Hillarys Boat Harbour

Last Sunday was my only day off. I'm working Mon-Sun this week, so I decided to take my day off to spend some quality time with bub. I brought him down to Hillarys as there was a free train ride called Boardwalk Betty, and bub loves trains. The plan was to have lunch, go for a stroll along the harbour, and go on the train ride. Hillarys Boat Harbour is one of Perth's main attractions, and there are lots of visitors and tourists everyday. Besides the harbour, there are plenty of touristy gift shops selling Aussie souvenirs and other knickknacks. There's also plenty of restaurants and small eateries like Subway.

My mum dropped us off before she went to Farmer Jack's to do the grocery shopping (parking was hard to find at Hillarys especially on a weekend, and also she's been to Hillarys countless of times so she didn't want to join us). When we arrived, we found that the Boardwalk Betty was cancelled as there was a special farm show going on, called Old McDonald's Farm. The crowd was quite large as Sunday was the last day that the Old McDonald's Farm will appear at Hillarys. Bub enjoyed patting the animals and his favourites were the rabbits and sheep. He was quite terrified with the hens and to be honest, I was too as the hens appeared to be quite aggressive.

I didn't manage to take any pictures of the animals because there were quite a lot of people (kids in particular) and I had to keep an eye on bub (also, I was touching the animals and I didn't want to touch my camera with my 'germ-ful' hands). After washing our hands at the nearby toilet, we proceeded to have our lunch. I ordered a Texan chicken burger with chips, and a bottle of juice. The servings are quite  large and generous in Australia, hence one burger was enough to feed us both.

 

 There were lots of seagulls lurking around the tables, so if you don't watch your food carefully, they will swoop down and steal your food. We sat at the verandah, and bub enjoyed watching the seagulls and yachts.

It was a warm and windy day. After lunch, we decided to take a stroll down the harbour where more yachts were located. There were planes and helicopters flying overhead at 5-minute intervals. Bub was excited by all the yachts, helicopters and planes that he didn't want to leave the harbour =)

Some Italiano boys playing on the rocks

Beautiful apartments overlooking the harbour

Watching the ants go marching by.

 We decided to visit the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) which was just located at the end of the harbour. It was our first time there. AQWA is really small, compared to the Underwater World in Singapore. However, bub has learnt about fishes a few weeks ago (after watching 'Finding Nemo' which I borrowed from the library), so visiting AQWA was a good way to reinforce what he has learnt before.

Bub got all excited when he saw "Nemo" =)

Looking through the magnifying glass

Sea Snakes

 There was a 'touch-and-feel' area where you can just submerge your hands in the water and touch whatever you dare to. Most of the kids were trying to catch the fishes, but bub was mostly interested in splashing and drinking the water. I was disgusted. I had to keep stopping him from drinking the water.

 I wasn't quick enough to catch the fishes with my bare hands, so I just picked the starfishes up. Bub had a feel of it for like 3 seconds, before becoming bored and started splashing the water again. Sigh.

 His shirt was all wet after splashing the water, so I had to change him while washing his hands at the toilet nearby.

Fishing by the sea. Beautiful view of the calm sea, the yachts and kayaks.

Stingrays

Divers waving to us

We went to the gift shop after that but didn't stay long as they were plenty of breakables. It wasn't an ideal place to be with an over-excited tot, who couldn't wait to put his hands on everything.

It was a fun-filled and interactive day which concluded when my mum came to pick us up, and we had lunch (again) at Hungry Jacks. All that learning and walking was exhausting and I just couldn't resist the $5 stunner meals =)


Hillarys Boat Harbour
86 Southside Dr
Hillarys
Tel (08) 9448 7544
http://www.hillarysboatharbour.com.au

AQWA
91 Southside Dr
Hillarys
Tel (08) 9447 7500
http://www.aqwa.com.au  --> refer to website for entry prices