Holidays: Margaret River, Australia

During the March holidays, we decided to venture out of Malaysian borders to go Down Under, spending about a week at Perth and Margaret River with our extended family — all 18 of us!!

We had oodles of fun exploring part of Western Australia. If you are planning a trip there with kids, hopefully our experience may give you some helpful ideas. :-)

We did so much and took so many photos ... so we will be updating this blog as Mummy gets down to editing the photos etc. Do check back again soon for latest updates.

Pit Stop: Busselton

We took a 3-hour drive down from Perth, stopping at Busselton for a lovely picnic lunch under a shady tree by the coast. There were some cafes by the beach, and we ordered take-out from them.

Mummy had ordered a gigantic picnic mat from an Australian online store earlier, so we could fit the entire clan on it. The sun was hot, and there were lots of seagulls trying to get to our food. But the kiddos enjoyed chasing them in the heat.

Run, Baby, Run

We had wanted to take the train ride down the 1.7-km long Busselton jetty, but it was mainly catered for those who wanted to visit the underwater observatory, with only limited spaces for joyriders like us. And at AUD12 per adult (and AUD6 per kid), we'd be paying just to go to the end of the jetty and back straight away ... or we'd have to wait an hour for the next train to come. Since time was short, we decided to give it a miss.

Animal Farm

One of the must-dos on our list was to visit an animal farm ... (we were in Australia, after all). So after comparing a few in the region, we decided to go to Sunflowers Animal Farm.

We decided on this over the Country Life Farm, which was more expensive and had lots of entertainment stuff — bouncy castles, merry-go-rounds and Dodgem cars — as we wanted a more back-to-nature feel.

Entry fee: AUD12.50 pax; Animal feed: AUD3 per bucket

The farm was pretty large, with lots of animals in their various pens for you to pat or feed, from small guinea pigs to a large clydesdale horse.

Some of the younger kids took a while to build up enough courage to touch or hand feed the animals, so it was good to see them overcome their initial fears.

All shapes and sizes

Attention-seeking Llamas

You won't get tire-d of this farm easily ...

I kid you not!

You won't roo your visit!

Winery

Margaret River is wine country, so we managed to visit two estates — Voyager and Leeuwin. 

Kiddos can have a taste of sparkling wine, while the adults sip on the real stuff. 

But we spent the most time at the beautiful grounds, playing catch and racing on their sprawling. (If anyone had asked, we would have said we were from Singapore ...)

Boy adding his mark in the visitor's book

So nice and green and big ... doesn't it make you want to kick off your shoes and run? That's what we did!

continued at Part 2 ...