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Published: January 8th 2013
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Hi,
We hope everyone had a lovely festive period and we are wishing all our family and friends a happy and healthy new year!
Not quite sure where to start with what we have been up to really...we have had a very busy few weeks!! Ste and Helen (Paul's brother and his girlfriend) have been staying with us. They arrived on Xmas eve and have spent Xmas and new year with us and are leaving on Monday. It has been lovely to have them stay and to show them some of beautiful Perth and the surrounding areas. Pauls work closed down over the festive period, so we tried to cram in quite a bit whilst he was off!
I know for a lot of people (myself included) the thought of Christmas in the sun is a bit strange. However, me and Paul are now Aussie Christmas converts! Although Its such a different experience to the traditional UK Christmas, its so enjoyable to be able to go outside and not freeze! Unlike in the UK, here on Christmas day all public transport still runs (slightly less trains), we are told this is due to everyone wanting to spend christmas
outside and the majority wanting to get to the beach. It was 40 degrees on Christmas day, so we deffinatley did not want to spend the day inside. We got up early exchanged presents and then headed to Cottlesloe beach. The atmosphere here was lovely! People had xmas music playing, lots of people wearing xmas accessorises, lots of families making use of the public BBQs and everyone just having a good time enjoying the sun. The waves even calmed down and myself and Helen managed to have a christmas swim in the ocean. We then headed back home to start our Christmas BBQ and were able to sit outside in the garden chatting until it turned dark. It was a Christmas day we will never forget, of course the only thing missing was our families then it really would have been the perfect Christmas!
One of the most exciting discoveries for me over the past few weeks has been discovering Rockingham beach, which is the first beach we have found with no massive killer waves!! This area really is gorgeous with some stunning houses on the beach front (I want one)! The ocean is really calm and clear, I
could easily spend a full day here! There is the opportunity to swim with dolphins in the ocean not far from hear and it's a really close to penguin island. Paul and I are looking into booking our trip to swim with dolphins for Febuaury with the money we have received from family for Christmas, we are both looking forward to this, although I'm concerned... its swimming with dolphins in their "natural" environment, therefore sharks also share this environment!!!! Anyway...I shall try not too focus too much on that for now.
We have also now met some of Australia's scariest and cutest wildlife at Perth Zoo. The Zoo was massive and really well set up, all the animals have lots of space. It was split into sections; africa, asia, australia and south America, having lots of animals in each part. I was rather excited to get up close to my first kangaroo and Koala.
I would also like to mention that we took Helen and Stephen to Scarborough beach, both of them couldn't believe the size of the waves. Helen went in for a couple of minutes and ended upside down and has not been in since. Their
experience confirms I am not exaggerating with the size of the waves here!
We bought Stephen a ticket to watch Perth Vs Sydney (football), which him and Paul went to the other day. By the sounds of it they both enjoyed it. Despite the famous player they were looking forward to seeing was the worst player on pitch. Helen and I enjoyed a full day wine tour in Swan Valley. Swan Valley is absolutely stunning and I recommend anyone whos near Perth to visit here. We visited five wineries and vineyards, most of which were family run businesses, very beautiful places. The wine was amazing at all the wineries and I discovered I like Port, the honey and apricot port was my favourite! We got lunch included, which we had at a restaurant looking over rows of vineyards. We then went to a brewery and chocolate factory, where we got free chocolate and beer. I managed a small sip of beer, deffinaltey an acquired taste. It was a day of pure indulgence, which Helen and I both loved, although felt stuffed for two days after!
Anyway I shall shut up now!
Paul has agreed to do the
next blog...watch this space!
Vicky & Paul x
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Christine Reid
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Happy new year
have loved reading about your time away. keep them coming.xxxxx