New Zealand & Australia

It was a hot one today!! Thank goodness for cloud cover as we walked to the Fremantle Market which takes place every Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday except for a couple public holidays. The market has been a staple of Fremantle since the late 1800’s. Vendors include everything from food & drink to toys, jewelry, clothing, crystals, teas & coffees, ointments, lotions, etc! After a couple hours in the market and on the streets around the market we returned to our house and prepared for our journey to Nambung National Park where we first visited Lake Thetis which houses ancient (3500+ years old!) “stromatolites” and then made our way to the Pinnacles Desert where “pinnacles” or “limestone pillars” of various shapes & sizes rise above a sandy, tan-colored soil. Amazing!! I have never seen anything like the “stromatolites” or the “pinnacles”!! On our 3 hour drive back to our Fremantle house we had to take a detour due to a brush fire.

This morning we walked to a local fresh fish market to purchase dinner items – red snapper and prawns- yummy 😋. On our walk back to the Saltwater Air BnB on Edmund Street we found a wonderful bakery -Wild Bakery – on the corner of Scott Street & South TCE, where we purchased croissants-chocolate & almond- to die for!! Once home we prepared for our journey into Perth. After reviewing all of our options – train, bus, car – we decided on car to King’s Park and Botanical Garden. Once there we hopped on our “Hop on-Hop off” tour bus for a 2 hour tour without hopping off, exploring & hopping back on. Bird watching, eating ice cream, climbing the DNA Tower, and wandering followed our tour. We headed back to “Saltwater” to make a fabulous red snapper, fresh fish dinner. After an episode of “Katie & Kim” (Aussie comedy) it was time for bed!

Today we got an early start as our plan was to travel to Margaret River and wine country. Our first stop was in Bunbury where we hoped to see dolphins in the bay. When we arrived at the Dolphin Center we found that we would have pay for a boat tour that was not going out for 2 more hours…we decided to move on to Busselton and their “I” (information center) which was wonderful. Armed with the information we needed for the day we headed to the nearest Cellar Door -Flametree- where we were able to taste wine and build our own charcuterie for lunch. Suze, the manager, was our charismatic, entertaining server as Connie, Jen, & Scot tasted their wines (I was abstaining as the designated driver). Satiated with a wonderful lunch, we made our way to Naturaliste National Park stopping at Meelup Beach for a walk along/in the water. Next stop was a walk to the Naturaliste Lighthouse & being attacked by flies! (Connie opted to stay in the car with the AC-good choice!). After this stop we decided it was time to make the long journey back to our abode in Fremantle with a stop in Busselton for some ice cream at “Sub Zero”. On our drive back we each selected a song to play and passed the phone to the next person -the journey home was quite entertaining 🥰. Tomorrow we are visiting the big city – Perth.

Yesterday we found a place to rent E-Bikes to take on the ferry to Rottnest Island (a carless island & lots of bikes!). Early this morning Chase met us at the Tiller bike store in Fremantle to outfit us with our bikes and helmets for our Rottnest adventures. These bikes are the “Tesla of E-Bikes”! After testing the bikes on the bike trail along the waterfront in Fremantle, we hopped on the express SeaLink Ferry (1/2 hour) to Rottnest. Lots of bikes on the island & and none as fun as our’s!!! We circumnavigated the island clockwise, making stops along the way to bird, test the waters, take photos, find the Quokkas, and take in the landscape. We ended our biking adventure with ice cream cones😁. On the ferry trip back to Fremantle our bike alarms kept going off!!! We did not take out the batteries as we had done on the way to the island and consequently our unfamiliarity with the all the bike’s functions forced us to babysit the bikes😜🤣😂. All in all a fantastic day!!

Our last morning in Adelaide was spent exploring Rundle Street and the myriad of shops, arcades, restaurants, and cafes. Wow!!! One could spend weeks exploring, but we only had a few hours:). Time to fly to Perth where the temperature was 36 C (102 F) when we landed🥵

After a wonderful stay at the Hart of Barossa with Michael & Alisa, we drove a scenic route through the Adelaide Hills, lots of fruit farms, and vineyards to Cleland Wildlife Park in the National Park. We spent a couple of hours with all the wildlife and proceeded to our accommodations in Adelaide, the Alba Hotel. We dined in Chinatown at Wah Hing, walked back to our hotel; and watched the Australian Open Men’s Singles Championship. Flying to Perth tomorrow afternoon.

The day after “Australia Day” we checked out of the Alba Hotel on South TCE and headed to the Botanic Park of Adelaide for a guided walk at 10:30 am. Unbeknownst to us was that the guide may not show up since in was a hot day…. It was hot & the guide did not show up😏 That did not stop us from enjoying the park. We visited a most interesting, one of a kind, museum – “The Museum of Economic Botany”. Afterward we wandered the grounds and saw a couple new birds and gradually made our way to the car to go to a cafe for lunch. We discovered “Cotto Cafe” north of Adelaide. From there we headed to Hart of Barossa in the Barossa Valley. Our hosts, Michael & Alisa, friends of Lucia Perfetti-Clark (Michael was an exchange student at the Perfetti home in the mid-80s) we met in the early afternoon. We tasted some of their organic wine in their well appointed Cellar Door, unloaded luggage, changed into our “bathers”, and made our way to the pool for relief from a very hot day. While at the pool, a friend of the Harts, Julie, stopped by with some of her overflow ice cream (that which does not fit into the storage tubs) and chatted for a while during a lovely happy hour. Dinner was an Australian BBQ (sausages, steaks, & salad). As the mosquitoes came out, we moved indoors! We retired early to be ready for a full day – visiting the farmer’s market; touring the Barossa with Michael as our guide; lunch at a cellar door where we could create our own charcuterie; riding bikes; and a small plates/sharing dinner at a local winery.

We arrived in Adelaide after a drive from Tailem Bend (a very small, sleepy town) and an afternoon in the McLaren Vale (wine country south of Adelaide). Wine tasting with Ella, our 20-something server, at Chalk Hill was most delightful. She paired some wines with my favorite – chocolates;). Our lunch was a Pinsa (pizza) from the the Cucina Di Strada paired with wine suggested by Ella. After a lazy early afternoon at Chalk Hill we headed into town for some chocolate! Time to head to Adelaide😊. Lots of traffic coming out of the city before the Public Holiday (Australia Day)! Today there is very, very little traffic in the city and most places are closed. The park across the street from out hotel provide a lovely venue for my morning walk. Saw lots of interesting sport venues – a Tree Climb area; tennis courts with portable nets on turf marked with tennis lines and field hockey lines; batting cages for Cricket; fields for Aussie Football; courts for Net Ball; a 6-lane track painted on the turf; and lots of soccer nets! After seeing so many people on bikes, Plan A today was to rent bikes and take advantage of all the parks and bike trails surrounding Adelaide, but NO – the bike rentals were all closed! On to Plan B – the Zoo and the Botanic Garden. Bonus – Free parking for the Public Holiday! On our walk to the zoo we encountered hundreds of flying foxes hanging in the trees…creepy! An early dinner at one of the few open places – The Original Cooper Alehouse at the Earl – was wonderful. Back to the hotel Alba to watch the Australian Open Women’s Semis🎾

A day of exploring the coast – The Port Campbell Discovery Walk; The 12 Apostles; the Gibson Steps; the Loch Ard Gorge; Thunder Cave; the London Bridge; the Bay of Islands.

Another beautiful day in Australia😄…Sunny, breezy, mid-70s… While in Mount Gambier we visited the Information Center; dined at Metro Bakery & Cafe; visited a beautiful garden in a volcanic sinkhole – “Umpherston” – and Blue Lake which fills a volcano crater. Our next stop on the Southern Ports Highway was the village/town of Robe – a small beach, fishing, shipping town with a great ice cream shop😋. The last part of our journey to Tailem Bend was very monotonous 😳