth. We pick the bikes up and then naughtily help ourselves to some snorkel gear without paying the extra rental (the bikes were expensive enough!) and start cycling past a few lakes towards Geordie Bay. Oliver has a bit of a mishap as he’s still not confident about braking but no real damage done apart from a graze. We have brunch/ early lunch at a café in Geordie Bay and take a few obligatory photos (which has to be done as a native of Newcastle and therefore a Geordie). The kids play in a playground and an inquisitive Quokka comes to sniff around and eat some of the food the kids have dropped.

Back on the bikes we cycle around to Parakeet Bay to check out the snorkelling but the seas are much too rough, so we head inland, pass a few lakes including the pink lake before climbing Oliver Hill to see the WWII Guns and take an obligatory photo of Oliver stood next to the Oliver Hill railway. The kids manage the steep climb up the hill but we choose not to take the tour of the Guns, other than what is accessible to the general public. Its now mid-afternoon and we’re now in the middle of Rottnest island which measures 11km by 3.5km, so our thoughts turn to cycling back as our ferry back is at 5pm. We retrace our steps initially, cycling back down the hill before going on a minor paved road which runs next to the shoreline of a lake. We then decide to go off road and cycle along a sandy dirt path. We pass the end of the runway and see a plane taking off above our heads. As we head towards the south coast and the road to take us back to Thomson Bay, the weather changes and the rain starts. Initially not that heavy, by the time we reach the road its now raining heavily and there is no where to shelter and with kids it must be an hour back to the main settlement on the island. Lucas copes admirably and just soldiers on through the rain, cycling beside me but Oliver struggles and cries most of the way back with Xuelan accompanying him. Lucas and I shelter under a tree to wait for the other two to catch up.

We reach Thomson Bay about an hour or so before the ferry is due. Everyone is completely drenched – the kids are the worst and they change into their wetsuits, whilst Xuelan has brought almost an entire change of clothes. We buy some Quokka soft toys as a souvenir for the boys to brighten their mood whilst I manage to charm a coffee out of bakery shop assistant – I mean who switches their coffee machine off at 4pm?! Only in Australia.

We take the ferry back to Perth as there was no Fremantle option – this necessitates paying more as it’s a 90 minute ride as we need to go up the Swan River as well as across the sea. We then need to walk across Perth from Elizabeth Quay and by the time we get back to the hostel everyone is wet and tired and can’t wait to enjoy a hot shower. If we hadn’t been caught in the downpour on Rottnest, I’m pretty sure we’d have eaten in a restaurant in Perth on our way home. However, the priority is to get warm and dry so its comfort food and a trip out to McDonalds tonight.






Day 5: Tuesday April 11^th 2023 – A change to itinerary, enjoying Caversham Wildlife Park

This morning we need to pick up our hire car. Lucas accompanies me after breakfast on the 20-minute walk across town to the hire depot. It’s a smooth process and before long we’re in the car and heading back to the hostel to pick Xuelan and Oliver up. I can’t get the Satnav working so have to rely on the old-fashioned way of using my memory to trace the route back to the hostel. We manage it without incident, and we’ve been so quick that Xuelan hasn’t finished the packing and we have to wait 10 minutes or so at the hostel before we’re on our way.



The original plan had been to drive straight down to Margaret River which is about a 4-hour drive South of Perth. We’re staying there for 2 nights but the kids have picked up some pamphlets in the hostel on Caversham Wildlife Park and are insisting we go there first before we get on the road to Margaret River. Caversham Park is in the North of Perth and should be around a 30-minute drive. The Satnav takes us to another park which is just an expanse of greenery with no obvious wildlife before we re-calibrate and find our way to the correct one! It ends up being a great experience for the kids – they get up close and personal with the stars of Australian wildlife – Kangaroos, Koalas, Wombats and a Python. The Kangaroo’s in particular were a highlight. We also take in the farm show before leaving the park at 2pm having spent around 4 hours there. We’ve been so busy interacting with the wildlife we haven’t had time for lunch and with a 3.5 hour drive ahead of us, its going to be snacking in the car – it’s a good job we went to the supermarket last night.

The drive to Margaret River takes the rest of the afternoon and apart from a quick toilet stop at a service station, we drive all the way through to the farm stay and reach in the fading light around 6pm. We drop our luggage in our cottage which is very nice, before driving the 10-minute journey into Margaret River to get dinner at a pub Xuelan has found recommended. We have a nice meal when we eventually find the turn off into The Blue House pub. The Blue House has a nice family atmosphere and after finally getting a proper meal we return to the farmstay to put our sleepy heads to rest.





Day 6: Wednesday April 12^th 2023 – No real plan to explore the Margaret River area

It takes a while to get going this morning and when you’ve already eaten a fair chunk into the 2 day stay in Margaret River with delaying the journey down here yesterday, that is far from ideal. Xuelan wants to do some washing as there are damp, smelly clothes from our Rottnest trip 2 days ago. The kids meanwhile are taking great interest in the various animals on the farmstay – there are emus literally out the back of our cottage. It must be mid-morning before we get on the road.



I decide to head to the Caves Road and then south from there as it is recommended as being a scenic drive. Caves Road stretches between two capes – Naturaliste to the north and Leeuwin to the south. It runs parallel to the coast but not along it. By being a few kilometres off the coast, the Jarrah, Karris and Marris trees grow beside it, with wineries on either side. We soon stop off at one of the 5-6 cave options to explore and use it as the opportunity to get some intel on the area and options. We choose not to enter the cave but to continue our journey down to Cape Leeuwin via another Satnav adventure in Augusta (although that one was programmed in by the wife). Cape Leeuwin is where the Southern and Indian Ocean’s meet and is also home to a lighthouse and a small museum. We look around the museum but there is no availability to climb the lighthouse for a few hours so we skip that. We get a battering from the wind but otherwise it’s a picturesque and worthwhile stop.

Having not stopped for lunch and it being well past lunchtime now, that becomes the immediate priority. I want to visit a couple of wineries so we decide to kill two birds with one stone and head the 20 minutes of so to Hamelin Bay wines. Whilst the kids play with a ball with other children in the gardens outside, Xuelan and I taste 5 wines before we enjoy a nice meal in the laid back café on site. Suitably refreshed, we decide we want to visit one of the caves but are racing against time to be back before they close at 3pm. Xuelan calls ahead to check and it’s a 30 minute drive via an obligatory photo opportunity at Chapman Road!

We reach Giants Cave and after negotiating to be a) let in b) that the kids crocs shoes are ok to go down to the cave we’re on our way with helmets and torches. Giants Cave is a self-guided adventure cave and the staff member advises it can take 1-1.5 hours. We see a family coming back and they say it took them 50 minutes so that becomes our target. It takes us 45 minutes and the kids have a great time underground climbing up and down ladders and ropes and across rocks. Xuelan and I have a job keeping up with them.

Our quick visit to the cave means we now have sufficient time to do one other winery – we check it out and the Voyager Estate closes at 5pm and its only a 15 minute drive and its also on the way back to Margaret River. Voyager Estate is also a slightly different experience to our earlier visit to Hamelin Bay wines. Hamelin Bay Wines was very low key and several times on the way we thought we were lost. The Voyager Estate is much grander and larger. We taste another 4 wines (and the kids enjoy a few juices) and Xuelan shows the vines to the boys before we drive back to Margaret River. A quick stop at the supermarket soon becomes a $100 grocery shop. I nose through a few estate agent windows (much cheaper than Singapore) and we try to find somewhere to eat in town. In the end we decide to go back to last night’s pub - The Blue House - for another meal on our way home.





Day 7: Thursday April 13^th 2023 – A long drive to go Dune Buggying fails

Last night after the kids slept, Xuelan and I tried to work out the plan for today. We’re ultimately staying tonight at Lancelin a 400km, 4.5 hour drive away. Lancelin is about one and a half hours North of Perth. The ideas we tossed around as stop off points on the journey were 1) A full winery tour 2) Drive the northern section of the Caves Road to Cape Naturaliste lighthouse 3) Busselton Pier, the longest pier in the Southern hemisphere. However, when we check dune buggying at Lancelin the last time to go on a tour is 3pm. This means that none of the 3 options are feasible from a time perspective anyway.

First up before we leave our Farmstay is the feeding of the animals. Held every other day, this is a great way to interact with the animals – ducks, geese, alpacas, cows, sheep and emus. The kids have a great time and fully justifies the decision to stay on a farm. I’m conscious of the time and want to get on the road by 9am. That plan quickly goes up in smoke when Lucas has a ‘You’ve Been Framed moment’. In the sheep enclosure which is the last animals to feed, he walks backward away from the sheep but meets his comeuppance in the form of a circular water holder which is at knee height. His momentum takes him backward and he falls back into the dirty water and is soaked. This necessitates getting the key back and going back into the cottage for a hot shower and a change of clothes. It’s 9:30 before we leave. We decide not to book the dune buggying online and trust it to fate.

Of the above options, Busselton Pier had been the closest option to being picked as there is a train and aquarium on the pier but we’ve woken this morning to rain which turns torrential as we venture north from Margaret River so don't regret missing it too much. We stop just once, at a service station just South of Perth as our fuel was running low. We grab some fast food and are soon on our way for the remaining 2 hours north. The journey is smooth save a slight detour around Perth when we get the highway junctions wrong. We actually make it to Lancelin before 3pm, but they won’t let us take a tour on the dunes as the weather in the distance doesn’t look good. It’s a shame as we’ve driven 5 hours to get here and have decided against other alternatives. This now has us scratching our head on what to do for the remainder of the day. We had planned to go to the Pinnacles tomorrow which is a further hour north, but we now decide to flip the plan and do Pinnacles today and then come back tomorrow for the dune buggying as the kids are really keen having now seen it.

We’re soon on our way and again Satnav lets us down and we end up in Cervantes which is the town just North of the Pinnacles. The Pinnacles is a series of strange shaped rocks in the desert but Satnav apparently thinks they lie down a residential street in Cervantes! This ends up being a 45 minutes unnecessary detour and after 6 hours of driving doesn’t help one’s mood or patience! I had wanted to try out the Lobster Shack in Cervantes but that was a planned lunch stop for tomorrow and that plan will now need to be shelved if we want to see The Pinnacles and be able to go dune buggying tomorrow.

Retracing our steps back to the highway we pull off to The Pinnacles half an hour later which is damp – the bad weather promised 2 hours ago in Lancelin has certainly hit. Still in the late afternoon, we’re here now and we buy tickets and then drive around the desert taking a number of photos of the outer worldly limestone rock formations. I’m not entirely sure it was worth the further drive north but at least we’ve resurrected some sightseeing in amongst all the driving. We quickly wander around the information centre but the kids are infinitely more interested in the gift shop!

We drive back to Lancelin in the fading light and reach the hostel at approaching 7pm. We’re staying in a hostel again – the Lancelin Lodge, which site just behind the beach. We soon notice a smell of ‘rotten eggs’ which is in fact the smell of rotting seaweed not eggs. Not to bother, we’re very hungry and eat leftovers from last night coupled with some provisions we still have left in the hostel. The kids enjoy lying in the hammocks and playing with a bouncy ball in the garden. It’s a homely last night’s stay – we’re in a room with 2 bunk beds looking out on to a garden courtyard. The kids are enjoying the hostel experience. I’m exhausted from all the driving and feeling under the weather so have an early night.





Day 8: Friday April 14^th 2023 – Buggying in Lancelin’s dunes and then a goodbye to Western Australia

I’m not feeling much better when I wake up – I definitely overdid it on the driving front yesterday. Thankfully It’s a leisurely start to the day – my planned run along the beach has been canned given I’m not feeling energetic. After breakfast, we pack the car up for the last time and drive through the town to the Lancelin Sand Dunes.

We discover we can’t do a self-guided tour and that the kids need to be accompanied by an adult so that makes any decision on what tour to take easy. We book a place on the 10am tour in a 4-seater dune buggy. I’m driving (not more driving!) but at least its off-road and fun. It’s not as much fun as it could be, as we have to follow the guide and there must be about 8 vehicles in the group. Some of the ATV’s in the back are slow so the guide keeps slowing or stopping to keep the group together. We are the first vehicle after the guide so we must spend nearly as much time waiting around or slowing down as we do having fun racing around the dunes. Still, it’s a novel experience for the kids who enjoy it. We even manage to get stuck in the sand on one occasion! After an hour on the buggies, there is time to borrow a couple of sandboards and introduce the kids to sandboarding. The problem with sandboarding as I’ve found before is that you have to go up to come down and climbing sand dunes is hard work. The kids have a few attempts before I show them how its done! Soon enough our hour is up and we need to walk back across the sand dunes to collect the car.

Its around noon when we leave Lancelin. Our flight is at 6pm which gives us sufficient time to drive the 1.5 hours South back to drop the car in Perth city centre, via a stop for a quick lunch and then get an Uber to the airport at half the cost of the taxi on the first day. We commit the mistake in Perth airport of trying to go through security check with the two bottles of wine we bought in Margaret River a couple of days ago. This entails getting clearance to go back through security and checking in another piece of luggage including the bottles of wine. I do hope they don’t get smashed on the flight across! Problem solved, and back reunited with the family we grab dinner in one of the few restaurants in the airport before Xuelan raids the duty free in her usual style. The flight is delayed slightly and we arrive back in Singapore close to midnight.

It’s been a great week away with the family. The places we stayed were all good places for a young family and we introduced the boys to hostels. The itinerary was good and had the variety to keep everyone entertained. There was something for everyone each day. The car hire was a must to venture further afield from Perth but not necessary for the first 3 days so another thing that we got right. The only thing I’d probably have changed would have been an additional day in Margaret River – one full day was too rushed. It would have been nice to see Cape Naturaliste and Busselton and the area north of Margaret River, and maybe visit a few more wineries in and amongst that. All in all a great family holiday, and much still to explore in Western Australia for the future.

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