Did ya miss me??
I missed you guys real bad! But it was nice to take a break from the computer screen and relax and recharge!
So where have I been?
Me, Hubby and the Boys travelled 3 hours in the car down the coast of Western Australia to the South West to a small town called Busselton. My parents rent out a holiday home there and so the perks of that is that out of peak times we get to stay there for free.
This is Busselton:
Well that's Busselton Jetty but you get the idea - some of the best beaches in the world are in the South West.
Only 45km from Busselton is Margaret River which contains more wineries than you can poke a stick at and half a dozen boutique breweries as well. There is tons for the kids to do too, with farms, mazes, mini golf etc etc so it is a great place for a family holiday. Yallingup and Dunsborough are just down the road too a favourite for haunt for surfers.
We spent 5 days there and had a great relaxing time. We went to farms, breweries, the Busselton Show was on while we were in town, we went to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory (YUM!), went to the beach and just basically chilled out as a family!
Usually I take the opportunity to take the home chef hat off while we are away, as I cook every night at home so while we are away we usually eat out for every meal other than breakfast But as it is just before Christmas it's not the best time to be flashing the cash on holiday. Also the holiday house is set up as a home away from home (literally, most of my old kitchen plates, cups and glasses have migrated down there, even my old hair dryer - it's like the ghosts of household items past) then I decided to be a bit more frugal this year.
I packed lunches for during the day for 4 out of the 5 days also cooked 3 out of the 5 nights rather than eating out. The one day we did have lunch out we didn't have dinner as we were so full! Preparing our own meals made a huge difference to the holiday budget and we hardly noticed it. Most places are set up to be able to have a picnic lunch anyway and it was lovely sitting by the beach having our lunch than ordering an expensive (as it is a tourist destination, eating out can be pricey) meal. In fact the most expensive part of the holiday was paying to kennel my dogs!
So what has this got to do with Lonely Planet?
Well on our car trip back they announced on the radio that Lonely Planet has named the South West in it's worlds top ten holiday destinations. They have designated a chapter in their Best In Travel 2010 edition.
Bugger!
The world will now know what us West Australian's have known for years. It was our little secret. While others ranted on about Sydney and Brisbane and shopping in Melbourne we would snicker knowing we had our little 'South West'.
Well thanks Lonely Planet - the secret is out! As long as they don't tell anyone about the North West....D'oh!!!
