A Month in Western Australia

After spending a year and a half in Australia, we still never made it to W.A. For non-Aussies, W.A. is the short form for Western Australia, the state that covers the entire length of the west coast of Australia. It’s funny that we had to get to Indonesia to visit Western Australia. We sailed to Indonesia and spent a few months there, then stopped in Lombok when the wind turned against us. That’s when we flew back to Australia. We spent a month in Western Australia and enjoyed exploring some cities, beach towns and more in this sprawling state.

The Busselton Jetty
Busselton Jetty in W.A.

Where We Went in Western Australia

Western Australia is the hugest part of a massive country. It covers over 2.5 million square kilometers, a third of Australia. It’s 4x the size of Texas and 10x the size of the United Kingdom. We knew we could barely see any of it, so we had to be selective. It was hard to choose!

Western Australia map of Australia
Western Australia on a map of Australia

We flew direct from Bali to Perth airport, shorter and cheaper than flying from New South Wales. We got off the plane in Perth and changed terminals for our domestic flight to our first and northernmost destination in W.A.: Broome.

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Visiting The Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley wine region is the birthplace of Australian wines, and is a beautiful area. A top day tour from Sydney, the region has scenic landscapes, gourmet food and drink, parks and other activities. I recommend an overnight visit. We liked visiting The Hunter Valley so much, we went twice.

About The Hunter Valley

The Hunter Valley is one of Australia’s oldest wine regions, and the most prestigious in New South Wales. With over 150 wineries, breweries, and cideries, it’s a very popular weekend destination. The number and variety of quality restaurants is just as big, another reason to go.

kangaroos in a Hunter Valley vineyard
Kangaroos in a vineyard in The Hunter Valley
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Our Japan Itinerary

In addition to lots of exploring in Australia, we found time between boat jobs to visit Japan. It’s much closer than from North America, meaning no jet lag, so we took the opportunity to explore Japan. As is becoming our norm, we booked this trip last minute. Even with little advance planning, we liked our two week Japan itinerary. We got a taste of what a wonderful country it is.

Getting There

Port Macquarie in New South Wales only has a domestic airport, so we flew to Sydney, and then to Tokyo. It’s a one hour flight to Sydney with a 2.5 hour layover. Our 8 hour overnight flight arrived in Haneda early the next morning. Like 5:30am early.

Tokyo Haneda Airport Japan Itinerary
Planes at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport

We flew into Haneda Airport, which is definitely the preferred airport for easy access to the city. Arrivals took a long time. We had to wait in a few different lines and fill out forms for each one after we got to the terminal. It took at least an hour to do that, and then we needed to buy Suica cards, for use on all Japanese transport. Then we took the train to Tokyo.

When We Visited

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