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Published: August 29th 2007
Perth Skyline
From Kings ParkAfter Saying farewell to Mark in Auckland, Faye and I had a few days to kill before our onwards flight, one of which was my 28th birthday, so we journeyed north of Auckland to the Bay of Islands as we’d heard they were beautiful and hopefully a little bit warmer that what we’d been experiencing.
The Bay of Islands consists of 144 islands and numerous coves, with usually calm beautiful blue clear water surrounding them, sadly due to the weather the sea wasn’t up to its usual standard… still the coastal scenery sure made up for it. We decided to go for a
dolphin discoveries cruise as the weather had improved and we were actually beginning to see some sunshine. The cruise consisted of a tour of the islands, with all the interesting parts pointed out and explained, as well as showing us some of the privately owned islands, while we were cruising around we would also hopefully spot some dolphins and other marine wildlife. Luckily for us, we came across a pod of approximately 30 Bottlenose dolphins, which were more than willing to show off for the boat, bow riding, flipping/somersaulting out of the water and generally just playing around.
It was great to see them up close and compare them to some of the other dolphins that we’d seen, they were huge.
Sadly though all good things must come to an end and we left New Zealand thoroughly exhausted but content that we’d done and seen everything that we came to do, plus a whole lot more regardless of how much it cost. We’re both really sad to be leaving (my wallet sure isn’t)… but roll on Oz!!!!
We flew from Auckland to Perth, Western Australia (via Melbourne), arriving early in the afternoon. We chose Perth as our port of entry into Australia, as there are some friends of the family who live here, who although I haven’t seen since I was about 5 were more than glad to pick us up from the airport and let us stay while we got ourselves sorted out with some transport for our grand odyssey around the country. They took us into the city centre first so we could check out some car places and browse the notice boards of many of the hostels to see if any other backpackers were selling on any old vehicles. After picking up a
Quokka
On Rottnest Island few numbers we headed around the city on a guided tour then went for a drink and snack at Kings Park which looks out over the city skyline. We then took the scenic coastal route back to our host families’ home which would also serve as ours for our time in the city.
The next few days were spent being treated like royalty by our hosts as they chauffeured us round looking at potential movable homes, and keeping us very well fed and watered. We saw various possibilities, some station wagons which had enough space to throw a mattress in the back, a van with a permanent bed in the back (the door fell off while we were looking), a camper van (a cockroach tumbled out while it was being shown to us) and we even looked at an old tradesman’s van, thinking we could kit it out ourselves with all the necessary camping gear. In the end we bought a van we found on
gumtree which was also the first van we looked at, typical. It’s a 1988 Mitsubishi Express van, with eight seats (the six in the back fold flat), and all camping equipment. The major selling
Quokka
On Rottnest Island point though was that the engine blew up on the previous owners and has now been replaced with a reconditioned engine which has only done 10,000 km. It’s also Western Australia registered which makes it much easier to sell on in other states.
After paying for and picking up the van we headed back home and emptied everything out to find out exactly what camping equipment was included as there was too much to list on the advert. It turned out to be a treasure trove of stuff, with all the essentials, tent, sleeping bags, air mattress, stove, chairs, pots, pans etc… as well as a powered shower, cool box (Eskie), fishing equipment, boogie board, snorkel sets and loads else. They’d also slipped a few beers in the little fridge for us as a present. We cleaned out all the inside and put everything back so we knew where it all was, and got her prepared for the trip ahead, she also got named Priscilla (after the Aussie film).
We decided we’d take the van on a test run doing a (small?) loop round the south west of the state and then stopping back in Perth on the
way up, but before we did that we thought we’d take a day trip over to Rottnest Island which is located just off the coast of Perth. It’s not a very large island, being only 11 km long and 4.5 km wide but has plenty of great beaches and history attached to it, it’s also where you can try and spot quokkas, which are almost exclusively found there. We drove over to Fremantle, a large suburb/town just south of Perth to catch our early morning ferry. It only took the boat 25 minutes to whisk us the 19km to Rottnest, and when we arrived we headed straight to the bakery to get an early morning cuppa and breakfast. We soon realised it wouldn’t be too hard to spot a quokka when straight away we saw loads milling around the shops, some of them even had joeys in their pouches too which was really cute. After our breakfast we strolled around the island for a bit, but as the weather really wasn’t too great and we had to keep ducking under trees to stop getting soaked by the frequent showers, we headed to the Oliver Hill Battery for a tour as
Whale World.
Sperm Whale skeleton - the last ever to be caught at Cheynes Beach Whaling Station. most of it would be under cover. The main feature of the battery is a pair of 9.2 inch guns which could fire an armour piercing shell 28 km. One of them has been restored so it’s possible to get a good look around and it’s also possible to look around all the tunnels, ammunition storage areas, engine room etc… that were associated with keeping the gun operational. The guns primary purpose was to prevent ships getting close enough to bombard the port of Fremantle and by having the guns on Rottnest it increased the protective zone around the port to about 50km. It was a pretty interesting tour, although a little long winded but as it was being run by volunteer with far more interest in history than me, I didn’t mind too much. Afterwards we made our way back to the ferry port so we could catch our boat back as the day was getting on and the weather didn’t look like improving very much.
We spent one last day in Perth collecting supplies before bidding farewell (for a few days anyway) to our new family and starting the 5 or so hour drive to Albany on
Whale World.
The Cheynes IV - whale chaser the south coast. We chose Albany as it’s a great place to pick up a cruise which would take us out whale watching. We arrived quite late in the day though, so we found somewhere to camp for the night and settled down to see how well we would sleep in our new home.
We woke early in the morning to discover that not only was it raining quite heavily but that our air mattress had deflated completely and we could feel every lump and bump of the seats. Sadly due to the weather we decided we’d give the whale watching a miss, not much point if you can’t be out on deck all the time but we continued on the whale theme and drove on over to
whale world. Whale world is based at Cheynes Beach Whaling Station, an old whale processing plant that ceased operating in 1978. Most of the exhibits were concerned with the whaling industry and its history rather than the animals themselves, but we spent a good few hours taking in everything. There are some excellent multimedia presentations which were held inside the old whale oil storage tanks and a real whale skeleton display, which
had the whole skeletons of a blue, humpback and a sperm whale, the sperm whale being the last ever victim of the whaling station. There was also one of the whale chasers used to hunt and harpoon the whales in dry dock (the Cheynes IV) and it was possible to climb all over it exploring every deck and room. It felt really strange to walk around a facility which was responsible for something which society now perceives as totally horrendous, and at times it felt like we were wandering round a serial killers house looking at how the victims were disposed of, especially when you walk around the flensing (cutting) deck and see the head saw for the first time. It really is no surprise that the industry ended either, especially when you learn that they used to hunt and kill the humpback whale mothers who were coming into bays to give birth, how on earth anybody thought that would be sustainable I’ll never know.
After we finished at whale world the weather still hadn’t improved so we decided to head further along the coast hoping to get to Denmark before nightfall. On the way we stopped at Albany
wind farm, which gives some incredible views of the turbines both from afar and up close. It was pretty cool to stand right up close to them and hearing the whoosh of the turbines as they spun overhead. After arriving at Denmark we went to the beach to find somewhere to hole up for the night, hoping that the next day would bring better weather.
The next day the weather had improved considerably with fine sunny spells and the occasional shower (the airbed had still deflated though) so after a stroll around the pretty town we headed further west to the valley of the giants which is a spectacular forest filled with massive Karri and Tingle trees. To get a really good view of the forest and the trees themselves you can walk along a specially designed walkway that is suspended through the trees taking you 40m up into the canopy, it was really impressive although it does wobble and sway far more than I imagined it would, so maybe not a good option for vertigo sufferers. It was a really enjoyable experience, especially as it made us able to fully appreciate the size that these trees are capable
of getting to. After the jolly through the tree-tops we went on the Ancient Empire walk which is right next to the suspended walkway, this walk involves walking on a raised boardwalk which leads around (and sometimes through) the bases of some ancient trees. Bush fires have burnt out the inside of some of the trees leaving a ring of living tissue capable of sustaining the tree but leaving a huge hollow in the base and centre, some of these are large enough to walk inside, and after the Ancient Empire walk we made our way to the Giant Tingle Tree a particularly impressive example, which has a hollow big enough to park a car inside.
After spending the day in the forests we started to head on back to Perth, taking a couple of days to reach the city. The new van performed excellently on the journey filling us with hope that she should drive us round to the east coast with no problems at all, the only issue was the bed, and after three uncomfortable nights sleeping on a flat mattress we vowed to go straight to the shops to find a more restful alternative as soon as we could…
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Dad
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aussie tucker
Good write up, glad that Bron and dave looked after you, Kings park is amazing scenery across the city, see you in the next installment. love to you both XXXXX