The next day was another hot and sunny day – the temperatures in Perth were certainly a good ten degrees higher than they were in New Zealand. Today was another exciting trip, and this time it was off to the little island that sits just off the shores of Perth, called Rottnest Island. This island is beautiful, and I never knew it existed before visiting Perth. It is a protected nature reserve with white sandy beaches, turquoise water, and secluded coves. It is also home to the wonderful quokka, which is a small wallaby-like marsupial, and they are so tame! They don’t tend to come out in the heat of the sun, although many were spotted around the island and especially, and not surprisingly, around the food areas in the village. You weren’t allowed to touch or feed them, but you could get great little selfies and videos with them to remember your time on the island.
Getting to Rottnest is easy and just a short trip of 25 - 45 minutes on the ferry, depending on which harbour you get the ferry from – we used Hillary’s Boat Harbour with Rottnest Fast Ferries. There are no cars on this island, just some buses, so its basically bike or hike! We chose to hire bikes, which you must get before going on the ferry, and the process of getting them on and off the ferry can take some time. You also get helmets with the bike hire.
I thoroughly enjoyed this exhilarating experience, and I hadn’t been on anything other an exercise bike for years! It is correct, though, when people say you never forget how to ride a bike. The scenery cycling round was stunning and most of the paths around the island are well made and nice and smooth. There are a few hills to encounter, however, and that was hard going at times in the heat. But once you go uphill you are of course rewarded with a nice freewheel downhill. We actually managed to engineer the trip quite well by trying to do some kind of circuit rather than going back the way we had come, and so we managed to avoid some of the uphill work.
In the village there are a few eateries, bars and gift shops, and shade from the heat of the sun. This is also a place to sample some great Aussi pies. On our way round the island, we also stopped at a little café for some ice creams. We of course only had time to spend the day on Rottnest before returning to the mainland of Perth, but there is accommodation here and I think it would be a wonderful place to come and chill out for a few days away from it all!
