The afternoon following the Australian Grand Prix, we embarked on a road trip from Melbourne to Sydney in an effort to see some of the country side.  We could’ve done this in eight hours by taking the M1, but we decided to take the Princes Highway to see as much of Australia’s beautiful coast as possible.  This decision increased our journey to nearly 15 hours, but I think you’ll agree by the end of this post that it was totally worth it!

We stopped just outside of Melbourne for afternoon coffee and maps, because we were no longer in Meghan’s beautiful BMW we couldn’t rely on Starla’s navigation.  We wanted to stay as close to the coast as possible, meaning that we would get off the Princes Highway frequently onto smaller local roads.  For my road tripping American friends, we did not find a map like you would expect, you know with all the roads clearly marked and blow-ups of the larger towns to help us navigate.  Instead, we found a…hmmm…let’s call it an overview of the major roads in Victoria and New South Wales, for about $10 each.

Our next stop was in Lakes Entrance, for two reasons: First, I was ready for a bathroom break, urgently.  Second, I really wanted my parents to see 90 Mile Beach.  It still blows my mind that Australia has these incredible, untouched beaches.  In America, we build hotels or million dollar homes on them to make them unreachable to the average person.  We had the same experience at Lakes Entrance on 90 Mile Beach that Ben and I had two years earlier: As far as we could see, there wasn’t another human to impede our view or ruin our photos.

After enjoying 90 Mile Beach until nearly sunset, we decided to see how far we could make it, though reluctantly, because we weren’t sure what we’d miss…Eden was our Target, as this is the halfway point between Melbourne and Sydney, which would leave us with eight hours of driving the following day.  We arrived in Eden around 9:30 pm, and stopped in Coles to get sandwich making supplies for dinner.  We were all far too tired to eat out that evening.  As my parents picked out our supplies, I used hotels.com to make a booking at the Comfort Inn Merimbula, which was approximately 20 minutes away.  When we arrived at 10pm, the place was dark, so I pressed the after hours call button so we could get checked in.  The manager lectured me about calling when late reservations are made because they close at 8pm, though their door clearly said 9:30pm AND hotels.com accepted the booking.  Finally, I said, “Maybe you should set hotels.com to NOT accept after hours reservations.”  Bottomline, I usually like Comfort Inns for on-the-fly bookings both in Oz and in America, but I would not stay here again and I would not recommend you stay here because the innkeepers were rude.  On the bright side, my parents got their first real and significant view of lorikeets playing in the wild just outside our hotel room as we drank our coffee on the patio the following morning.

The next morning we hit the road early heading for Bondi, where we would spend our first night in Sydney, stopping, of course, to see the sights and pristine beaches along the way.  Our first stop was Tura beach, where we also had coffee and pastries for breakfast.  I was again blown away by just how beautiful and untouched Tura Beach is!

From here we continued up the coast, staying as close to the coast as possible, you know on the small, sometimes gravel local roads with one lane bridges that we could kind of find on our half-assed overpriced map.  We came across Mckenzie Beach, used a dirty rural outhouse with a possum chilling above the toilet (ok, I did, Mom decided she could wait), and got our first glimpse of the foothills before arriving in Bondi in the pouring down rain just after sunset.

It is a long-ass drive up the coast from Melbourne to Sydney along the Princes Highway, but I believe it’s worth doing once because it really is beautiful.  After that, just take the 58 minute flight and save yourself two days.

How could two race lovers visit their daughter and son-in-law in Melbourne while the Grand Prix season opener was happening and not attend?

We decided to get grounds passes, rather than grand stand or marquee passes, because then we would have access to the entire track and all of the show cars.  It was a good thing we went with this option too, because we literally walked the entire track!

We arrived early, and by public transport so that we could enjoy the fine, albeit slightly warm, Australian beer on this beautiful autumn day.  The schedule for the day was quite full, allowing us to see GT, V8 Supercars, and the Porsche Carrera Cup before the Formula One race.

After these races, my favorite part of the day commenced: the RAAF Roulettes!

And the RAAF Jet flyover, for which we were perfectly located at the far end of Albert Lake with a gorgeous view of Melbourne.

Finally, we reached the main event!  The Formula One cars hit the track for a 56 laps or 2 hours of racing, whichever came first.  There was one crash during the race, which we saw on the big screen, and then we got ourselves lined up at the end of the race to see them remove the car from the track. I’m not sure if they do this at all F1 races, but we were allowed onto the track after the race ended!

If you’re in Melbourne for the Grand Prix season opener, I highly recommend attending, even if you’re not a race fan.  It’s certainly an experience to be had!

Tasmania was Mom & Dad’s first taste of traveling Heather-style.  We had a 6:00 AM flight out of Melbourne on Thursday morning and came back in on the last flight Friday night, giving us two full days in Tassie but we only had to pay for one night in a hotel.  This did, however, mean a 3:15 AM alarm clock….

We were in our rental car by 7:30 AM and on the road to Richmond where our first stop was the Ashmore on Bridge for breakfast, very large long blacks and a flip through the visitor information we picked up at the airport.  As I read the menu at the center table of the bright but chilly dining room looking for something warm and hearty to eat, I came across Savory French Toast served with Field Mushrooms and Spinach.  I thought to myself, “Huh.  Savory french toast?  That seems weird and interesting all at the same time,” so I ordered it.  The others had the Eggs Benedict, which they really enjoyed, but I highly recommend you give the Savory French Toast a try!

After we were fed and coffeed, we headed for our first Richmond destination: the Richmond Bridge.  This bridge, along the Convict Trail, is the oldest bridge still in use in Australia, the oldest stone arch bridge in Australia, and was built using convict labor.  According to the historical marker on site, the sandstone for this bridge was hand-quarried and hand-hauled to the site of the bridge, where the jailer (or gaoler, in Australian English) was so cruel that the convicts pushed him off the bridged to his death while he slept in a drunken stupor.  None of them were convicted for his murder.

It was a beautiful, sunny and brisk autumn morning in Richmond, making for a very tranquil visit to the Richmond Bridge.  The ducks, geese and swans were happy to have us linger with them.  Did you know that Swans in Australia are natively Black Swans?  There are only approximately 80 living white Swans in all of Australia, and they all live along the Avon River in Western Australia.

As we stood along the bank of the river admiring the bridge, I looked up and saw the steeple of a church.  When I suggested to the group that we investigate, because it looked beautiful, they agreed.  Lucky for us we stumbled upon the St John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, which is regarded as the oldest Catholic church in Australia, having been built in 1836.  The architect, Fredrick Thomas, was a rehabilitated transported convict that eventually became an architect.  The church and cemetery are open to the public for visitation, and I highly recommend visiting {and donating to} this spectacularly beautiful and historic site.

Since we were on a tour of Australia’s oldest, we also decided to visit the Richmond Gaol, which is the oldest intact jail in Australia.  No longer in operation, this is now a tourist site that remains largely unchanged since its closure in 1945.  As we toured, we were able to step into solitary confinement rooms, which measure 6 1/2 feet by 3 1/2 feet, where convicts could be held in complete darkness for 24 hours to 30 days eating just bread and water.  I couldn’t last 30 seconds with the door closed, which makes me think I’d have gone crazy if I had to stay in there for 24 hours or more…CREEPY!

Our goal for the day was Port Arthur, so we began our journey down the Tasman Peninsula.  Our first stop was along a scenic loop off of the main highway at Pirates Bay Drive Lookout on Eaglehawk Neck, which is “the gateway to the Tasman Peninsula.”  Here we learned about our next four scenic stops we would make on our way to Port Arthur.

The first of our 4 scenic stops was Tessellated Pavement.  {Geology nerd moment} These formations are formed when a relatively flat surface is cracked by contractions or small movements in the earth, forming fairly consistent and even rectangles in the surface.  The erosion then causes either pans or loaves, depending on how much time that portion of the rock spends under water.  The pans are concave formations formed where the rock is mostly out of water, allowing the salt crystals to develop and erosion to  occur more quickly.  Loaves, on the other hand, look more like the top of a loaf of bread, spending more time under water, thus not allowing the salt crystals to form or erosion to happen as quickly.  Either way, they’re a fascinating texture in the rock at the sea shore along the Tasman Peninsula. We all had fun admiring the little crabs, snails and fish trapped in the pools of water formed during low tide.

The Dog Line was created by Peyton Jones to prevent prisoners from escaping Port Arthur.  He placed half-starved ferocious dogs at regular intervals, including on rafts in the water, along with lamps to brightly illuminate the cockle shells, and a detachment of soldiers across the narrowest point of the peninsula.  This, along with the frigid cold water, prevented all but a few from escaping Port Arthur.

The Blowhole, formed by erosion from the sea, was pretty spectacular despite fairly calm seas on this beautiful autumn day.

From The Blowhole, we took a nice stroll out to the Fossil Bay Lookout.

Next we moved onto the Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen, which share a car park and are an easy stroll apart.  Standing at the lookout, looking down into Devil’s Kitchen could make you queasy in the knees if you have a fear of heights, because all you can do is look down into the frothing sea below.

Honestly, we could have spent the entire day enjoying the beauty of Eaglehawk Neck, but we decided to head for Port Arthur, a World Heritage listed site, that operated as a maximum security prison for repeat offenders after being sentenced to transportation in the British Penal system.  Included in our admission was a guided tour to get the lay of the land, a harbor cruise to see where the dead were buried and the location of the boys prison, and entry into all of the buildings and museums on site.

The convicts at Port Arthur were among the first to be subjected to psychological punishment in addition to physical punishment.  Depending up  the severity of their in-prison offense, they could be subjected to reduced rations, flogging, or separation.  Those sentenced to a flogging would be kept conscious for each lash issued by the cat-o-nine tails.  If the doctor deemed that they could be killed by proceeding, they would be sentenced to water duty, where they would work in shoulder deep freezing saltwater of the bay until the doctor decided they were well enough to continue with the punishment.

If they continued to repeat offend at Port Arthur, they could be sent to the Separate Prison, where they were hooded and forced to stay silent.  They were allowed no interaction with any of the guards or other prisoners, and the only time they were allowed to use their voice during the week was to sing hymns at the weekly church service.  As you tour the Separate Prison, you are asked to do so in complete silence to understand how loud and overbearing silence can be.  We were allowed inside of the chapel, and even into the separation cubbies that the prisoners attended the service from.  I can only imagine that solitary confinement would be worse than this, and those who did not behave in the Separate Prison would be sentenced to up to 30 days in solitary.  So many of the prisoners subjected to the Separate Prison developed mental illness, that a lunatic asylum had to be built at Port Arthur.

Some of the wardens at Port Arthur subscribed to the belief of reformation and rehabilitation, rather than punishment.  Prisoners were given training in a trade, such as ship building, shoe-making, metal/black smithing, timber and brick making, and flour milling.  A non-denomationational church was built for the prisoners by a warden that believed they would attend if the minister/priest/reverend/rabbi didn’t alienate them by preaching from specific sectors.  Historians say that this was a favorite time of week for many of the prisoners, so apparently this warden was right.

We also visited the memorial for the Port Arthur Massacre, which led to national gun-reform in Australia where Australians willingly and voluntarily turned over their arms.  As this is quite a sad and sensitive subject for my Australian friends, I will say no more on the subject.

Port Arthur was shut down in 1877, and for a time Tasmanians tried to forget.  When bush fires moved through in 1897, the mentality was to let it burn.  Many of the buildings were torn down in the late 1800s/early 1900s so that the stone could be used for other buildings, rather than quarrying stone.  Tourism began almost as soon as the prison closed, but it wasn’t until 1979 that this officially became a historic site.

The history and beauty of Port Arthur is so great that we walked until our feet hurt and the sun was gone before heading back to Hobart, where we stayed at the Quest Trinity House.  This was absolutely perfect for us, having two bedrooms, a full kitchen and spacious lounge.  We had dinner at Maldini Cafe Restaurant before finishing the evening with a whiskey tasting {for Ben, wine or beer for the rest of us} at Nant.  I’m not usually a whiskey girl, but Ben asked me to taste one that had been aged in a Pinot Noir barrel.  I did not enjoy the taste, but it smelled amazing!  By this point, we were exhausted!  We did get up at 3:15AM for our early morning flight to Hobart…

Our second morning in Tasmania was a bit more relaxed than our first, allowing us to lounge around in our awesome hotel until check-out before heading up to the Cascade Brewery to take the tour.  Did you know that this is the oldest continuously operating brewery in Australia?  It was originally founded as a saw mill in 1825, and then converted into a brewery in 1831, surviving severe bush fires through the years.  In the beginning, the workers were allowed to drink beer all day long, every day, as the worked; at some point in the 1900s this was changed to allow the workers to only drink during their breaks.  Fun facts from the tour guide was that some of the workers could down ten pints on a tea break!  In 1993 Cascade Brewery was bought out by Carlton, eliminating the chance to drink on the job.  However, to keep some of the history, each employee gets a slab (for my American friends, a case) of beer with each paycheck and the bar hosts a free employee happy hour each Friday starting at 4PM.

Included with your tour, you get four 7-ounce beers, allowing us to try nearly all of their beers!  Consensus within our group was that we preferred the Cascade Draft and the Cascade Stout.  Because the Cascade Draft is not exported to the mainland of Australia, Ben and I decided to purchase a 6-pack of this, and, why not the stout too?  Mom and Dad learned that domestically within Australia, there are no limits of the liquid you can carry on when Ben and I carried these bad-boys right through security and onto the plane.

Though our first day in Tasmania was sunny and beautiful, our second day was more what you’d expect from mid-March: rainy and cold.  After our brewery tour, we stuck around for lunch and found ourselves still there for the 2PM Beer Pulling Competition.  Naturally, Dad and I both entered, and I won my round taking me into the grand finale, where sadly I spilled my beer and lost.  The Cascade Brewery is really an excellent way to spend half of your rainy day in Hobart!

After touring the brewery, we headed back into Hobart for a bit of shopping and sightseeing on foot before having dinner at Jack Greene Bar.  By this point, we were all so tired from our full-on two days in Tasmania, that we were ready to sit and glad to be heading back to Melbourne.

Tasmania is so uniquely beautiful and different from anywhere else in Australia, that it is a MUST SEE should you find yourself in Australia! {I know!  I end nearly every post about Australia with a must see comment, but this is an incredibly beautiful country!}

In the two and a half years that we’ve traveled this massive, beautiful country, I believe that the Great Ocean Road is one of the most beautiful places that exists here.  It was our first weekend away when we moved here (The Great Ocean Road in 2 Days) and I’ve been itching to do it again.  When Mom picked it out of her travel guide, saying she’d like to see it, I was super excited!  Our friend generously lent us her car for the adventure, I reserved a room in Warrnambool, and we decided that we wanted to make it to the 12 Apostles for sunset.  We had a plan, so we hit the road.

I thought it would be nice if we took a small detour through Geelong, because the waterfront is so pretty. Unfortunately, after two and a half years driving in Australia, the road sign placement still confuses me!  For those of you who are familiar with Geelong, we ended up on Separation Street rather than North Shore Drive.  Trying to suavely play it off, I suggested that we drive past my office, but also managed to mess that one up, as I’ve only ever left the office this way….We did eventually find the office, and the waterfront, but our quick detour through Geelong was actually about an hour long!

At long last, we made it to Torquay and decided to start our journey down the Great Ocean Road with a quick stop at the beach and a much needed large long black!

Our next stop, which came up much faster than I was expecting was Bells Beach.  While we were here, the surf was moving in, they were setting up for the surfing competition that was happening the next week, and I found these amazing shells that had clearly been worn down by the sea over time.

Then we continued along to Urquhart Bluff Beach, of course watching for Kangaroos as we left Bells Beach (we didn’t see any) and in Anglesea (we didn’t see any here either, but we missed the golf course).

By the time we reached Aireys Inlet, I was starting to get concerned that we’d somehow missed the Great Ocean Road sign, maybe while we were on the Bells Beach loop road….but I remembered loving the lighthouse and view at Aireys Inlet.  I also get a kick out of the fact that it’s called Split Point Lighthouse, because it always makes me think of Split Rock Lighthouse, which is my favorite lighthouse.

Fortunately, it turns out we did not miss the Great Ocean Road Memorial Arch, it was just much further down the drive than I remembered!  We also made some stops along the side of the road as we drove, you know, to prevent carsickness.  It is quite a windy road.

We arrived at the Twelve Apostles exactly when we planned, despite our earlier detour through Geelong. I was, again, blown away by how breath-takingly beautiful the Twelve Apostles, and all of the Great Ocean Road, are!  Just like the first time down this drive, I kept saying, “We’re in frickin’ Australia!” and “Look at the color of the water!”

After the sun was gone, we hit the pavement and headed for our hotel in Warrnambool.  We stayed at the Best Western Olde Maritime, which was adorable.  Our room was lofted, giving my parents a bit of privacy and separation from me, but still allowing us to chat long after we’d turned the lights out.  Raj in reception was extremely friendly and welcoming, even calling Bojangles to tell them we were hungry and on our way.  I would not recommend the vegetarian pizza with pumpkin and pesto, and I would say that you need more than 1 pizza to feed 3 hungry people.  The waiter misguided us a bit on that one, saying that 1 pizza was probably plenty for the three of us.  I would say that would have been true if we were having it as a starter rather than a main.

Warrnambool, it turns out, is an adorable town and our hotel was so near the beach that we could hear the waves in the morning.  Naturally, we sought out the beach because we all are drawn to water and who wouldn’t want to take a walk on the beach in the morning?

Did you know that they call Logan’s Beach in Warrnambool a WHALE NURSERY?  Between May and October the Southern Right Whales come into Lady Bay to birth and raise their calves; we discovered this by following the signs for the Whale Nursery, thinking it would be some sort of attraction (I know, very American of us…), and then discovered this.  Had I known this 2 years ago, I would have spent {much more} time in Warrnambool in winter!

As we drove from Warrnambool back down the Great Ocean Road towards Melbourne to see the things we’d missed the day prior, we headed through cattle country.  I thought to myself, “I think there is a Warrnambool Vintage Cheddar that Ben and I really like…”  Suddenly, I saw a sign for FREE CHEESE TASTING 500 METERS, so I said, “Free cheese tasting anyone?” just before I slammed on the brakes and pulled into the parking lot of Allansford Cheese World.  Let’s be honest here, it was a rhetorical question.  Who wouldn’t want a free cheese tasting (unless of course you are lactose intolerant)?

After politely wandering through the gift shop, cheese shop and reviewing the cafe menu, we made a beeline for the cheese tasting.  We were allowed to taste 6 cheeses, each better than the last, and then decided to take an entire wheel of the Warrnambool Club Cheddar with us.  It was absolutely the favorite of all 3 of us.  Despite all of our adventures while Mom & Dad were here, we made it nearly half way through this kilogram wheel of cheese before they left; Ben and I finished it off within a week of them leaving.  It was a cheese not to be wasted, and to be shared in extreme moderation with my gleeful pups.

Once we hit the coast, we found ourselves at the Bay of Islands, where I again found myself exclaiming, “Look at the color of the water!”

“What’s the Grotto?” I asked not too long after leaving the Bay of Islands.  Since none of us were certain, I naturally pulled in to find out.  For the curious geology nerds like myself, it’s a natural formation that occurs when the sinkholes in the limestone meet up with the eroding cliff.  The water inside of the Grotto was eerily still against the crashing waves of the Southern Ocean in the background.

Perhaps from the same parking lot as the Grotto, but maybe from the parking lot of Loch Ard Gorge, we followed a hiking path to Thunder Cave, which once upon a time had an arch over it that has collapsed from erosion.  Approximately another kilometer down this path was something called the Blowhole, but we decided that we were not prepared to add 2km to our current hike and did not go down there.  While I’ve not posted a photo here, because they did not turnout well enough, the view from Thunder Cave to the Blowhole was beautiful.

(Yes, we made all the terrible jokes you’re thinking right now, and yes, Ben made them again when we returned from our 2 day road trip down the Great Ocean Road….)

The next stop along our tour of the Great Ocean Road was Loch Ard Gorge, which is named for a ship that wrecked against the rocks at this site leaving only 2 survivors that were stranded on the beach below the cliffs.  Today there are stairs that you utilize to access the beach, which also gives you perspective on how overwhelming it would be to wash ashore here.

Remember that childhood song that went “London Bridge is falling down…” Well, in 1990 the first arch of the London Bridge formation did finally give way to the battering wind and waves of the Southern Ocean, collapsing into the water.  No one was injured, but two people were stranded on the remaining arch and had to be rescued by helicopter.  Despite how terrifying that would be, all I can think is how beautiful it would have been to be able to lookout from the London Bridge back at the southern coast of Australia, and how awesome it would have been to witness this incredible act of nature.

Our last stop before the road took us back inland to Otway National Forest, was the Arch.  The wind was high and the seas were rough that day, making for spectacular viewing of waves crashing through the arch.

Bathrooms are few and far between along the Great Ocean Road, so we did make a pit stop at the 12 Apostles to use the facilities, and were distracted for a time by the helicopters.  Approximately every 15 minutes, a helicopter would land, unload, reload and take-off again within about 2 minutes.  It was so windy that day, that has they turned toward the coast line the downdraft would cause them to dip dramatically towards the ground.

From here we decided to head straight for Cape Otway to see the koalas.  As I prepared to make my righthand turn down the road to the Cape Otway Lighthouse, or the Koala Viewing Road, as I like to call it, there ware lots of cars pulled over and people in the road at the entrance, so I said, “What are these idiots doing? This seems unsafe…” and then I shouted, “OH MY GOD THERE IS A KOALA CROSSING THE ROAD!!!!” (I only remember shouting this once, but believe my Dad when he says I shouted it about 6 times.)  Do you see him climbing over the guardrail? My Mom was able to get an incredible picture of this koala looking straight into her camera as he climbed the tree after crossing the road.  He’s so cute I can hardly handle it!

W made several stops along this road to see a koala high up in a tree, and at one point there were 3 koalas near each other fairly low down, so we got out of the car to have a look.  Several minutes later, I turned around and saw that we’d left the doors wide open on the car in our koala viewing frenzy.  At least now I know where my childlike excitement comes from.

Not surprisingly, we returned to the city quite late that night, starving.  My incredible husband had made pizza crusts and prepared all of the ingredients for us.  Homemade pizzas were just 10 minutes away!

If you find yourselves in Australia, the Great Ocean Road is not to be missed!

As we were planning their trip, my Mom and I discussed that a day of wine tasting in the Yarra Valley would be fun, and beautiful.  Fortunately, all of our friends also LOVE wine and a day was already in the cards.  After all, Lynette, Aaron and I had all recently left Target and required a celebration.

We used For the Love of Grape to organize our outing and ensure everyone could enjoy the tastings that day without the responsibility of driving.  Leah was amazing, and incredibly helpful in recommending which wineries to visit, but also allowing us to to tailor the day as we wanted.  We chose two of the wineries, and had her recommend the lunch venue/tasting and a small winery that was new to all of us.  She was extremely flexible, also, allowing us to tag the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie to the end of our day, at no extra charge.  If you’re planning a day out, I’m certain everyone in our group would recommend that you use For the Love of Grape to organize your day.

Our first stop of the day, was Coldstream Hills.  A few of us had been here before and thoroughly enjoyed it; a few of us had tasted their wines at an event a few weeks earlier and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Based on these factors, we requested this winery be on the list.  We worked our way through every wine they had available for tasting that day, each picking out some favorites.  Unfortunately, they lost us at the end of the tasting with a aggressively long sales pitch, even providing my parents with information on how to ship their wine club to America.  It was so long, in fact, that by the end of it I had forgotten what I was thinking of purchasing.  Thirteen of us walked out of this winery without purchasing a single bottle of wine, not because we disliked their wines, but because we were turned off by the sales pitch.  The friends that had visited a few weeks earlier mentioned as we made our way back to the bus that this was not the experience they’d previously had.  We chalked it up to large group mentality on the winery’s part.

Our second stop of the day was Hanrahan Vineyard, which none of us had been to or heard of before.  In fact, the co-owner of the vineyard asked me about our tour company, so I told her how wonderful For the Love of Grape had been in organizing our day, and advised her to form a relationship with them.  They seated us in a private area, told us their history and then took us on a tour of their wines.  As we tasted, it seemed like each one was better than the last!  The man giving the tasting was extremely personable, read our group well, and just wanted to talk about the wines and their vineyard.  He invited us to stay in the private seating area as long as we felt like, and never pressured us to purchase any wines.  In fact, I had to ask him as we were leaving where to purchase.  I believe each of us purchased two bottles of wine from them, with my personal favorites being the 2012 Shiraz and 2012 Chardonnay!  And we’re already planning our next trip back to Hanrahan Vineyard.  If you’re going out for a day, or planning a tour, be sure to add these guys to your itinerary.

The next stop on our itinerary was Tokar Estate & Restaurant, which unfortunately did not impress anyone in our group.  I should clarify, that the food we had for lunch was very nice, but despite knowing that there were four vegetarians in our group, they did not present a vegetarian menu, instead making us request it in addition to their prix-fixe menu that they were offering us.  After ordering, we were invited to the bar for our tasting, which was not large enough for a group of 13 people.  At the bar, we met the owner’s son, who seemed to have a bad case of the coke-sweats and came across as a douche-bag spoiled little rich brat.  He really didn’t give us any information about the wines, instead talking about how great of a chef he was, that he had to retire already because there was no improvement left for him.  As Ben would say, he was a total FIGJAM (fuck I’m good, just ask me).  Once we were settled back at our table, we weren’t allowed to choose our favorite wine from the tasting to enjoy with our meal, but instead were allowed to choose “red” or “white”, which is what I expect from an airplane or pub, not a winery.  We were served the worst wines from the tasting with our meals.  Overall, this venue was disappointing and I would not visit again.

Our last winery stop of the day was Yering Station, which is proudly Victoria’s oldest vineyard. This was my second trip to this winery, and my honest opinion was that the girl who did my first tasting here was better than the guy who lead this tasting.  She was more informative, involved with the group and friendly.  The guide on this day seamed to be a bit rushed, and had a lot less to say about each wine, how to taste it, what to pair it with, and where to locate it within the massive shop. It was quite busy there, being Labour Day Weekend, but if this had been my first experience at Yering Station, I might not go back.  On this day, I did not make any purchases at this winery, however I have in the past.

After our visit to Yering Station, we stopped off at the Yarra Valley Chocolaterie & Ice Creamery.  It was crazy in there, but we managed to enjoy our ice cream and stock up on chocolates before heading back to the city.  As we loaded into the bus, our wonderfully friendly driver asked if anyone was on a tight schedule.  No one was, so he suggested one additional stop to enjoy the gorgeous view over the Yarra Valley with Melbourne in the background.  This was definitely above and beyond, as we were well past the end of our itinerary and the time that For the Love of Grape had promised to us, but knowing that my parents were tourists and the rest of us had never been before, Eric wanted to share his favorite place in the Yarra Valley with our group.

I’ve already said it, but I’ll say again that I would highly recommend For the Love of Grape if your organizing a day out in the Yarra Valley or Ballerina Peninsula. Hands down, my favorite winery of the day, and I think I speak for the whole group, was Hanrahan Vineyard.

A couple of months ago, I was wandering through the Thomas Dux (for my Minneapolis friends, think Kowalski’s) across the street and came across a jar of Loving Earth Coconut Nectar.  I’ve not seen or heard of this before, so I bought it and decided that I’d figure out what to do with it later.

And then it sat in my cabinet until yesterday morning, when I had a craving for a berry loaded muffin.  I wanted my muffin to be healthy and amazing, not one of those weigh you down but enjoy every bite muffins that you purchase at the coffee shop.  So I set to work creating a muffin, using my coconut nectar and the frozen mixed berries in my freezer, attempting to use the healthiest ingredients in my pantry only.  I think I pretty much nailed it.

Mixed Berry Muffins

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 banana, mashed
• 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract (because I love vanilla!)
• 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup coconut nectar
• 1/2 cup skim milk (Normally, I’d use coconut milk, but I’m out)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen mixed berries

Heat oven to 350F (200C).  (As I do not own a microwave, I melted my coconut oil by placing it in a small dish and letting it melt in the oven as it preheated.)

Whisk/Sift together all dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.  Add mashed banana.

Beat the egg, and then add remaining liquids and whisk together.  Slowly add liquids to dry ingredients, stirring as you go.

If you mind, chop your frozen berries to a consistent size; if you don’t mind, then don’t.  Stir into your batter.  Divide amongst 12 silicon baking cups, and bake for 22 – 26 minutes, until tops are golden brown and firm when tapped.  Toothpick inserted should come out clean, but it’s sometimes hard to tell because of all the berry goodness inside.

These are amazing fresh from the oven, or the next morning.  We’ve had them for breakfast today and yesterday.  Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

YUM! ENJOY!

I can’t believe that Ben and I have been married for a year (and a half) already!  It feels like just yesterday we were heading off to Hawaii for a dream wedding.  When suggesting this trip, I had two thoughts in mind: First, we’d gotten married in Hawaii, so obviously we should celebrate our anniversary somewhere incredible. Second, Fiji is SO accessible and SO close to Australia, that this was obviously a no brainer!

When we got off the plane in Fiji, there was a welcome band!  How could this not be an amazing weekend?  BULA!

We hired Rosie Holidays to take us from the airport to our hotel, and were fortunate enough to have a private car with a driver who was happy to tell us all about Fiji, the people, their culture and history.

We stayed at The Warwick Fiji on the Coral Coast, which was beautiful and the staff was incredibly friendly.  Every time you passed a staff member, they’d merrily call out “BULA!”  I chose this resort because all of the water sport activities, such as kayaks, paddle boards, snorkeling equipment, etc. is included in your stay.  They have an adult only wing of the resort, which includes an adult only pool.  All of these things would’ve been amazing and used in abundance if the weather had cooperated.  Unfortunately for Ben and I, it rained most of our stay and was only about 65 degrees at warmest.  This is uncharacteristic for Fiji!  As we always do, we made the best of it.  We purchased novels in the gift shop, and enjoyed many cocktails and Fijian beers overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

For our anniversary, I booked a couples massage in the romantic burr over the water, but it was much too cold and windy, so we had our massages in the spa.  They were very kind and apologetic for the weather, which is obviously not their fault.  The massages were excellent!

Our anniversary is also Fiji Day, which was fun because there were special programs on in the evening, where they had traditional Fijian dances and a huge barbecue.  We actually only caught the end of the special program because, in addition to our massages, I booked a romantic dinner on the beach for us.  The chef was amazing!  She gave us a special consult upon arrival at the resort to set our meal; we had a private server, who was quite entertaining; and a beautiful private location on the beach.  And before dinner, my amazing husband gave me Tiffany pearls!  (He didn’t get his gift until Christmas because I had our name and hibiscus flower engraved into glasses for him, which took longer than I expected but she did an amazing job!)

On Sunday, we did decide that we wanted do some Fiji beach things, so we took out some kayaks to determine if the coral would be worth snorkeling for.  We did also snorkel at the end of the day when the tide started coming in, but there wasn’t much to see.  This is not exactly your dream beach resort in Fiji – the water is quite shallow, making it difficult to snorkel when the tide is out because you’d scrape yourself along the coral.  The white sand beach in the resort’s photos is definitely taken at an angle to make it seem much larger than it really is.  However, the resort is beautiful, has tons of activities that you can participate in, lots of restaurants, games, bars, etc.  We made particular use of the bars and the game room, where we had a healthy ping pong tournament with ourselves.

On Monday morning when we woke up and it was raining again, I knew I couldn’t handle another day of reading my (super weird) novel in the hotel bar over many cocktails.  After breakfast, we popped into the hotel concierge office and I booked us into a last minute village and waterfall tour that was leaving in 45 minutes.

Upon arriving in the village, we were invited into the community center for a Kava Ceremony, where the villagers welcomed our tour group to the village and presented us with Kava to drink.  We were warned that the Kava can make your lips tingly, and if you drink too much it will make you “dopey.”  Mostly, I found that it was quite chalky and I did not have a strong desire to drink any more.

We were then invited to visit the village preschool.  Interesting fact: the Fijian government only just started mandating attendance and funding education for kindergarten through year 8 last year.   The children are taught both Fijian and English, and even if they excel in all other courses if they fail English they fail school.  These preschoolers were totally adorable and loved the attention that they received from our tour group!  They sang songs and posed for pictures for us like little hams.  SO CUTE!

On our drive into the village our guide mentioned that we would hike across the same river 9 times to get out to Biausevu Waterfall, so when we arrived in the village and the others in our group started changing into their fancy new shoes, we were a bit confused.  We stayed in the sandals that we planned to wear because we knew they would get wet.  Of course, these people also had a toddler and an infant that they thought they’d push out to the waterfall in strollers.  I think they thought they signed up for a resort Fijian experience, not a legit Fijian Village experience.  Silly folks.

Our tour guides were incredible!  They were extremely happy people that love a great joke and just want to have fun.  It was quite cold and rainy, as you can see, but this did not stop them from singing the whole way out to the waterfall, or from scaling the cliff to jump into the pool at the base of the waterfall for a swim.  We truly enjoyed these real Fijians as human beings that we wanted to be around!

When we returned to the Warwick from our waterfall tour, we decided that we absolutely could not go to Fiji and stay at a resort with a swim up bar and not use it.  We suited up and got in the frigid pool water and sat at the swim up bar for a frozen cocktail.  We cheersed with the people across the bar (out of the water) to the 90 degree weather in my head, and stayed in the water for as long as possible.  At least we had a cocktail at the swim up bar, even if it was only 60 degrees out!

My honest assessment? Like Bali, now we’ve been to Fiji.  It’s checked off the list of places we must see in our lifetime, but Hawaii still has my heart.

This would take more than a 3 day weekend.

So we took a week off and organized a road trip that started and ended in Perth.  We had 8 (7 1/2 really) days, because naturally we could not leave until after my hair appointment on Saturday morning.

Day 1: Perth to Exmouth

We flew into Perth Saturday afternoon, collected our car and got a shitty night’s sleep at the Four Seasons in Perth’s CBD.  The plan was that we’d start fresh and well rested on Sunday morning, but the walls in this hotel were paper thin and the people in the room next to us had a screaming child…

Regardless, Sunday morning we got up early and hit the road.  Our goal for the day: Get to Exmouth as fast as possible.  We had 1251km (780 miles) to travel, and we knew we wanted to arrive in Exmouth with enough time to have dinner in the hotel restaurant.  According to Google Maps, there really didn’t appear to be anything else in this remote town.  We hit the road just ahead of 7:00 AM and arrived in Exmouth approximately 13 hours later.

Early in the drive I saw my first kangaroo in the wild!  I am no longer forced to believe them to be mythical creatures that exist alongside unicorns.  We watched the sand change from gold to brown to red; we came across many road trains, which are massive and a little scary; we had to watch for cows, sheep, goats and kangaroos, which were in the road randomly and suddenly; we encountered one stretch of road which made us glad we’d stopped to top up on gas, snacks and use the restroom, because we did not see another car for 256km.  Most importantly, we made amazing time without too much speeding.

Day 2: A whale shark eco-tour in Exmouth

Day 2 was an early start also, but luckily the Novotel Ningaloo Resort was much quieter and more comfortable than the Four Seasons in Perth.  It was expensive, but the options in Exmouth are limited to campgrounds and backpacker’s accommodations, neither of which I “do.”

At 7:10 AM Danielle from Exmouth Diving Centre collected us from our hotel to embark on our whale shark adventure.  We stopped briefly at the dive shop to sign our lives away and collect the other 8 people that would be joining us on our tour.  We felt very fortunate to be with such a small group, as we looked at the other tour company boats with up to 40 people on them!  To protect the whale sharks, Australian law only allows 10 people in the water at a time (along with one videographer and one tour group leader).  Our group was the perfect size, because we could get in for every whale shark swim!

Our day consisted of a morning snorkel along the reef, then we headed out to sea to swim with the whale sharks and ended with an afternoon snorkel along the reef.  I chose Exmouth Diving Centre for our tour, despite being slightly more expensive than some of the others, because they utilize a spotter plane to locate the whale sharks all day.  They also offer a “good whale shark swim guarantee” which states that if you do not see a whale shark on your tour day, you can come back within 12 months and go back out for free.  We certainly didn’t need to utilize the guarantee on our day out, as we had 5 whale shark swims with three separate whale sharks.

As you can see from our video of Swimming with the Whale Sharks, we saw a lot of native Ningaloo Reef sea life on this eco-tour.  Along with the Whale Sharks, we also saw sting rays, manta rays, cow tail rays, minke whales, humpback whales, dolphins, a lion’s mane jelly fish and so much more!  Even the Exmouth Diving crew kept saying, “BEST DAY EVER!” and they get to go out every day.

Yes I’m wearing a swimmer’s cap.  Remember, I just had my hair done on Saturday morning?!?

The highlight of this tour was most definitely the whale sharks.  Captain Shane, our fearless leader Danielle and the rest of the crew onboard our tour boat on 15 June went out of their way to ensure that this was a highlight of a lifetime!

By the time Danielle dropped us back at our hotel, we were exhausted!

Day 3: Exmouth to Coral Bay

Day 3 was an early one too, but that’s because we were exhausted from our whale shark swim on day 2 and were in bed by about 8pm.  Before heading for Coral Bay, we decided to check out Exmouth a bit and pick up our Swimming with the Whale Sharks video from Exmouth Diving Centre.  The beach near our hotel was beautiful!  I wanted to collect the bits of coral washed up on the sand, but just keeping thinking of Hawaiian legend that says taking coral, lava rocks, sand, etc. is bad luck until returned to its native location.  Needless to say, I left the coral behind, but I did collect a few strangely shaped shells for my living room vase.

After stopping by Exmouth Diving Centre’s Shop to pick up our video and finding out that poor Katia’s computer had crashed, we started on our 152km trek to Coral Bay.  On our way we stopped off to check out the massive termite mounds that crowded the grassy fields along the road; most were taller than Ben!  We arrived at the Ningaloo Reef Resort before lunch time, but were fortunate enough that they allowed us to check in early.

We quickly changed, prepared our snorkeling gear and headed for the reef.  We stopped off to talk to the guy running the rental stand quickly to find out where the best snorkeling location is located.  He told us to walk around the point (through the water) until we came to the “5” sign and then head straight out.  He was right!  This is where the best coral and fish were located!  After about 90 minutes in the water, I was so cold that needed to get out of the water.  We could have rented wet suits from the guy that gave us directions, but it seemed warm enough at the start….

Coral Bay is an extremely small town, so by the time we got out of the water it was too late for lunch.  We went exploring the town to see if perhaps there was a bar that would serve us a bowl of chips (french fries, yo!), but there was literally nothing open!  We explored the entire town, found a miniature grocery store for some snacks and headed back to our resort bar.  We snacked and had a few beers until sunset, when we headed back for the beach.

Do you know why the west coast is the best coast?  SUNSET, duh!

Day 4: Coral Bay to Monkey Mia

Day 4 was to be a lot of driving so that we could get to Monkey Mia; there would be frequent stops along the way, but this was the highlights tour.  We worked from our Coral Coast guide and intuition to decide what to stop at.  Basically if it looked cool from the road, sounded cool from the sign or description in our guide book we stopped.  If we didn’t know what it was, we kept moving.

Not too far south of Coral Bay, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn and the weather started to deteriorate.  As the sky filled in with clouds we came across a sign for “Blow Holes.”  Though we had no idea what these would be or how far off the main road we were about to travel, we decided to check it out.  The surf was huge, and as it hit the rocks it would send water spraying in the air, much as a whale’s blow hole would do.  The larger the wave, the higher the spray would fly.  The surface of the rocks was what I imagine the surface of the moon looks like.

While we admired the Indian Ocean along this rocky section of Western Australia Coast, the rain set in.  First quite gently, and then harder until we rushed for the car.  As we continued our journey south to Monkey Mia, all I could think is “Add a little water to the red desert and it quickly becomes the red lake.”

Shortly after crossing the 26th Parallel, which indicated that we were leaving the North West, we turned on to the Shark Bay Heritage Drive, which ends in Monkey Mia.  The first stop along Shark Bay Heritage Drive was the Stromatolites of Hamelin Pool.  I’m going to be honest, I had no idea what a Stromatolite was before learning about them along the boardwalk.  I’ll give you the highlights: There are only 2 places in the world where stromatolites exist, and Hamelin Pool is the largest.  They are basically living fossils; creepy little bacteria secrete a sticky gel that traps sediment and grows into these flat mats and pillars in this super saline shallow bay within Shark Bay.  I liked them because they were kind of pretty.

The next stop on our journey was Shell Beach, which I had picked out of the Coral Coast Guide as something I definitely wanted to see.  The guide booked talked about miniature shells piled 10 meters deep on this beach.  The signs also indicated that the water is twice as salty as normal ocean water, so swim knowing that you’ll float better but come out very salty.  I wanted souvenirs for my living room shell jar, but sign said “Please do not remove.”

As we continued along the Skark Bay Heritage Drive, there were a few places we wanted to stop, but the roads were closed due to flooding from the rain.  When we saw the sign for Useless Loop, we had to stop. I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t get the words out, and then I realized Ben was laughing too and saying, “Did that sign just say Useless Loop?!” So we turned around and went back for the photo.

As the sun sunk lower in the sky, we began looking for a place to watch sunset.  We figured that sunset would either be incredible or nonexistent, based on the rain we’d had that day.  But we were on the west coast, which is the best coast, so we had to give it as hot.  It was an OK sunset, but a beautiful location.

Day 5: Monkey Mia to Kalbarri

The whole point of taking the trip to Monkey Mia was to see the dolphins.  I might have been more excited than the children at Monkey Mia to see the dolphins.  We got up early (again!  this was the vacation of early mornings!) so that we could have breakfast before we headed down to the beach.  We weren’t 100% clear what to expect; the guides and brochures that I’d collected along the way said that the dolphin feeding occurred from 7:45 am – 12:45 pm.  We weren’t sure if we’d be waiting ages, or if they dolphins would be waiting for their morning snack.

It turns out the dolphins know exactly when they will be fed.  As we ate breakfast and the people began to congregate, the dolphins approached the shore.  I started to get anxious because our breakfast was taking so long!  What if we missed the dolphin feeding?  What if the dolphins didn’t approach for another feeding?  What if we couldn’t get close enough to see anything?

Alas my anxiety was unnecessary.  The dolphins were as eager to be fed as the people were to feed them.  The rangers make the dolphins wait to be fed for 20 minutes after the people enter the water.  I had a front row seat (standing, really) shin deep in freezing cold water.  Each dolphin can only be fed 3 fish at each feeding up to 3 times per day, but only between 8AM and 12PM.  These regulations are in place because in the past people would come to Monkey Mia resort and buy buckets of fish to feed to the dolphins, who slowly forgot how to fish in the wild.  To protect the dolphins and their super soft sensitive skin, people may not approach or touch the dolphins, but if the dolphins decide to approach or touch the people it is completely acceptable.  I hoped and prayed to be approached and touched!

As the people and dolphins come together, so do the pelicans, who are bullies and will steal the dolphin’s snacks.  Before the feeding could commence, the rangers had to convince Rose the Pelican to exit the water.  They lured her away with a yellow bucket of fish, which she must’ve either finished or found unacceptable during the dolphin feeding because she flew back into the water and began to harass one of the poor volunteers!  She again had to be lured out of the water.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t chosen to feed the dolphins.  Maybe I looked too eager and excited, or maybe it’s completely random.  The lady right next to me was chosen instead.  Never mind, I still loved every minute of my dolphin feeding experience at Monkey Mia.

After my dolphin experience, we began our 400km drive to Kalbarri.  Just outside of Monkey Mia we stopped at Little Lagoon, which is a perfectly round salt water lake.  We thought about walking around it, but it had rained a lot over night and the shore was quite muddy and slimy! So we had a proper look and moved on.

Before we knew it, we were approaching the turnoff for Natures Window and Z Bend.  We had no idea what Z Bend was, but knew from our Coral Coast Guide Book that we wanted to see Nature’s Window.  We decided at the T in the road to take the Loop toward Nature’s Window first, because it was slow tough driving in our shitty little rental car (for Ben, lets be honest) along the muddy sand road in the rain.  We weren’t sure at this point if Z Bend was in the cards for us based on road conditions.

Natures Window required a short hike and precarious climb, which was full of very persistent flies that kept landing on my bare arms and irritating me horribly.  It was worth it, though; it was beautiful!

Based on the beauty at Natures Window, Ben decided to brave the muddy road and take us 13km in the other direction to Z Bend.  Here we also had to hike through the mud, rain and irritating flies, but again it was completely worth it!  Kalbarri is also known as WA’s Wildflower Country; the flowers were few and far between, but were quite pretty and very small.

From here we headed for the Kalbarri Coastal Bluffs nearer to the town of Kalbarri, stopping first at Red Bluff, where we decided that we needed to go to Red Bluff Beach to truly enjoy Red Bluff.

As we watched the rain move in at Red Bluff, we decided to come up with a game plan.  I read the guide book and we chose our “must see” stops along the Kalbarri Coastal Bluff Drive and drove rather than hiked between locations because of the rain.  Next stop would be Pot Alley, which is an ocean gorge that got its name because the fishing pots still wash up on shore here.  The view overlooking the gorge was pretty, the rain was breaking and the sun was starting to shine, so we decided to hike into the gorge to the secluded beach below.  It was worth it!

At this point, it was getting pretty late in the day.  We decided we definitely wanted to see Natures Bridge and Island Rock, so we made a run for the end of Kalbarri Coastal Bluff Drive, and hoped that we’d get a spectacular sunset overlooking these two landmarks (ocean marks?  they’re in the water).  Since we were on the look out for desert wildflowers, we felt fortunate to spy a Murchison Rose at this stop.  Just ahead of sunset the rain started to move in again, so we got a nice orange glow, but that was about it.

As we were driving away, I started Ben by yelling “KANGAROO!” and made him stop.  I think this little guy is actually a wallaby, but I’ll never tire of seeing either in the wild.  As we were driving into Kalbarri, a mob (i looked it up, its the correct term for a group) of kangaroos hopped across the road in front of us.  We were too busy not hitting them and being awed to actually photograph this.  Sometimes we must view life through our own eyes rather than the lens of a camera.

After we checked into our hotel, we walked out to a nearby restaurant called Restaurant Upstairs.  As we were arriving, we were certain this was the place for us.  There was a sign that said,  “No High Chairs. No Kids Menu.” and on the door “No Strollers.”  We love kids, but we don’t have any, so sometimes it’s nice to eat somewhere that is strongly implied as adults only.  The food was excellent and very vegetarian accommodating, the service was excellent, we got a huge kick out of their way of saying no kids, please.

Day 6: Kalbarri to National Park

Since we’d been to a dolphin feeding in Monkey Mia, it seemed only right to start off day 6 by attending pelican feeding in Kalbarri.  We weren’t quite sure where to go, as the map and guide book weren’t very clear, but the big sign that said “Pelicans Fed Daily ” seemed as good a place as any to start.  We were among the first to arrive, but as we started to gather the pelicans also started to fly over from the sandbar where they were chilling.

There was a very young female (she still has brown feathers in the photos) who seemed eager to be fed by the ranger, but an older grumpy male kept squawking and trying to chase her away.  The ranger kept scolding him and throwing fish over to her, which seemed to infuriate him even more!

A friend told me that the best time of day to see the Pinnacles Desert is at sunset, so as we left Kalbarri this was our game plan.  The guide book pointed out some interesting sites along the way, so we headed south toward Port Gregory knowing that we wanted to see the Pink Lake.  Naturally, I had to look up what causes the pink hue in this lake.  For those of you who are curious, it’s created by a bacteria (dunaliella salina) that gets trapped in the salt.

We continued south until we were ready for a break, which is when I busted the guide book back out.  We decided to stop at Grigson Lookout, which has an awesome view of the mobile sand dunes.  Mobile sand dunes, you ask?  Apparently they move across the land slowly killing off the vegetation.  Who knew?

After Grigson Lookout, the guide promised that we would see seals sunning themselves on the sandy shores of Jurien Bay Marine Park, so we headed for the beach.  It was a bit cool out though, and we did not see seals. The beach, however, was pristine white sand without a soul in site.  All I could think is in America we would have ruined this with overpriced fancy houses and resorts.

We arrived at Pinnacles Desert in the late afternoon and partook of both the driving and walking tours of the desert.  They kind of reminded me of the petrified forest, so we researched how they were formed.  Although no one is really certain how the limestone formed in this desert, one of the leading theories is that they are preserved tree casts that have been exposed by erosion.  This is the theory that I prefer, as my first thought was petrified forest.  After we drove and hiked everywhere we were allowed to, we started looking for our sunset spot so that we could set up the Go Pro and camera before the magic happened.

Day 7: Pinnacles Desert to Fremantle via Swan Valley

We decided to spend most of Saturday in the Swan Valley sampling some of WA’s finest wines.  We stopped at several large and small, the two standouts were Jane Brook Winery and Little River Winery & Cafe.  We stopped at a couple of the larger wineries that are known for having great restaurants, such as Sandalford Winery both to have a wine tasting and to eat lunch.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into the restaurants at any of these places.  So we picked one out on the map that had no advertising in our guide but claimed to have a restaurant.  When we arrived at Little River it was tiny and adorable.  The staff was super friendly and happy to have us for lunch.  Our meals were incredible and we had a free tasting of everything they were pouring that day while we waited.

Jane Brook was the other standout winery that we went to in the Swan Valley.  The women working the tasting room were extremely friendly, helpful, and happy to have a chat.  I’m sure my husband was grateful for someone else to have to small talk with me for a while.  We had, after all, been in the car together for 7 days at this point.

Day 8: Fremantle & Perth

We spent our last night in Fremantle, and set about a walking tour of the area on Sunday morning before we flew back to Melbourne.  Unfortunately it was freezing cold and poured down rain on us, so we ended up sitting in a Mexican restaurant drinking margaritas and enjoying the best Mexican we’ve had in Australia thus far.  On our way to the airport, I remembered that someone told us the best view of Perth is from the botanical gardens so we took a quick detour and definitely found the best view of Perth.

After 8 days on the road staying in a different hotel every night and seeing as many sights as possible every day we were definitely ready to be heading back to Melbourne and back to reality.  Western Australia is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and I strongly encourage everyone to swim with the whale sharks.  It was an incredible trip!

Ben said on the flight home, “I’m exhausted!  I need a vacation after our vacation!”  Our next trip will be all about relaxation.  Fiji, get ready for the Grantrobuses!

In June of this year, we took a trip to WA to make my dreams come true.  We booked with Exmouth Diving Centre because they send out a plane to locate the Whale Sharks and guarantee that you will swim with one.  I am so glad we chose this company!  We had the opportunity to swim with three separate Whale Sharks on 5 different swims, with our largest sighting being 8 meters!  It was an incredible day!  Not only did we have a fantastic group of only 10 people swimming with the Whale Sharks, but we also saw 3 different types of rays, dolphins, minke whales, hump back whales, Lion’s Mane jelly fish, hard and soft coral, and fish of all types.  It was the experience of a lifetime!

Video by Katia at Exmouth Diving Centre.  Whale Sharks featured at about 7:15.

I’m going to take this opportunity to get on my vegetarian soap box for a second to call all of my fish eating friends to stop eating shark fin.  Now that you’ve seen the beauty of the whale shark in this video, you should know that he is at high risk of having his fins savagely cut off and then being thrown back into the ocean to die.  Everything other than his fins will be considered waste.  Help stop shark finning and shark extinction today simply by not eating the obvious shark fin soup, but also flake in your local fish & chip shop.  Learn more at www.stopsharkfinning.net.

Once I picked myself back up off the floor of devastation to start searching again, I found another gem.  This house is larger than the original, allowing us to ask more people to stay with us!  It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because there are really no hotels near Waipio.  This new place is just 20 minutes from Waikoloa, which is jam packed with resorts for our guests to stay in.  Although it does not overlook Waipio Valley, it does have a great ocean view.

***Hint: click on any image within the tiled gallery to open an image carousel.

Because this house had 2 master suites, we were able to segregate the girls from the guys to avoid accidental sightings prior to the ceremony. After spending the morning at Hearts & Stars Salon, which provided amazing service, the ladies took the upstairs master suite.  I have the best friends!  When I took my dress out of the dress bag the morning of the wedding, I nearly cried when I saw how wrinkly it was.  Carrie and Aaron made a special trip to Target in Kona to buy a steamer, and then Carrie steamed my dress like a boss.  It was perfect, like it’d just come from being steamed at the dry cleaner.  She’s an amazing woman!  There were so many other things that she did that day….

The guys took the downstairs master suite to get ready for the wedding.  They’re so dapper!

Even though we were running late, we still managed to squeeze in a quick pre-ceremony photoshoot at the house before we headed for Waipio Valley.

The weather on the Kona side of Wiamea was perfect all morning!  The sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.  As we crested the hill at Wiamea on our drive to Wiapio Valley for our wedding ceremony, the clouds set in and then it began to drizzle.  I began to stress about the weather, but our amazing photographer just kept saying, “Look!  There is blue sky over the sea.  The rain will be gone by the time we arrive.”  Even though I continued to stress, he was right!  The rain stopped just as we arrived in the valley, which is actually very beautiful and mystic looking in the rain.

Even over 10 months later, I look back at our pictures and think Wiapio Valley is the most perfect and beautiful place to be married.  As Ben and I were working with Kristan to develop our ceremony, we wanted to include traditional Hawaiian elements, such as a lei exchange and blowing of the conch shell.  It used to make me uncomfortable when Ben took pictures of weddings that we’d come across on the beach, but on my wedding day the additional spectators on the beach taking pictures or just joining our ceremony didn’t bother me at all.  My dad and I discussed as we walked down the beach that it was kind of cool that other people were interested.

Because we didn’t want to see each other before the ceremony, we had a quick photoshoot with all of our guests and bridal party immediately following the ceremony still in Waipio Valley.

On this day we we merged our names as we did our lives and were married as the Grantrobus’.

After the ceremony and photos, we all headed back to the house we rented for an 11 course degustation of Hawaiian cuisine and wine pairings on the lawn.  It was super windy out, but our amazing caterer (Aloha Mondays) did her best to keep the candles lit and prevent wine glasses from blowing away.

All photographs in this post were taken by James Rubio Photography.