Today started very lazily with Wills waking us up at 8am – absolutely luxury because normally at home it’s a 5.30am wake up!

After a leisurely breakfast we decided to pop into Merimbula to have a look around, plus it was also a good opportunity for Wills to check out any new playgrounds.

It has become a routine on our trip to have a coffee break around 11am, so we found a lovely place to stop and take in the scenery. We ended up at the Old Wharf where we had scones and jam, coffee and a strawberry milkshake for HRH. There was a aquarium attached to the the restaurant/ café and we thought it might be a lovely treat for Wills. The aquarium was sadly very dated and tired around the edges but Wills didn’t seem to mind – in fact, he was very happy as he found “Nemo and his dad”. Everything was going smoothly until Wills tripped over and grazed his head, but nothing that an Octonauts plaster couldn’t cure!

After a quick playground stop and a mooch around a local food festival we decided to head back to our cottage and go to the local beach. North Tura Beach is a 1 1/2 km walk down a very quiet track and we had a great couple of hours just playing around making sandcastles. The beach itself was pretty much deserted apart from a few local fishermen. Unfortunately it wasn’t a kiddy friendly place to swim so we walked back to where we are staying and had a dip in the pool there.

James and Wills went off to feed the kangaroos while I sorted dinner out but on their return James informed me that he wasn’t feeling very well – putting two and two together, we put it down to the oysters he had at the food festival. While Wills and I were having dinner he was very sweet and concerned about his daddy being poorly – he kept getting down from the dinner table to check if he was ok – giving him kisses and cuddles.

After a good night’s rest we all had breakfast and were contemplating on what we were going to do today. James noticed that there was a music festival in Apollo Bay, the local town near to where we were staying so we thought it would be a good idea to check it out considering how much Wills likes his music.

Apollo Bay is a sweet small town on The Great Ocean Road and every autumn they have a music festival which just happened to be on this weekend. The festival was quite small but from what we saw of it, it had some great bands. There were a few fun things for the kids to do and Wills seemed more interested in the bouncy castle and ice cream stands than the music! James even managed to persuade him to have his face painted like a tiger. Bless him, he was so good at having his face painted he didn’t move a muscle, but sadly about two minutes after having it done he decided that he didn’t like his tiger nose and asked Daddy to wipe it off.

We must have spent a good couple of hours just mooching around the festival and Apollo Bay itself – Wills had to have his now obligatory test drive of the local playground and, of course, we all had to have a walk along the beach too.

We left Apollo Bay and headed back to the Eco Lodge for a guided walk with one of the conservationists to see the resident rehabilitated Koalas and Tiger Quolls. The Tiger Quoll or spotted-tail quoll is a carnivorous marsupial with a jaw bite almost as strong as the Tasmanian devil. It is no way near as well known but just as endangered. We managed to get halfway around our tour when Wills attention span disappeared and he went bonkers! Some of it must have sunk in, though, as he has a new addition to his crew of stuffed friends in the form of Dottie, the Tiger Quoll!

After the slight mess up at the airport with our pickup it was a lovely surprise to have such a beautiful and funky hotel to stay in for the next few days. We are staying at The Hatton Hotel in South Yarra – it’s a lovely boutique hotel in a period building, on a nice quiet road, all close to the Melbourne CBD – perfect!

We spent our first day walking around Melbourne in cooler, overcast weather – quite a change from Perth. This is my second time in Melbourne – unfortunately I didn’t see much of it last time as I was too busy pining over a certain person called James Walker!

The city is much bigger and grimier than Perth so initially we were not too struck with what we saw but, as the day went on, Melbourne began to grow on us – we had a look around the main centre and then, as the weather improved we set off to the Botanical Gardens – mainly to try and find Wills some swings and slides. After having no success in finding somewhere ourselves I had to ask a local Melbournite. They kindly pointed us in the direction of the ‘Children’s Garden‘ – a fantastic set up for the little ones – it had mazes, secret walkways, a little stream that they could walk down and things to climb on and in – it was just brilliant! We spent at least a couple of hours there with Wills and he absolutely loved it.

After a bite to eat, we set off on the tram to St Kilda, one of the nearby beach suburbs. This gave William a chance to burn off a little bit more steam by running up and down the beach!

We returned to the centre and William was so tired out he fell asleep in the pram almost straight away – this  meant James and I could enjoy the rest of the Botanical Gardens ourselves. We ended the day with a delicious Thai meal at a local restaurant not far from our hotel.

Today we left Margaret River and headed back to Perth to catch a flight to Melbourne. The day started well with Wills saying goodbye to all the animals on the farm and had one last go on the swing and hammock.

The drive back to Perth was a long, three hour journey made even longer for all of us by the reappearance of the Devil Child. After being in hibernation for a few days he decided to truly excel himself by shouting pretty much all of the journey, throwing his favourite bear, Tolo, on the floor every two minutes, telling Daddy not to speak to Mummy, and generally being obnoxious. Just as we realised we were pretty pushed for time to catch our flight, he decided to vomit all down himself. As you can imagine, this left us less than enthusiastic about the four hour flight to Melbourne.

However, we managed to arrive at the airport in time, get through security pretty smoothly and then board the plane without too much hassle. Surprisingly, given his form in the morning, William was an excellent passenger – he sat quietly, ate his meal and flirted with the air hostesses – much to Mummy and Daddy’s relief!

Having arrived in Melbourne, we had to deal with yet another challenge in that the travel agent had mucked up our airport transfer. Despite us having to wait another hour while it was sorted, Wills was extremely good and waited patiently.

It was certainly a day of two halves and in the end The Boy redeemed himself!

So here we all are finally in Perth, a place I visited ten years ago before I met James and way before William was thought about. Perth itself its pretty much how I remembered it – extremely clean with all the old buildings well preserved and lots of sun, blue skies and very hot!

We all arrived very late to our hotel after a gruelling flight with HRH Walker junior AKA the Devil Child. Despite being tired he refused to have any sleep and proceeded to spend at least two hours of the flight flailing his arms and legs about like a mad thing. Eventually I had to restrain him, which was not much fun, but hay ho we finally got here.

Going through immigration and customs we witnessed one of the immigration officers exuding all his charm to a poor Chinese man – blatant racism and something I can’t stand! On the flip side this lovely lady officer in customs happily x-rayed William’s Mr Bump soft toy as he had asked for him to have his “photo” taken again.

Went spent our first full day in Perth exploring the city pounding the streets in the heat and then finally ending our day in Kings Park – which is a beautiful park that overlooks the city.

Today we spent the day taking a boat trip out to Fremantle which is a very pretty and historical suburb of Perth about an hour down the Swan River.

We are sure the food in Perth is delicious but our last two meals have been a disruptive room service affair – by the end of the day Wills has been so tired that any kind of sitting in a restaurant would certainly be out of the question (think more arm flailing and restraining). We are fast finding out the joys of travelling with an over tired toddler.

Tomorrow we’re off to Margaret River just three hours drive south of Perth – it will be cooler and we are self catering so HRH will be able to be back on some sort of routine and hopefully in better spirits.