Thursday, April 17, 2025

Victoria, Australia


Our Winter Break vacation came about after doing some research into house swapping. We discovered a website called HomeExchange, where you can set up a profile to swap homes with other people around the globe, or use "points" to stay in someone's house.  You get about 1,000 points for signing up ($200 a year) and setting up your profile.  
Philip Island Cattle

You then earn more points if you host someone in your house, called a Guest Points exchange.  We hosted someone for a night during our trip to Perth earlier in the year and it went well so we decided to try it out for a longer trip. If you can work it out with another person on the site, you can swap homes for a period of time.  We have described it to others like AirBNB without the fees. On this trip, we did a combination of points and swapping, which meant other that the initial sign up fee, we didn't pay anything for accommodation on this trip!  The site collects a $500 deposit when you host that you release when the trip is over and has an identity verification process and has felt secure enough to us. 

Our first stay was a "points" stay in a small town called San Remo, right next to Phillip Island on the East Coast of Victoria, about 2.5 hours from Melbourne.  Phillip island is famous for beautiful beaches and wildlife, including Fairy Penguins, the world's smallest penguin.  We spent every day outside at the beach and hiking in the bush.  The water is clear and blue, but quite cold most of the time.  

We did manage one day of very warm weather and swimming.   We also finally got to photograph an Echidna!



We spent 3 days in Melbourne for Christmas, then moved on to our 2nd HomeExchange stay, a swap with an Australian family of 3.  We stayed in their quiet, tranquil home in the Dandendong Ranges, about an hour NE of Melbourne, and they stayed in our apartment in Singapore. The weather was gorgeous for us, so we got to spend every day outside, usually in the surrounding forests or at one of the many amazing wineries in the Yarra Valley.  

One of our favorites was TarraWarra, which makes a delicious Pinot Rose.  


We also spent a lot of time at wonderfully designed playgrounds, much to Cata's delight.  We even found a stand of redwood trees.


One of our favorite parts of visiting Australia is trying to spot wildlife among the the beautiful natural and agricultural landscapes. Mostly we find a lot of birds, but this wallaby and her joey made it easy by wandering through the back yard of our guest house.






While looking for penguins on Philip Island we unexpectedly came across this nesting colony of terns and ended up spending quite a bit of time engrossed in the chaotic scene. There were thousands of squawking birds, puffy chicks, and adults flying out to sea and returning with little fish to feed to the others.



Cape Barren Goose

Straw-necked Ibis


Australasian Swamphen


New Holland Honeyeater


Cuckoo chick getting a meal from a much smaller adult bird.


Cormorant Chick


Kookaburra


Spotted Pardalote



Eastern Rosella


Tawny Frogmouth


Crimson Rosella


Eastern Yellow Robin


Galah


White-faced Heron


Silvereye


Superb Fairy-wren





































Sunday, December 15, 2024

Rottnest Island and Margaret River

Our most recent travel experience was one Kristi had been excited about for a while. We flew to Perth and visited two locations. The first was Rottnest Island off the coast of Perth. The main attraction here was numerous beautiful beaches easily accessed via bike from the main township.








The island is also one of the last strongholds of the Quokka, a small marsupial mostly missing from its original range due to introduced predators. 


We also drove a few hours south of Perth to Margaret River and enjoyed some forest walks and even more beaches.

It is also a popular Australian wine region and we took in a few vineyards and tasting rooms.  All the vineyards were incredibly child friendly, which was a nice perk. Our favorite was Swings and Roundabouts, which had excellent wine and an epic playground that kept Cata busy for 2 hours!

The novel wildlife is also a draw for us when we visit Australia. On this trip we encountered some cool birds (like this Pied Cormorant) and a few other species we had never seen before.


Silver Gull - Nesting in a rocky coastal area




Baby Quokka - Into and out of the pouch

Humpback Whale

Eastern Gray Kangaroo


Common Bronzewing

Brown Honeyeater

Great Crested Tern
Singing Honeyeater

King's Skink

Laughing Kookaburra

Red-winged Fairywren

Red Wattlebird



Red-eared Firetail 
 

Fan-tailed Cuckoo







Sunday, September 8, 2024

Summer Travel Photos




We have been going through our summer photos. We spent a lot of time outdoors and with family, and we and did fewer house project than the last couple of years, so we even found our way up into Olympic National Park.



We spent some time in Union, took a trip to Oregon, and then returned for another stint on Hood Canal before flying back to Singapore. Along the way, we ate a lot of oysters and picked up a truck.



Sunrise in Union



The timberlands adjacent to our neighborhood have turned out to be great place to spot birds and take photos (especially in the fog).

Wildfire near La Pine as we drove towards Klamath Falls.


Tulelake National Wildlife Refuge

Deer enjoying a morning splash in the wetlands

Harbor seals taking the morning off in the Skokomish River delta

Morning fog burning off of Diamond Lake

Scenes from Southern Klamath County












Summer Birds


Brewer's Blackbird

Bald Eagle Pair



Eared Grebes



California Quail Family


Swainson's Hawk

Sooty Grouse

Bush Tit 


Anna's Hummingbird 



Wilson's Warbler

American Avocet

Forster's Tern

Swainson's Thrush

Western Tanager