Rottnest Island, Western Australia (March, 2014)

Eliza's brother David and his wife Hope came to visit for a week.  We took a day trip out to Rottnest Island.  We took a 45 minute ferry ride from Hillarys Boat Harbour, which is a 7 minute drive from our house and we were there.  There are no cars on the island, only bikes and public buses.  We bought a day pass for the busses (they only travel one way and circle the island).

There were some great beaches that were pretty empty and some good snorkeling.

One of the unique things about Rottnest Island is that it is the only place on earth where the Quokka can be found.  Quokkas are marsupials and look like giant rats and are about the size of cats.  They are docile and not afraid of humans.  In fact, we had a couple of them come right up to us, which was pretty cool.

 Quokka sighting.

 Salmon Bay…our paradise for the day.

 Nash and Zander, running out to play.

A budgy smuggler is the term Australians use for a speedo.  In Australia, guys wear boardies (board shorts) or budgies (speedos) for swimwear.  I've learned that a budgy is a small bird (I think what we call a parakeet, but I'm not a bird expert), and I'm not going to go into any more detail about why speedos are described as parakeet smugglers…I think it's pretty self explanatory from there.