Australia

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Today was our second to last day in Perth and we knew that on New Years Day everything would be closed so it was our last chance to go into the city.

We borrowed Jo and Nitin’s car and drove ourselves to the train station at Clarkson a few minutes away, and did the easy thirty minute train journey into the city centre.

Even with the post Christmas sales and during peak summer holidays the city didn’t seem that busy. All of the buildings looked very new and the city centre felt strangley clean and tidy.

We found it really easy to navigate around with two main shopping streets and we spent the whole day shopping with hardly any breaks. Typically, as we were looking to spend some Christmas money we didn’t find a single thing we wanted to buy!

I was excited at lunchtime as we found a food court serving all different types of food so I got to have my fix of Indian food - I hadn’t had a proper curry since we went out with Phil in Auckland (and that one hadn‘t been a patch on our local curry house at home)! Matt was also chuffed as he got to sample a Hungry Jacks (the Oz name for Burger King) just to confirm to himself that it tasted just like the burgers at home.

After yet more shopping we headed over to Northbridge (the part of the city famous for having lots of restaurants and cafes)and discovered an outdoor exhibition of the earth from the air. We’d seen the exhibition before in London a few years ago and had even a couple of the books at home, so we spent some time browsing around the display boards. This time it was more exciting as we’d been to some of the places that featured in the photos!

It wasn’t very late but we decided to get an early dinner to treat ourselves before catching the train back seeing as we hadn’t spent our Christmas visa cards on anything else. The cards that Jo and Nitin had got us had dollars loaded onto them and could be used just as you’d use a visa card so we thought we’d make the most of them while we were still in Oz.

We chose a very quiet restaurant and enjoyed a bit of time out after some hectic shopping. Through the windows we could see the city preparing for a night of action as they cordoned off the streets and more and more security started to appear.

By 8pm we were back in Mindarie calling family and catching up on some emails ahead of the new year countdown.

As the time approached 11pm we all bundled into Nitin’s car (with poor Jess in the boot as there were too many of us!) and drove down to the marina a few minutes away.

It seemed like a popular place to be and there were people of all ages standing around on the decks outside the bars. We grabbed a drink from the bar (surprisingly quickly for new years eve!) and went out to sit on a wall in prime view of where the fireworks were going to go off.

Some people had come prepared with their fold up chairs, bottles of wine and snacks. The people with their own boats were showing off as they hosted their own mini new years eve parties.

It felt very strange for it to be so warm on new years eve but it was a nice change. When the fireworks went off everyone did the usual ooohhs and arhhhs and we all clapped at the finale. It was strange thinking we were celebrating hours before everyone at home.

Here’s hoping that 2009 is half as much fun as 2008! It’s got a lot to live up to!

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