The Beginning of the End - again

Last semester of a student officially begins tomorrow. Well so far, that's the plan. Can't wait to graduate. Needs motivation and the right attitude. Just gonna believe in You for everything...as always isn't it? Haha. Sing to me a sweet song :) Your mercies are new every morning. And that all things are possible with You. My reminders.

Bunbury-Margaret River-Busselton in a day!

Finally the holidays are here. Have been busy writing up my introduction and method sections for my thesis, but I really thank God for allowing me to squeeze in 1 day to go for a road trip to three beautiful places in Western Aussie. Woke up at 530am on 30th June. It was a cold morning as usual but good sunny weather was expected (despite it being winter now). At around 7am we got into our church friend's car and the 5 of us headed straight down south all the way to Bunbury. That was our first stop. Bunbury is situated around 175km south of Perth. On the trip down, we saw so much land, so many farms with cows, sheep and horses. It has always blown my mind away by the amount of land WA has. Bunbury is a peaceful, quiet town. By the time we reached the city, it was around 930am. Had a quick stop and we went to a hill where there was a look out point and we could see the whole of Bunbury town. The Indian ocean was just by the side of the town. The view was amazingly awesome :)especially in the morning where the sun was still rising up into the sky, the air was fresh but already people were up and about. We had a quick toilet break near a beach (there was a group of women exercising). The waves were huge and all 5 of us stopped by the side to watch the waves splashing onto the huge rocks by the beach. It was really cool. Guess what, even with such huge waves there were still people surfing! That is the amazing culture of Australia. Surfing is like in their blood. After that we made our way to a few tourist attraction sites that were situated between Bunbury and Margaret River. It really was a touch and go kind of experience but I was glad that we managed to cover as much as we could given the lack of time. First stop was the Chesse Factory. Tried a sample of the creamy cheddar and immediately loved the taste of it. Decided to buy a block of it back home for my parents to try (though honestly I think I ate most of it in the end!). Grandmama loved it though, it really was a nice and different type of cheese that we usually do not get to try back in Singapore. Second stop was a Lavender place where everything was made of lavender(for obvious reasons). What blew my mind was that everything single product was handmade by the owner...all by herself! There were lavender hand soaps, lavender healing cream even lavender strawberry jam. The 5 of us decided to buy some hot scones together with the lavender strawberry jam to try the new flavour. And you know what, it was one of the best scones and jam I've ever had! It was amazingly good. I really am not kidding and would recommend all who ever will make a trip down to have a quick stop by and try it. Next we had a quick stop to head for the toilet at a wine tasting place. We didn't try any though and headed straight to the Chocolate Factory. It is really similar to the one in Swan River. Both are owned by the same company anyway, just different branches. Tried some mini milk chocolates. Delicious. They sell a variety of goodies from chocolate soaps, chocolate bars (naturally), chocolate tea, chocolate lip balms and many many more. Didn't stayed long and we headed for our next stop which was the Nuts and Cereal place. The entire shop was filled with all kinds of nuts! We tried wasebe peas and they were really good! Monkey bought a packet of mixed nuts for her firend and I bought a pack of chili coated nuts for our family :) Our final stop was at a Silk Factory. It was my favourite stop and I must say that after visitng that place, I started to appreciate both the silk worms and the people who use the silk to make clothes, bags etc. A guy was explaining to us the whole process and it really is no joking matter. A lot of effort is put into getting the silk out of the bunble and I really learned a lot more about Cambodia as Australia does pair up with the Cambodian locals to help in the manufacturing of the silk products. Some people were brave enough to touch the silk worms but I was too frightened and just admired them from afar. haha. The products are really beautiful. Starting to regret not buying a flower purse from that place. It was already getting close to lunch time and we were as usual pressing for time. The 5 of us pop back into the car and headed striaght to Margaret River for lunch. Margaret River is around 277km away from Perth. The journey reminded me so much of the times when my family would drive from Singapore to KL. The distance is roughly the same. I think that was when we saw a full rainbow! And for the first time ever, I saw the end of a rainbow! There was no pot of gold of course, haha. It was funny though, you feel as if the rainbow seems to be moving together with the car. We went to a nice place by the Ocean for lunch at Margaret River. The view was spectacular! We could see the waves coming in. Ate fish and chips with some salad. It was a place owned by a French guy and he was so firendly and nice. It started drizzling a little while eating but none of cared and just ate quickly. It was too nice to head for inside :) After lunch we had a quick stop at a coffee place which apparently is quite a well-known place. Tasted three different types of coffee. I never knew that there were so many different textures and tastes of coffee. Some were light with a subtle taste. Some were stronger and the taste will come straight to you the moment it reaches your tongue. After that we headed for our last stop which was the very famous Jetty at Basselton. Simply beautiful. I have to say that that was may faviourite stop. Maybe because I really love the sea. We were they by the setting sun and walking down the 2km long jetty. Of course we didn't complete the walk, stopped halfway and decided to turn back, if not we won't be making back to perth on time. Monkey fell in love with a mini boat in the jetty shop and decided to buy it as a gift sovenir. It was really nice and has been sitting on her bedside table ever since we got back :) Left the jetty over 430pm and headed back to Perth. Reached Perth around 715pm and had dinner at chinatown at a place called Uncle Billy's. All 5 of us ate quickly (guessed we were hungry!) haha. Reached back home around 9plus. My first time going down south and my first time seeing so many attractions in a day! Can't believed that we managed to do all that in ONE day. Thank God for good weather and thank God for a safe trip. Had so much laughter, singing sessions, beautiful attractions and good food :) Came back with a map of Margaret River for my dad. He was really interested to visit that place oneday. Will definitely go back there again with my family. This time, we'll book a stay-in home and spend at least a week there :)