Perth is one of the fastest growing cities in Australia, though someone once told me that it is a boring city. It is very quiet and we hardly see any shops opening at night. Well, it might be boring for shoppers, but there are many fun things to do from here. For me, I like the vibe in Perth and told Ben that we should consider retiring here. 🙂

We visited in mid-winter and it was not too cold, perhaps we are used to the cooler weather in Melbourne. This is my first trip to Perth and we had a very good time here – experiencing something different from the past such as visiting quokkas, sandboarding, and walking on a desert.

 

Taking a selfie with quokkas on Rottnest Island

In my opinion, taking a selfie with quokkas should be on the bucket list because they are too cute! The most popular place to see quokkas is Rottnest Island in Western Australia.

Quokkas are known as the happiest animal on earth, because they are always smiling and hence making them the perfect pal for a selfie. They are also one of the smallest wallaby species in Australia.

We took a ferry (Rottnest Express) from Barrack Street in Perth CBD which takes about 1.5 hours. It is quicker to travel from Fremantle but we decided to take the long way so we could enjoy the city cruise.

It is really easy to see quokkas as there are around 10,000 of them on Rottnest Island and they are really cute 🙂 They are mostly in the visitor centre as they look for food there. Surprisingly, they are not afraid of humans so we can just approach them easily although we are not supposed to touch or feed them.

But it is not just about quokkas on Rottnest Island as it also has stunning beaches. It is very relaxing to sit on a rock watching the beach and white sands.

The best way to explore Rottnest Island is cycling because cars are not permitted on the island. We were really exhausted as we are not good cyclers – but it was worth the effort as otherwise we would not be able to visit the beaches since they are a bit too far by foot.

 

Having a relaxing day at Fremantle

Fremantle is a beautiful coastal town and is rich in history. It only takes about 30 minutes to travel from Perth to Fremantle. It is named one of the 50 greatest places by Time Magazine with the description ‘Eat, drink, and be Aussie’ (source: Time Magazine). The Fremantle Prison is a UNESCO world heritage site.

However, we did not do too many things in Fremantle as we were exhausted from cycling the day before. We walked around the street, enjoyed nice food in the cafés, and also visited the colourful Rainbow Sea Container.

 

Joining a day tour to Lancelin Sand Dunes and The Pinnacles

We did not plan for any tour because it was supposed to rain for most of our trip according to the forecast – but it ended up fine. So we booked a last-minute tour to one of the most famous attractions in Western Australia: The Pinnacles.

We went with Australian Pinnacle Tours for $185 per person. It is a 10-hour tour from 8am to 6pm. We initially wanted to take another tour but it was cancelled due to not enough people. In fact, our tour had fewer than 20 people and I think the bus can take 40-50 people – not sure if it is due to covid or maybe there are generally fewer tourists in winter.

The tour started at Hillarys Boat Harbour and we stopped here for about an hour. This is a place to explore the marina, shop for souvenirs and enjoy morning tea. But since we arrived here too early in the morning, many shops were not yet open so we did not buy anything other than having morning tea at Dome Restaurant.

Then, we arrived at Lancelin Sand Dunes – this is a great place for sandboarding. Since there were not many people on the tour, every group received a sandboard and had a chance to enjoy the thrill of downhill sandboarding on the white dunes.

Sandboarding is one of the most fun things I have ever done!

I am afraid of height but I swear I went for much higher dunes – Ben only took the photo of me when I did my first practice on a short one. 😅

After lunch, it took about another hour to reach The Pinnacles. This is my first time in a desert so it was quite an interesting experience. It was quite warm here despite being winter. We spotted a wild kangaroo and emu!

 

Wandering around the Perth city

My original reason to visit Perth is to renew my Malaysian passport, but then found out I can renew it online. The other reason is to meet my brother and sister-in-law and also seeing my nephew for the first time.

It was not a good timing to travel because I recently just started a new job, and the weather was not good during our time in Perth. But anyway it was a very nice and well-deserved break especially since we hardly travel nowadays due to COVID. We hope we can travel more often once the COVID situation becomes more stable.