C read about how we could see stingrays at Hamelin Bay, so we drove out early one morning to get there by 9am, which was supposedly the ideal time to see them. Unfortunately, the waves that morning were really strong, and we didn’t see any rays near the shore at all. C and I were rather disappointed, but the kids didn’t really care, and were more than happy to explore the beach.
We spotted many vineyard snails along the way, and even some eggs! After a while, the kids started trying to see who could spot more snails, and kept pointing them out as we walked.
We drove to Sunflowers Animal Farm so that the kids could get one last dose of their animal fix before we left Perth, since it’s one of the more popular farms in the Margaret River region.
We came across many chicks once we stepped in, and Pommy the talking long-beaked corella was walking around too. Didi got really freaked out by Pommy for some reason, and screamed really loudly when it walked near him, but he was the only one of our three kids who wanted to “help” C hold one of the chicks, so I have no idea why he was so scared of Pommy.
There is a good variety of animals available for feeding in Sunflowers Animal Farm, though some were under treatment and had signs asking visitors not to feed them displayed at their enclosures. N and Meimei were very busy going around trying to feed all the animals, while Didi was a bit more cautious, and only wanted to feed certain animals.
I liked that there were information sheets displayed at each area, telling us a bit more about the animals, as well as what they liked/disliked eating, so that we could choose the correct food from the feeding buckets that we purchased. Meimei was really fearless and made us laugh when she started dancing in front of the alpaca.
There are also two playgrounds outside the farm, and the kids had a great time playing there after we were done feeding the animals.
We went back to our AirBnB for a short rest after that, and headed to Rotary Park nearby for some more play-time, since the weather was quite nice. We really liked how there are so many great playgrounds almost everywhere we went in Perth! Dinner was at Teddis Big Spoon, a small Korean restaurant at Margaret River, which was pretty decent.
On our last day, we stopped by the Margaret River Farmers’ Market after we checked out of our AirBnB, to check out the fresh local produce as well as to grab a quick breakfast.
We decided to visit the Dolphin Discovery Centre on our way back to Perth, hoping to spot some wild dolphins, since we didn’t manage to see the whales or stingrays. We did manage to see two dolphins in the distance, but the kids didn’t see them at all, because they were too far away.
There’s an Interpretive Centre inside the Dolphin Discovery Centre, but we didn’t go in, as I wanted to do some last minute shopping. My friends recommended going to Westfield Carousel Shopping Centre, which wasn’t very far away from the airport, and my only regret is that we didn’t plan to spend at least half a day there. I had only an hour to shop, and didn’t even manage to finish walking through Kmart. There are SO MANY SHOPS inside, including Target and Coles, so you can imagine how disappointed I was. I did manage to buy some tops and bottoms for the kids, an ant farm for N, as well as some children’s books which were cheaper than Book Depository, so it wasn’t that bad I guess.
I felt a tad sentimental during our drive to the airport, especially since the sky looked so gorgeous. Perth is truly a fantastic place to visit with kids, and I’m glad we finally managed to make the trip there. It was quite an exhausting holiday, since we visited so many places within a week, but it was so rewarding to see how happy the kids were.
PS. I got N a notebook and some washi tape from Daiso before our trip, so that he could do a simple journal during our trip. He complained about it on some days, but I thought it was an important exercise for him, since he’s old enough to record his own memories. He likes drawing, so he drew pictures of some places, or cut out pictures from the brochures we collected. It was interesting to see what left lasting impressions on him, and I hope to get him to work on his own journals for our future trips too.
