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Joondalup, Western Australia

Violet
Jun 21, 2016
4 min read

Awarded The World’s Most Liveable City of 2011, that is the City of Joondalup. Located just 15 kilometres from the Central Business District of Perth, which 25 minutes away by train. However, because my accommodation was at Rockingham, so I had to drive around 1 hour to reach there. It was a long drive but trust me, it worth the driving. The first place I visited was AQWA or The Aquarium of Western Australia. I paid 30 AUD to get in. I got 2 stuff from them, which is a guide map and the AQWA Finding Dory game. The game based on Finding Dory film, basically, you have to find Dory in the aquarium and write the answer what exhibition room you have seen Dory. Pretty fun, eh?

Unfortunately, I couldn't find the Dory :( Nonetheless, I found Nemos!! Located at far north coast exhibition room. Their real name isn't Nemo, it is clown fish or anemone fish. The reason they called anemone fish is because clown fish and sea anemones have mutualistic relationship: two organisms of different species providing benefits to each other. At the side of the clown fish pond, I saw 2 crocodiles lay down next to each other. They are not big but still make you terrify by the way both of them looking at you. It took me less than a minute to take photos of them, as I said above, they are terrifying me! Then, I walked to danger zone. You can tell by the name why they called it like that, because you will face sea snake, coneshells, blue ringed octopus, stone fish etc.

This is a stone fish everyone. Look! it looks like stone so much. I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw it. It didn't move around like normal fish. It just stuck itself there! Good! I can took photos of him very easy. Beside, I wasn't sure it's happy or not. Look at its face, always ":( ". Well, I was joking on that one. Next is hands on experience section. You can use your bare hands touching the starfish and a young stingray in the pond. I touched both of them. I freaked out when I touched starfish. It gave me weird feeling like it smooth and rough at the same time. I saw some people laughed at me about it. I probably don't wanna touch starfish for awhile.

Heading back to Perth coast exhibition room because I missed it at the beginning. Here you'll find Perth coastline animals such as octopus, jellyfish, fluorescent corals etc. Then I moved on to another room, which is Great Southern Coast. There is one animal called leafy sea dragons that very caught my eyes. I've never seen any sea animal like this before. It look like floating seaweed. Basically, it just float around without moving any part of its body! This animal can attract a lot of tourist. Many people took photos of them and kids were going insane when they saw it. If I were a kid, I probably would go crazy too! For more information about leafy sea dragons, National Geographic explain every single detail of it very good.

Click here to reach the website.Right now, it's time for the S H A R K S. Just a few step from Great Southern Coast, you will heading to Shipwreck Coast. That is where the sharks and hundreds of stunning fish are.

This room is amazing because you will travel though an underwater tunnel by a conveyor belt! yes! it is that cool! Even though I am 22-year-old but I was excited as anything. I wandered around and around so I were sure that I do not miss anything. Do not expect to see just 1 shark here because you will see many of them, big and small size. Apart from sharks, I saw some enormous stingrays in there. It felt like a magic when stingrays swam above your head. My face was like this ":O" the whole time. Yes, I could not shut my jaw lol!

After I'm done with AQWA, I still had time to go to Hillarys Boat Harbour. Located just in walking distance from AQWA. Luckily, I visited there when it was sunny. That made the harbour even more stunning. Along the way, I walked pass so many restaurants and every single restaurants are full of people. I stopped and took a look at British Candy Shop. I didn't know that Britain is famous about making candies. Of course, I bought some of them, 2 chocolates and 2 toffees. Lemme tell you here, those 2 chocolates are incredibly creamy and soft. Toffees as well, didn't make me disappointed in the flavour at all. It's possible that I'll be bigger after this trip lol. After tasting all of the sweet, it's time to check out at the harbour!

Wow! this place remind me of French Riviera! Maybe not much fancy like French Riviera but there is some similarity! For example, sunny in the winter, that's a big one. I just found out a new awesome fact awhile ago that Perth has Mediterranean climate like Riviera! Not surprise why a lot of British move to Perth really. I spend 2 hours to explored the harbour then I headed to my accommodation. I gonna end this post with beautiful scenery of Hillarys Boat Harbour. Enjoy!