Rottnest Island

When I was in Year 3 we were given an assignment on an Australian animal based on a letter of the alphabet. I was given the letter Q and I remember telling my teacher, Miss Harris, that there weren't any animals that started with Q. She told me about Quokkas, so that's what I did my project on. When I was in Yr 6 my family did a 6 week trip to Perth and back and part of that was a trip to Rottnest Island to see the Quokkas. I remember really enjoying the island then and thinking the quokkas were awesome, so I was pretty keen to introduce my kids to them as well.

Rottnest Island was great! The kids fell in love with the quokkas, with Rory wanting to bring one home with him, and the whole island is very beautiful. We caught the bus, rather than taking or hiring bikes, as we would have needed a seat or trailer for Rory and it all seemed rather complicated. While I think it made it easier for us, I do think we missed out on a lot as we couldn't just pop in to the different beaches and lookouts. We were constrained by the bus stops and, while the buses went every 30 minutes, a couple of times of waiting and there goes an hour or more. I feel like we didn't have enough to time truly enjoy and explore the Island and would love to go back again and stay on the Island to truly enjoy all it offers.

We weren't sure what the quokka finding situation would be like, if we would have to go hunting for them or what the go was. There is no concern about not seeing them as there are quite a lot that hang around the small collection of shops that sit together near the wharf. There were quokkas sleeping, hopping about and eating food out of people's hands and off the ground. The grocery shop has plastic barrier doors to stop the quokkas from entering. Tilda and I had a great time imagining all of the things a quokka would get up to, and all of the tasty treats it would try, if it managed to sneak into the shop.

There are lots of beautiful, sheltered beaches and bays and many of them looked like they would be wonderful places to snorkel. Greg had looked at the weather and it was going to be 21 degrees and pretty windy so we hadn't bothered to bring our swimmers or snorkelling gear, but the water looked so beautiful I think I would have been tempted to go in, no matter how cold it was.

There are 2 lighthouses on the Island. We ran out of time to climb the one in the middle and I was disappointed about that. I think it would have been great to be able to climb up and look at the whole Island and its surrounding water. We did check out the one closer to the town, but you can't go in it and poor Rory was so disappointed as we had told him we would go to the other lighthouse.

The Wadjemup Lighthouse (the one you can climb in the middle of the Island)

There is a place where you can see New Zealand Fur Seals. As we were walking to it, I could see some rocks off shore and I wondered how hard it would be to spot them, or if they would even be on the rocks in the middle of the day. Once we got to the look out, there was no wondering any more... there were about 10 -15 just playing about in the shallows right below us, floating on their backs, sleeping and (not seriously) fighting. That was very exciting and not something I had expected to see. I could have stayed and watched them for ages but I didn't want to miss the next bus.

We had 6 hours on the Island and it really wasn't enough. Perhaps on bikes it might have been, but using the Island bus, it just wasn't enough and I am already planning to go back and stay on the Island one day.