In the Land of the Quokkas

At the very end of May/start of June, Ross and I went to Perth for a long weekend. I've wanted to go to Perth for a long time. I think part of it is just how far away from everything Perth is and part of it is that I'd never seen the Indian Ocean before and then I found out about quokkas and realized that I couldn't miss a chance to go to Perth should  one present itself. Rewind back to Valentine's Day. Ross was back in Wellington finishing up some lab work and I was feeling lonely so I was scrolling through Facebook and saw that TigerAir (one of the Aussie budget airlines) was having a two-for-one sale on domestic flights. I decided to have a look at some of the options and ended up calling Ross after midnight (NZ time) to see if he wanted to go to Perth and to make sure that the dates I had selected didn't conflict with a conference he had in NZ in June. The dates didn't conflict and so, while we had terrible flight times, we were going to Perth!

Quokka!

We left Melbourne around 10 pm on a Thursday and, after the two hour time change, landed in Perth about midnight. Needless to say, we went straight to our AirBnb and crashed. Friday morning we got up and wandered across the Swan River and over to explore the Botanical Garden, which is located on a bluff overlooking the city and the river. We also spent some time at the WWI memorial.

From there we caught an Uber (Ross and I finally broke down and joined Uber) out to Fremantle, which is located about a half hour west on the coast. Fremantle is a really cute little town with a bunch of gold-rush era buildings. It is also home to the Fremantle Prison which is Western Australia's only World Heritage listed building. The prison was built by convicts between 1852 and 1859 and began holding prisoners in 1855. It was in continuous use until it was decommissioned in 1991. At this point it is a major tourist attraction and there are a number of different tours that you can take. Ross and I opted for a simple history tour, which was quite fascinating.

Prison Chapel

Following the prison tour, we wandered through the Fremantle Markets and then headed over to the Western Australia Museum - Shipwreck Galleries, which hosts what is considered to be the finest collection of maritime archeology in the southern hemisphere. It was incredible. They had cases of bottles, plates, cigars, coins, etc. that had been pulled from the numerous shipwrecks along Western Australia's coast. There was even part of the hull of a Dutch merchant ship that was wrecked in 1629. It was amazing.

Fremantle Market

To top off an already pretty stellar day, we watched the sun set over the Indian Ocean and I took off my shoes and waded around in an ocean that I'd never seen before. Then we had delicious fish and chips (kind of a requirement when you're on the coast) and made our way back to Perth.

Saturday was the day that I'd been waiting for with bated breath. We caught a ride over to Fremantle again and then loaded onto the ferry for the 35 minute ride over to Rottnest Island (aka the Land of the Quokkas). A coworker had told me that he and his wife were super excited when they first saw a quokka but that they quickly became bored with them because they are all over the island. I can confirm that there are quokkas all over the island and that they are totally fearless, but I pointed out each one that I saw to Ross with the same excitement as I had the first. Honestly I sometimes wonder how Ross puts up with my seemingly endless excitement and childlike wonder for certain things. I only say this because I probably pointed out at least 50 quokkas over the course of the day and took pictures of basically every single one of them.

This is how they sleep!

They kind of look like big, hopping rats (complete with scaly tail),
but way cuter!

There are a couple options for getting around Rottnest Island. You can go on guided tours, take the hop-on, hop-off bus, rent a bike (or bring your own) or good, old fashioned walking. The island is pretty big and Ross was still recovering from dislocating his shoulder so we went for a combo walk and hop-on, hop-off bus option. The entire island is gorgeous and there were so many different birds, plus there are these huge skinks (Kings Skinks) all over the place. There are also a couple pretty venomous snakes (because Australia...) but, it being winter, or just shear dumb luck, we didn't see any, though we were watching for them.

A geologist in his natural habitat.

During the summer these lakes are really pink but they only have
a pink tint around the edges during the winter.

Kings Skink

Red-capped Robin

One of my goals for the trip was to get a selfie with a quokka. This was achieved in the best possible manner that I could have ever hoped for. You are told in no uncertain terms on the ferry that you are not allowed to touch the quokkas and doing so can land you with a hefty fine. The staff did point out that the quokkas are very friendly though so if they touch you, it's okay. I had kind of been following a quokka around by the general store trying to get a picture with it. I finally sat down on the ground in the hope that I was close enough to get a passable selfie. The quokka hopped over to me and put it's little paws on my leg and then hopped into my lap. I was torn between joy that it was in my lap and anxiety that a ranger would come by and fine me for touching it. I though of pushing it off my lap but reasoned that qualified as touching it, plus I didn't want to hurt it. So instead I thoroughly enjoyed the 5 minutes or so that it hung out on my lap, sniffed me and licked my fingers. Quokka life goals achieved.

Eventually it was time to head back to Fremantle and so Ross and I tore ourselves away from the quokkas and took the ferry back to the mainland. We ended up having dinner in Fremantle again and then headed back to Perth.

Sunday was our last day in Western Australia (WA) but our flight didn't leave for Melbourne until around midnight so we spent the day wandering around Perth. After a leisurely morning in South Perth, where our AirBnB was, we headed across the Swan River and made our way toward the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Western Australia Museum - Perth, which are located right next to each other. We had figured that those two would easily keep us busy for the rest of the day. Imagine our surprise then when we arrived at the Museum only to see that it was undergoing massive renovation and was closed until sometime in 2020. I mention that we were surprised because there wasn't anything in our guidebook and it was clear that the renovations had been going on for quite some time. The Art Gallery made up for the museum though and we ending up spending the whole afternoon wandering through the various floors. 

Perth and the Swan River

Following the Art Gallery we went to an amazing dumpling restaurant (there were people lining up outside before it even opened) and then saw Godzilla 2, because why not. Our flight left a little late so we ended up getting into Melbourne around 7 am. Luckily I had taken Monday off too, so Ross and I both crashed when we got home and slept until about noon. We both really want to go back to Perth and explore more of Western Australia. Until next time, enjoy the warm, summer weather in the northern hemisphere and send warm thoughts our way as we get into the middle of winter.