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Published: January 31st 2008
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It’s a bit late but merry Christmas and a happy new year to everyone back home! We're already well into the New Year and this means our time in Australia is coming to an end. We've now been Auzzies for five months and have been based here in Perth for two months so we thought it was time to show you some Christmas photo's and let you know what we've been up to! Well all we've done is work, work, work and more work. You come away for a year and spend a quarter of the time working; what’s all this about?
So Christmas was really nice but really hot. It hit 45 degrees here on Christmas day and Boxing Day!!! A bit different to you at home! Being so hot called for lots of time spent in the pool and the sea to cool down which was not really so bad!!! Santa knew where we were and brought us lots of present which was also very good!
Although we have done lots of working we have managed to fit in abit of sightseeing too!
We went for a tour around Fremantle prison. The Prison was built by
convicts in the 1850s and was closed as a place of incarceration in 1991 after 136 years of continuous use. We did the normal tour of the prison looking at the cells, kitchens, exercise yards, whipping post, gallows, solitary cells and death row. We got a great guide who had actually worked at the prison for 20 year when it was in action. The guide was so good we decided to do another tour with him about all the great escapes there had been from the prison. From cutting open the roof to digging tunnels to ramming down the gate in a laundry van. The most famous escape was that of Brendan Abbott and accomplices who made uniforms that resembled prison guards to aid there escape. We also learnt about the horrible riot in 197? when the prisoners over powered the guards taking control of the prison but trying to set fire to it to get out. They attracted and seriously injured 15 prison officers and burnt the prison considerable resulting in nearly $2million worth of damages.
We went on a family outing to Yanchep. Yanchep just 60km north of Perth is a suburb including popular seaside area and
Full stockings
Santa and skippy have been!!! nation parkland further inland. The park is noted for its caves, native bush, Loch McNess lake and koala colonies. We went here for a picnic and a couple of games of cricket. You can hire boats out on the fresh water lake but it was very windy and we didn’t want to get blown away. The lake is full of fish, birds and the weirdest looking thing a long necked turtle.
Located 127 km north of Perth, Lancelin is a quiet, sleepy little fishing village characterised by beautiful hard white beaches, huge white sand dunes and the winds which roar through the shallow bays off the Indian Ocean which are ideal conditions for windsurfing. And when we say the winds roar they really do. Callum took us up here to take Luke surfing this is the place that everyone goes to surf , it has the best waves and lots of them. I went and sat on the beach to watch them and I have never been so sand blasted in my life. Sand was everywhere and coming out of my ears for days. Just a little further along the coast there are huge sand dunes over 2 km
long.
The sand dunes are the largest in the state containing absolutely nothing but pure white sand and no vegetation. There was people sand boarding on here and 4wheel driving and trail biking, but we just went for a little walk. The sand was so white and with the reflection from the sun you could hardly see anything.
We went south on a day trip to the town of Mandurah. We say town but it is expanding very rapidly and has a population of 62,000 and continues a population growth rate of 7%. The town is surrounding the Peel Harvey Estuary which if full of marina animals such as dolphins, pelicans, shags (yes they are birds!!!) and a variety of crabs. Mandurah also has a number of suburbs built around artificially created canal systems a little like Venice that extend from the Peel Inlet. We took a boat trip here to go and see if we could find any dolphins and look at the million dollar homes down on the canals. We did find a dolphin playing along the waterways, who came over to say hello to us.
We were real cheesy tourists and went to the Perth
Mint. The Perth Mint opened in 1899 in response to the discovery of rich gold deposits in Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie, by British royal appointment. Between 1899 and 1931, The Perth Mint struck more than 106 million gold sovereigns and nearly 735,000 half-sovereigns for use as currency in Australia and throughout the British Empire. Prospectors from the gold fields all around Australia and the world brought their raw gold here to have it minted into gold coins. We did a tour here which including traditional Gold Pour, during which pure gold is heated to molten temperatures and transformed into a solid gold bar. This is all done in the original 19th century melting house which is estimated to have over 20 million dollars worth of gold spec embedded in the walls.
Another night we were feeling lucky and went to Gloucester Park race course to the trots!!!! Its horse racing but with a harness on the back and people driving the horses. The horses trot really fast but move there legs in a different way. It was really fun and we did lots of betting but we were not too lucky on the night!!!!
So Lukes sister Charlotte is
here at the moment for a couple of weeks and we have hired a campervan to go off for a little trip around the south west corner of Australia. We only have about another 3 weeks left until we leave for New Zealand!!! Scary we will be on the long trip home then!!!
Ok so hope your all ok and take care and keep in touch!!!
love Katie and Luke x
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