Rottnest Island

I woke up at 5:30am to get ready to go to Rottnest. Yikes that was so EARLY!! Had a decently hearty breakfast and packed bags and took off to Rottnest Island. The ferry that take us there left at 7:30am. We rode on the Ferry and it was super bumpy and I got slightly nauseous. We arrived and it was supposed to be a pretty chilly day 22 C or 72F . It was chilly at first in the morning but we managed to tough it out until it warmed up. Ok I lied, we got hot chocolate and coffees to warm us up and a second breakfast. I had a nice blueberry danish pastry thing. It was perfect to settle my stomach. Here is a view out at the sea from the coffee shop.

We rented bikes and rode around for a while. We stumbled upon a lighthouse and then a nice little tidal pool area. We went to explore it and a giant wave came up and soaked my pants! Here is the light house.

Check out this video of the tidal pool area.

Here is another picture of a dead crab we found. We thought it was still alive until we poked it and it shell lifted up and exposed it organs. YUCK!

After that we discovered a nice hill of rocks and did some freestyle rock climbing. I was a smart one and wore flip flops so my rock climbing was very slow. But safe, no worries dad. We rode our bikes some more and found a nice spot to do some snorkeling. The waves were strong and the water was chilly but it was still a lot of fun. The strap on the snorkeling goggles that I borrowed broke right away. No problem I still brought my pair of competitive swim goggles so I just hooked the snorkel onto them. Turns out that the snorkel had a crack in it so I breathed in salt water!!! YUCK!!! We swam around a reef area and got to see a lot of fish. It was pretty cool.

From there on we never really warmed up the rest of the day. We did bike to the other side of the island and were going to snorkel at a shipwreck. But we decided to eat lunch first. Once we were done with lunch storm clouds came in!!! So we quickly got on our bikes and busted our butts back to the main part where shops and shelters were. It never did rain but the wind picked up quite a bit and it was blowing us around on out bikes. This picture does NOT do justice to how intense and how many hills there were. But it does show what this inside/ non-coastal side of the island looked like.

Here are some more beautiful views.

The shirt that I am wearing is called a Rasher. Yes we have them in the states but A LOT of people wear them over here. They are nice because they help keep you warm (why I wore it) and then protect you from the sun when you are snorkeling (also why I wore it). It's not mine, I borrowed it from my roommate Nickey.

Rottnest Island is called Rotto by the locals and it is full of Quokkas!!! What is a Quokka you ask? It is pretty much a big fluffy rat that is cute and is a marsupial. They also hop around. Here is a me with some mulch in my hand trying to get it to come close to me. Also a video of one hopping around.

It was a very nice day on the island. We caught the ferry back and then got Chinese food!! This was my first time eating Chinese since I left the US. Guess what? They do not have the same stuff as we do :( I really wanted General Tso's chicken but after a hard to understand conversation with the lady on the other end of the phone I ended up with honey chicken. So I had to try a new food. It turned out to be pretty good.