Jalan-Jalan Gold Coast, Toowoomba & Byron Bay

Down Under back again! But for the first time too, we were there in summer. Yup, our streak of two winter vacays for the past few years was finally broken when we decided to ditch the winter coats and gloves for the sun, sea and surf of beautiful Gold Coast this past December.

I was excited, of course. Gold Coast has always been one of my favourite places, but the three times I've been there before were either in spring or autumn/winter. So this promised to be a totally different experience altogether. And also, for the first time too, we moved away from Surfers Paradise and booked an apartment at Broadbeach. A wise decision indeed, as it was less busy, but with an awesome view nonetheless.

Armed with a 7-day pass for Sea World, Movie World and Wet N Wild, the first order of business was to the hit the parks. I hired a car from this company at a mall near the apartment, and off we went!

Sea World was surprisingly nice. I've always favoured Dreamworld over the other "worlds", but we really had a good day out at Sea World. The weather was sunny but not too humid, and it wasn't too overcrowded.

The following day, it was time for some superhero mingling as we hit Movie World. And it was another day well spent as well, as we revisited all the attractions on offer.

Then it was time to meet up with my cousin Bernie and her husband John, as well as Bernie's sister Vicky from Singapore. They had driven in from Sydney to meet us in a 4x4 with a caravan in tow. How cool is that?

They picked us up from our apartment and we went to the caravan park where they were staying and had a pretty awesome barbecue.

We had earlier bought all the meats at a halal butchery and they tasted damn good :)

The next day, we drove out to Toowoomba, a city approximately 200kms away from the Gold Coast. Bernie and John used to live and work there, so they were quite excited to show us the sights. The drive itself was ok, not much to see, but when we finally reached there, we straight away went up Picnic Point for a spectacular view of the city and surrounding areas.

The weather was cool up there too and we spent sometime at the cafe having tea and scones.

We also visited a museum nearby, which was pretty unique.

The following day we had an even better day as we crossed the border to New South Wales and visited Byron Bay.

A coastal town town famous for being a hippie spot, we were excited to see for ourselves the much talked about beaches and look-out points. And boy, Byron Bay did not disappoint!

I must say, this was one of the best and most-relaxing family trips ever. It was always a pleasure driving in Australia, and the last couple of days too, we used public transportation, especially the trams as a means to get around.

And of course, we had to go back to one of our favourite Gold Coast spots: Point Danger!

And yup, we spent quite a bit of time at the beach too, as the water was just perfect for swimming and catching waves.

The other memorable thing? Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened during the week we were there, so we just had to catch it before we returned to Malaysia!

Jalan-Jalan Perth 2015

The annual trip to the land Down Under took us back to Perth, Western Australia. The last time we were there was 4 years ago; Tia was still watching the Cartoon Network! Hehe. But yeah, we've had some pretty good Perth memories and knew we'd be going back one day. So it wasn't that tough of a decision, really.

Our MAS flight got into Perth close to midnight that day and by the time we got to the Baileys Serviced Apartment along Hay Street, it was close to 1am. But despite not having reception staff on standby, checking-in was a breeze. And I must say that our whole stay there was really nice and peaceful, and we had no complaints about anything whatsoever.

The morning after was actually our wedding anniversary (thanks to all who sent their well wishes!), and we spent the first half of the day just enjoying the cool air and blue skies. We took a stroll along picturesque Swan River and back up to the CBD for some window shopping and makan-makan.

Later in the evening, we hired a car and drove to Cottesloe Beach for the sunset. And man, it was simply breathtaking.

Then it was off to one of our favourite places (on the planet, in fact), Fremantle! As expected, things were lively, especially at the Youth Park area which has a Big Wheel now as well. We took a walk around the boardwalk area and had a nice seafood dinner at one of the restaurants.

The next day, we made a short trip to Watertown (formerly known as Harbour Town), before making our way to one of our favourite spots in Perth; Kings Park. It was a fine-looking day, although the skies grew darker later in the day. It must be said too that the temperature was rather moderate throughout our stay. It was early winter, and it rarely got into the single digit, except during the night and a couple of the mornings. So, jackets were rarely on :)

And for dinner, again we drove to Fremantle; this time for some crabs, squids and oysters! (We also had some delicious snacks at San Churro before that :) )

The following day, it was time to head out of the city. Despite this being our third time to Perth, we've not really ventured out too far before, although we did spend a day at Rottnest Island the last time around.

So this time, we decided to explore more of Western Australia, and that meant, heading to the world-famous Pinnacles! Slightly more than 200kms away from Perth CBD, we also decided to make a couple of stops along the way.

The first was actually unplanned. I saw the sign to the Gingin Gravity Discovery Centre and thought it'd be worth exploring, especially since Tia's into science so much.

And it was indeed an educational stop, although I wished I didn't go into this space pod that went round and round to the point I wanted to puke! : /

Next, was a stop at Lancelin for lunch. Having done no research whatsover, we just drove around for a bit, hoping to find a nice spot for some seafood lunch, and maybe just walk around a beach. On a hunch, I stopped at a cafe called Kerfuffle by the Jetty. And we hit jackpot!

As I parked the car, I could see that we were right by the beach. It was cold and windy, but there was no way we were not gonna go out for some pics!

Then it was time for our makan. We ordered fish and chips, and some oysters, and we weren't disappointed. The fish and chips was one of the best we've ever had, and the oysters were big and fresh! Highly recommended if you're ever in this area.

All the stops though meant we reached the Pinnacles only by 3pm. We had to pay AUD12 to enter and parked our car at the car park provided. You could also drive through the dessert but our car hire company already told us we're not allowed to do so with the Hyundai Accent. And so we walked on the marked path and the view that greeted us also took our breath away!

Honestly, I thought it was gonna be a small area like Stonehenge in the UK, but the Pinnacles spanned a very vast area. The weather was rather erratic, as the sunshine was interspersed with dark clouds and showers, but we were lucky when a rainbow also made an appearance!

But really, it did feel like an out-of-this-world experience, literally!

Other highlights include Hillarys Boat Harbour and also the drive along the Sunset Coast. We've been to Scarbrough Beach before, so this time we stopped by the picturesque North Beach.

I also did a bit of running along Swan River, and finally, we went for some shopping at Westfield Carousel where there's also quite a number of halal eateries. And oh, we also drove all the way to Rockingham, hoping to hop on to Penguin Island, but it was closed for the winter!

Another wonderful time in Western Australia no doubt, the only bummer being that it's too short of a vacation!

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