Blogs from Perth, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 4

Boarding a plane at midnight for only a five hour flight is never a good idea. The kids got literally only 3-4 hours of sleep for the night. Anyone who's ever hung out with a severely sleep-deprived preschooler will know that it can only end in tears and tantrums! Luckily for us, the kids were great on our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Perth, both falling asleep before the plane even left the runway and sleeping right through a toddler that was screaming himself hoarse for most of the flight. I felt so bad for the frazzled parents as we'd been there just a year ago with Jake, and it's no fun! Once arriving at Perth airport, we got our passport stamped by the most cheerful immigration official to date, collected our bags, and then went ... read more

And go I did. Traveling from SJ through SF, LA, Sydney to my final destination of Perth took me on a journey of 33 hours from door to door. I had arrived as far West as I could go. Heck, if I went any further West, I would have been East. Or is that just my jet lagged mind thinking it is clever when it should really simply sit there and look pretty? Either way, I am in the sunny land of Australia where I was welcomed with the hottest day in 2 years. So much for the email I received happily telling me that the summer had been mild. All 3 flights were nice. The longest leg, from LA to SYD had a passenger load that was very small, so I was able to move ... read more

'Go West, Young Man', as the saying goes and today, we were off to our furthest westerly point on our sojourn in the general direction of home! Today, we fly to Perth and our fifth and final State of Western Australia. We are actually doing Perth in two bites, totalling 5 days, but with a further 5 days in the middle, in upstate Western Australia. So, this episode concentrates on 'bite' number one, our first two days in Perth. Our flight to Perth was scheduled to leave Alice Springs at 11.20 am, but as we needed to return our rental car by 9.00 am, we left our hotel around 8.30, dropped our keys in the Avis 'box', grabbed some brekkie and waited for the check in desk to open at 9.30. Sue was using her crutches ... read more

These two days we travel from Perth back to Ottawa. Instead of paying the additional daily rate for another 2 or 3 hours of using our car on Saturday, we decided to turn our car in at 6 pm even though it meant hanging around the airport until flight time at about midnight. Marion did not believe in spending precious holiday time to organize her bags if she were going to spend that much time at the airport. So she did that at the airport. Good thing we were able to find a quiet spot at Terminal 3 which was under construction. Otherwise, airports just aren’t set up for this kind of operation! Our flight from Perth to Melbourne left about midnight and was only 3 1/2 hours, but because of the 3-hour time difference we ... read more

We needed a slow day today, so we stick around Perth and explore. First up is King’s Park and Botanical Gardens. For those of you who have seen it, you’ll know when we say this is one incredible place. Overlooking downtown Perth, which looks larger than we expected, and the mouth of the Swan River as it flows into the Indian Ocean, we can imagine what the early explorers saw in this place. Paradise. Give us our Canadian health care and pensions, and we’d retire in this area tomorrow, well maybe a bit closer to the Cottesloe beach! Since Perth is going into summer soon, the most spectacular blossoms have already passed with its varied flora going into summer survival mode, yet we see many beautiful flowers. Marion visited April here in 2012 and has seen ... read more