Rottnest Island

Toinen viikonloppu reissu - check! Neljän tytön porukalla suuntasimme sporttilomalle Rottnest Islandille yhdeksi yöksi ja kahdeksi päiväksi.

Rottnest Island on Perthin edustalla Intian valtamerellä sijaitseva saari, joka nykyään ympäristöineen on yhtä luonnon suojelualuetta. Saarelle pääsee lautalla (noin tunnin matka) Fremantlesta tai Hillary's Boat Habrourista, ja itse saari on tunnettu rannoistaan, maisemistaan sekä quokka karvaturreistaan. Parhaiten saaren pääsee kokemaan pyörällä liikkuen ja niin mekin teimme. Pakettimatkaamme kuului kuljetukset satamaan, lauttamatka, hostelli sekä pyörä- ja snorkkelivuokra. Siispä pe aamuna (aivan liian aikaisin, herätys klo 5.00) lähdimme matkaan kahden ruotsalaisen ja kahden suomalaisen voimin. 

Ensimmäinen päivä kului urheilullisessa hengessä - pyöräilimme koko saaren ympäri! Matkaa oli google-mapsin ja kylttien mukaan sellaiset 27km, olen ylpeä :) Etenkin kun typerä kurkku oli tullut vielä kipeäksi juuri näille päiville. Pitää tosin sanoa, että matka ei tuntunut niin työläältä kuin saattaa kuulostaa, teimme paljon pitkiäkin pysähdyksiä ja tuuli viilensi juuri sopivasti. Ja yhden päivän aikana näimme jo paljon - pysähdyimme muutamilla rannoilla, ja niiden värit yllättivät täysin (olin odottanut lähinnä karuhkoa maisemaa), ja missä pulahdimme uimaan ja söimme picnicmäisesti eväät, löysimme quokkaperheen, missä kului kuvia napsiessa luvattomasti aikaa, ja bongasimme myös meille vilkuttelevia hylkeitä Cathedral Rockseilla. Mukava päivä! Ainoa kupru matkassa oli, että kaverini snorkaluskamat tippuivat matkalla tarakalta, eikä niitä ikinä löytynyt...

Iltasella vietimme aikaa paikallisessa keskustassa (yksi kauppa ja neljä kahvilaa) kahvin merkeissä sekä satamassa kävellen (yksi hotelli). Päädyimme ottamaan yksinkertaisesti pitkät suihkut ja katselemaan Disney-leffoja 8hlön lomamökissämme :)

Seuraavana päivänä edellisen päivän uheilut alkoivat jo tuntua jaloissa eikä pidemmät pyöräilyreissut enää napanneet. Kotiaamiaisen (täysjyvä-siemenleipää avokadolla ja paistetulla tomaatilla sekä jogurttia) jälkeen suuntasimme lempirannallemme eiliseltä (Salmon bay, noin 5km matka), missä päivä kului leppoisasti snorklatessa auringon alla aina paluulauttaan asti. Merimaailma ei nyt ihan vetänyt vertoja Great Barrier Reefille (yllätys), mutta muutamia värikkäitä koralleja ja kaloja bongasimme silti, ja vesi edelleen on täällä mielestäni paljon kirkkaampaa. 

A second weekend trip - check! This time we headed to Rottnest Island with four girls to spend a sporty holiday of 1n2d there. 

Rottnest Island is located infront of Perth in the Indian Ocean, and nowadays with its surroundings it's a great national park. You can reach the island by an 1-hour ferry from Fremantle or Hillary's boat harbour, and the island itself is famous for its beautiful beaches, sceneries and quokkas. The best way to explore the island is by bike and that's what we did also. Our package trip included transportation, hostel, bikes and snorkles. On Friday morning (way too early, had to wake up at 5am) we started our trip with two Swedish and two Finnish girls.

The first day was a rather sporty one - we cycled around the whole island! According to google maps we cycled for 27kms, so proud :) I have to admit tho' that the trip didn't feel that long or hard for we made several stops and the wind nicely  cooled us down. During this one day we already saw a lot - we stopped by several beaches, where we swam a little, ate snacks and where the colors of the sea amazed me completely (I had expected more barren sceneries), we encountered several quokkas with whom we spend way too much time taking photos, and we also found seals waving at us at the Cathedral Rocks. Lovely day! Only sad thing was that my friend lost her snorkling gear while cycling and they were never found...

Once arrived back to Thomson Bay we spend the evening having a cup of coffee in the local city center (one store and four cafés) and walking around the harbour (one hotel). We ended up taking long showers and watching Disney-movies in our villa-like hostel.. :)

Next day we surprisingly had our legs sore so after breakfast (wholegrain bread with seeds, avocado and grilled tomato) we headed to our favourite beach (Salmon bay, still 5kms away) and spend the day there snorkeling and lying under the sun until it was the time to take the ferry back home. I really enjoyed the white sand and clear, turquoise  water even tho' the underwater life isn't as colorful and diverse than in Great Barrier Reef (surprise). All in all, I found the place extremely beautiful :)

Parker Point

Salmon Bay

 

Rottnest Island is a windy place - even the trees bend.

Must-do quokkaselfie

About sailing and other sports

First of all, for your information, I decided to write this blog both in Finnish and in English from now on! :) Comfortable and suits for everyone I believe. So, first you'll have Finnish and below you'll find English.

UWA Sports tarjoaa laajan kirjon erilaisia urheilulajeja. Opiskelijajäsenyys maksaa 399AUD per lukukausi, huomattavasti kalliimpi kuin UniSport, mutta UniHallin asukkaana itse sain sen paketin mukana ilmaiseksi. Jäsenyys antaa rajattoman pääsyn salille sekä ryhmätunneille (täältä löytyy esim LesMillsin tunteja). Lisäksi UWA Sportsin kautta voi ilmoittautua lukemattomille kursseille aina raakaruoka seminaareista joogaan ja capoeirasta kalliokiipeilyyn, ja vielä hyvin edulliseen hintaan. Suurin osa kursseista maksaa 60-70AUD ja sisältävät 6-7 kertaa. Loistava mahdollisuus kokeilla uutta harrastusta tai tehdä jotain vähän extremeä :) Muista vaan olla ajoissa ilmottautumisten kanssa, itse esim en päässyt purjelautailemaan mur...

Tähän mennessä itse olen kokeillut purjehdusta. Kyseisen case oli vain yhden illan purjehdus, mutta tarjolla olisi myös kunnon purjehduskurssi. En vielä tosin tiedä pidetäänkö kurssi jollilla vai isommalla purjeveneellä, mistä liittymisvalintani riippuu. Joka tapauksessa, jo viimeviikkoinen ”twilight sailing” oli hieno ja rento kokemus, ja kippari (UWAn opiskelijoita, purjehduskerhon jäseniä ja kilpailijoita) antoi meidän noviisienkin osallistua itse purjehdukseen. Tuli taas sellainen fiilis että kuinka hieno olisi oppia purjehtimaan ihan kunnolla! Klo viiden aikoihin purjehdimme ulos Matilda Bay’n satamasta Swan Riveriä pitkin ihailemaan auringonlaskua ja Perthin siluettia ja palattiin takaisin illan pimettyä (ja selvittiin sen isommitta ongelmitta, mitä nyt satamaan palattua flip floppini tippui jalasta mereen ja siinä sitä ongittiin hetki mooring koukulla). Ei hassumpi torstai-ilta!

UWA Sports offers a wide variety of sports to do. For students it cost 399AUD per semester to become a member, but as a resident of UniHall I got it for free. The membership offers you a limitless access to a gym and to group lessons (they have LesMills lessons for example). Also you can attend various courses from raw food seminars to yoga and from capoeira to rock climbing, and for a super low price. Most of the courses are 60-70AUD for 6-7 weekly lessons including the gear. It’s a great opportunity to try something new or do something a bit more extreme. Just remember to be on time with reservations, for example I was too late signing up for the windsurfing..

So far I’ve signed up for sailing. This case was only for one night, but there would also be a real course on sailing. Unfortunately I don’t know yet whether the course is with a dinghy or with a bigger sailboat on which depends my decision to join. However, the twilight sailing already was super pretty and fun, and our skipper, an UWA student as well, was glad to let us join the navigating and stuff. It’d be fantastic to learn to sail properly! We sailed off from the Matilda Bay’s harbor, in a race boat with a small crew of 6 members, down the Swan River to admire the sunset and skyline of Perth and returned after couple of hours once it got dark. Sailing was great and motivating and everything went well a part from my flipflop that dropped into the sea and that we then had to fish from the water with a mooring hook. Not a bad Thursday night.

Skyline fo Perth - ps. this was the first cloudy day of my stay here at the west coast

Talking about those amazing colors

Juustoja, viinejä ja aaltoja Margaret Riverillä

Ensimmäinen viikko unissa oli niin rankka (itselläni oli jopa 2 luentoa) että päätimme lähteä vaihtariporukalla pienelle viikonloppu roadtripille Margaret Riverille. Neljän tytön porukkamme paisui lopulta kolmeksi autolliseski reissaajia ja perjantai aamupäivällä kaasutimme ulos kaupungista alas etelään kohti uusia maisemia.

Margaret River sijaitsee Australian lounaiskulmassa, matkaa Perthistä sinne on noin 3 tuntia. Margaret River on Länsi-Australian  vehreintä aluetta ja tunnettu surffirannoistaan sekä viinitiloistaan. Esimerkiksi Alkon myyntitykki Plan B punaviini tulee kyseiseltä alueelta. Lisäksi alue on tunnettu juustoistaan ja suklaatehtaistaan, oikea kulinaristin unelmapaikka, sekä toisaalta isoista, surffaajien suosimista aalloistaan ja upeista maisemistaan. Yhden viikonlopun aikana me ehdimme kokeilla melko tehokkaasti kaikkia edellisistä asioista :)

Ensimmäisenä iltana (ja kaikkina muinakin lopulta) kirjaimellisesti ja kliseisesti ajoimme kohti auringonlaskua sitä ihailemaan. Ne ovat mitä näteimpiä täällä länsirannikolla - aurinko laskeutuu loputtomaan mereen ja taivas värjäytyy mitä erikoisimmin, eri iltoina, eri paikoissa eri tavoin ja värein.

Lauantaina syyllistyimme aikamosieen herkutteluun :) Omnommm.. Päivä alkoi mukavalla brunsilla Morries kahvilassa (flat white sekä "perfectly poached eggs" maalaisciabatalla, avokadolla ja tomaatilla) ja jatkui tasting-reissuilla suklaa- ja juustotehtaisiin sekä viinitiloille. Autot tulivat tässä hyvään tarpeeseen, sillä vierailtavia paikkoja on lukuisia ja kaikki ympäriinsä eri suunnilla eikä busseja juuri näkynyt. Onneksi kaikille autoille löytyi myös uhrautuvaiset kuskit, joita ei (toivottavasti) viinien maistelun väliin jättäminen haitannut. 

Temper Temper -suklaan tehtaanmyymälä oli herkuttelijoiden unelma - tarjolla oli lukuisia eri vahvuisia tummasuklaapaloja eri maailmankolkkien kaakaopavuista, ne olivat kuin pruuvattavia viinejä viiniypäleineen ja -maineen, mutta suklaan maailmasta. Lisäksi tarjolla oli tehtaan erikoisempia makuja tummasta valkoiseen, roseepippurisuklaasta esim kookoksella tai kanelilla höystettyihin. Pidin suklaatehtaasta kovasti, en pelkästään herkuttelun takia, vaan myös kokemuksena. Siellä huomasin miten suklaaseenkin voi kunnolla perehtyä, kaakaopapujen makuja erottaa, ja tehdä siitä samanlaista "tiedettä" kuin vaikka viineistä. 

Margaret River Dairy Companylla (kahdella eri pisteellä) herkuttelimme suupalasilla  eri juustoja sekä jogurteilla, ja sieltä ostimme myös picniceväät rannalle. Viinitiloista kävimme suurella ja tyylikkäällä Watershed viinitalolla sekä pienemmällä, kodikkaalla Churchview viinitilalla. Itse pidin paljon enemmän Churchview'n viineistä, paljon pehmoisempia sekä erikoisempia vivahteit. Kohdalle osui myös itselleni rypäleenä melko uusi tuttavuus marsanne, joka jäi yhdeksi suosikiksi.

Morries Anytime

Pienen pieni osa Temper Temperin tarjoamista maistiaisista

Erimakuiset cheddarit ovat iso juttu täällä. Brie on vahva kakkonen!

Watershed

Churchview

Muutoin aika kului mukavasti rannoilla, osan surffatessa, osan auringosta ja maisemista nauttiessa, toisten herkutellessa mukaan lähteneillä suklailla ja juustoilla. Suuren suuria kuvissa esiintyiä aaltoja ei tällä kertaa näkynyt (tavoitteena nähdä edes yksi huikea aalto surffaajineen), mutta olivat ne silti vaikuttavammat kuin mitä Suomessa ikinä. Kaiken kaikkiaan melko rentouttava viikonloppu ennen kunnon kouluhommien alkua.

ps. This post is only in Finnish for I didn't realize I was writing it in Finnish until the half way and I was too lazy to type it all over again

Launtain auringonlaskun valokuvaus tuokio

Näitä näkee joka ainoalla rannalla :) Tästä kyseisestä kyltistä puuttuu esim muualla mahdollisesti esiintyvät meduusat ja krokotiilit. Tervetuloa Australiaan!

Surfer's Point

Suomi, Skotlanti, 4x Kanada ja 2x USA :) Great group!

 

Koiratkin tykkäävät pakkaa surffilaudat katolle ja iskeä viikonlopuksi Margaret Riverin rannoille

Hello Perth!

When I found out that I was going to UWA in Perth in Feb 2015 I was excited and thrilled. Even tho’ I had a local friend there I knew only a little about the city. It really would be a new and special place with unexplored marvels and sights.

When talking to others about my upcoming adventure it tended to go like this:

Friend: “So where did you get into?”

Me: “To Australia! I’m so happy, always wanted to go there!”

Friend (overwhelmed): “NO WAY that’s amazing! To AUSTRALIA?!?! So cool, it’s going to be great, it’s such an amazing place with great people!!! Whoa!”

Me: “Yes, I know! I cannot wait to be in Perth!”

Friend (a smile melting down from her/his face): “Wait, what..? In Perth? Oh... Well I guess it’s nice. Hmmm… Yes, I’ve heard people have liked it there…”

…

Now I’m super excited to go to the west coast. I mean, how many times you would get to see it otherwise? Perth is the second most isolated city in the whole world, right after Honolulu. The distance between Perth and its nearest city Adelaide is 2,104 km, and to Sydney it is 3,291 km straight to the east (even Indonesia is closer). Out there in between is nothing but desert and a big rock. 

To the west from Perth there’s enormous Indian Ocean until you hit Madagascar. At South you’ll hit the South Pole and from North you’ll find Indonesia. South-west coast has a great weather, the only place in Australia with Mediterranean climate (hot summers and rainy season during winter). Despite its loneliness in the world Perth is the 4^th biggest city of Australia with a population of 2 million, it’s a modern, safe and fast-growing place located by water between the Indian Ocean and the Swan River. The nature in Western Australia is unique, various and magnificent with all its national parks, thousands of miles of coastline with beaches and best surfing spots, red deserts with ancient rocks and then again agreeable rolling hills for vineyards.

I can honestly say the weather here has been the hottest since tropical Cairns, 25 degrees being the coldest and 39 being the hottest (and it's almost fall), and it's not humid here. It has only drizzled one time so far. The beaches are incredible with white sand and the clearest water I ever seen (I prefer already just Cottesloe to Bondi for example). And you can actually swim here in the ocean for there is no jellyfish! The city center is modern and super clean with alleys and fancy stores, and everything is at walkable distance. 

First two weeks have passed by quickly, most of my time I've spent at the campus, but luckily I have had time to go around also. Here is in a nutshell some things what we have been doing so far!
When I'm not running around the campus to enrol to my ever-changing units, I've gone with other exchangers to night market held every Friday in the city center where they serve various types of good food; to Northbridge that is full of restaurants and where we first weren't allowed to enter to the rooftop bar for not having "proper" IDs (they only accept australian IDs or a passport here in the west) but then found this cutest, chilled out bar in one of the side alleys; to the very city center with its stores (air con <3 ); and to the beaches of course. We have had sundowners by Matilda Bay where you can spot black swans and dolphins (and sharks based on a new video streaming in fb...) and explored Kings Park just next to the campus, good place to hang out, and it's huge, I already got lost there once while jogging. We also went to Heirisson Island to find wild kangaroos and to waterland/amusent park the other Saturday (a welcoming trip organized by UWA) :)
And yet there are still lots of places to see and visit. With friends from UniHall we have already booked few trips, one to Rottnest Island and one down to Margaret River. Excited!

So yes, I think it's going to be a wonderful place.

 

CBD in Perth

Forrest Place

In the Northbridge

The cutest street right in the busy center of Perth - London Court. Felt like I entered to the Diagon Alley!

Crème Brûlée from the night market.

Adventure World trip organized by UWA - super important stuff, but had fun :)

Cottesloe

That's the Indian Ocean

Kangaroos on Heirisson Island

Another local creature of Perth's parks

East Coast Backpacking Summary

Our East Coast trip is over now :( It’s time to start the actual exchange, settle down and head towards different kind of adventures. Sari dropped off already in Sydney, Ville stayed few more days in Melbourne before returning to Finland and Roope came to Perth to study in UWA too. Anyway, I’m gonna miss you guys and our East Coast story!

Summarizing our journey, we started from Cairns at the 6^th of Jan and travelled down all the way to Melbourne and Tasmania by the 19^th of Feb. We mainly moved around by Greyhound bus, which I found quite handy, easy to book trips, many stops along the way and they provide you USB charging and free wifi (that most of the time doesn’t work for naturally in Australia you’re travelling in the middle of nowhere). Even overnight bus trips weren’t that bad after all. Another similar company (and cheaper apparently) is Premier.

The map below shows our path (my paint masterpiece). We stopped by the main attractions in the East Coast: Cairns, Magnetic Island, Airlie Beach & Whitsunday Islands, Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island, Brisbane, Surfer’s Paradise, Byron Bay, Sydney & Blue Mountains, Tasmania and Melbourne & Great Ocean Road. My favorite things were diving at the Great Barrier Reef, sailing at Whitsunday, relaxed atmosphere in Byron, Blue Mountains (the best sceneries and waterfalls) and our roadtrips in general in Tasmania and at GOR (own car and schedules gives you amazing freedom). Would be impossible to choose just one! Fraser is another thing that I’ll probably remember forever due to the extreme driving. (NB, I have gone through all these places more precisely in my previous posts from Jan and Feb 2016.)

Our route from Cairns to Sydney and throuogh Hobart to Melbourne

A bit more about the backpackers’ lifestyle – it’s all about carrying your whole life in one backpack (smaller or bigger, my 70-litre-backpack weighted 23kgs at the end instead of the 16kgs in the beginning, don’t know how, while Ville started with only 8 kilos..) You should carry as little as possible which becomes easier by time for you probably won’t even use what’s in the bottom of the backpack, at least I was too lazy to turn the whole thing upside down. Also, remember to bring an extension cord, helps a lot. Otherwise you’ll find everything from here if you happen to forget something.

Most likely you’ll live in hostels. We slept in dorms of 4-8ppl and cooked most of our food in the common kitchens, the price per night is usually between 20-40AUD. We had very clean and functional big hostels such as Gilligan’s in Cairns (best pool) and a bit smaller, cuter but also clean ones such as Aussie Way in Brisbane and Home @ the Mansion in Melbourne (unique and elegant, best bathrooms). Maybe the untidiest hostels were in Rainbow Beach (a nightmarish kitchen) and the Palms in Sydney (Relaxed and outgoing atmosphere, but our dorm looked like people had lived there for years and never come out. And there were cockroaches. Wouldn’t go again.) We booked our hostels and trips usually couple of weeks in advance, first ones already in Finland. During our road trips, Roope booked our hostels via phone the very same day, which turned out be a good idea for we ended up doing a few changes to our plans on the road, and fortunately the hostels weren’t fully booked.

The most interesting thing when backpacking is the people you meet. We’ve met many people from all around the world, younger and older than us, travelers and locals, all with different kind of stories to tell.

We met our Italian diving instructor, a former engineer who went crazy for diving and so changed career and moved to Cairns; a French couple who had an admirably curious attitude towards travelling, studied beforehand and so recognized all the fishes and animals knowing how the animals behaved, and who we met for a second time in Byron by coincidence; our skipper at Whitsunday who had quitted studying marine biology in university in order to start sailing; an Australian fifty-something woman who joined our morning yoga and at the moment was living and travelling around in a sailboat; a German teenage couple who had bought their own car and were working and driving around Australia for one year; local surfers who knew everything about the sea and shores; a Finnish constructor having his own company in Finland but working among diving in Australia during winters; super energetic South African tour bus driver with great sense of humor; French students; British jocks; Finnish au pairs who decided to leave Finland at a two-week-notice; one 28-year-old Canadian girl who had all alone travelled around Australia including the real outback; a guy in  our hostel who carried his own coffee machine, Himalayan salt and other fancy cooking stuff with him; people who gave us their food when they checked out; random people who give you big, true smiles and says “G’day” or “How is it going?” when passing by… List goes on and on.

All in all, our backpack journey so far has been a very broadening one and I could recommend Australia and backpacking in general to everyone interested in different kind of travelling.