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Published: February 8th 2011
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Perth SkylineWith our first festive season down under behind us, we did what we do best... nothing! We opted to have one of our sloth days and relax at Janes for the day. But the Relaxing didn’t last for too long as we were back doing stuff the very next day. I spent the day with Brad who is a surveyor; we travelled about 3 hours inland from Mandurah into the Wheat Belt Country, literally the middle of nowhere! The reason we were out there was because we were surveying a road and were looking for 104 year old boundary pegs along the roadside, well 5 hours in the sweltering heat whilst being covered in flies and with Brad having to run off into the bush with a spade and a toilet roll as he had a dodgy tummy, we called it a day after not even managing to find one of the ancient pegs! Cerri had a more pleasant day, as she went paddling in the kayaks with Jane around the Mandurah Canal system and the estuary. All four of us met up in a very small town called Dwellingup in the evening and had a few nibbles round at one
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Op Shop Couples Combo of Jane and Brads friends. Their house was idyllically set in the forest and as we sat there we saw a variety of different bird life flying around us. We had dinner that night in the Dwellingup Tavern, which was an experience to say the least!
The Next day was the final day of 2010, New Years Eve. We decided to celebrate this occasion with Adam, Aisha and the kids; we packed up a huge picnic and plenty of alcohol and headed down on the Mandurah foreshore for the evening, where they had live bands playing, dancing, games, a fair ground and plenty of activities for the children. At 9pm they then had a big fireworks display for the children and many of the parents who wouldn’t make it to the midnight celebrations, Tallon and Braithe loved the fireworks but soon after we’re very tired and it was time for bed for them! Me and Cerri stayed down on the foreshore continuing to drink (Aussie style of course!) and join in with the celebrations by visiting the fair and then settling down for the BIG countdown. Midnight hit with the band screaming out the countdown and huge cheers then
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Fairy Penguin the real fireworks display kicked in, sending us in 2011. We continued our celebrations on New Year’s Day at Matt and Michelle’s, they were hosting an Op Shop Party where everything you wore had to come from a charity shop. I’d left Cerri in charge of picking up some charity shop bargains, little did I know that she’d come back with a set of clothes for both of us more suited to Winnie and Nelson Mandela! The day consisted mainly of eating and drinking too much, with Michelle on hand practising her cocktail making skills! The evening ended with a drunken game of Pictionary ... (after I dragged Cerri off Matt's homemade Arcade Game) in which I lost every game although I’m blaming my team mate Michelle!
Following the new year’s events it was a family trip to Penguin Island, which is just 700 metres off the coast of Rockingham about 25km north of Mandurah. The island itself is part of the Shoalwater Marine Park and is home to 1200 penguins, not just any penguins these are the same little guys we saw in Oamaru in New Zealand but instead of calling them blue penguins the Aussies have taken
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Family Photo on Penguin Island the mickey out of them and called them Fairy Penguins! We all caught the ferry out to the small island armed with our picnic baskets, eskys and beach towels. The first thing we did was to watch the morning penguin feed where the Department of Environmental Conservation have homed five penguins to be able to study them in more detail. After watching them devour a bucket of sardines we headed to the beach and had fun playing in the water with the kids, whilst Adam tried to teach me how to kick an Aussie rules football which probably would have been easier if I didn’t have a beer in my hand at the time! From the beach we had a spot of lunch where we were constantly under attack from wave after wave of king skink lizards who also call the island home; they particularly liked Michelle who was not impressed after they tried to nibble her toes a few times! In the afternoon we had a stroll around the island spotting lots of penguins nesting in the caves all around the beach who were at the time going through the malting process which makes them very vulnerable so after
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Gloucester Tree a few pic’s we left them snuggle up together. The day came to the end after we spent a bit more time on the beach and before we knew it, it was time to catch the last ferry back.
The next day was spent with Sophie who had planned her guided tour of Perth, so we left Mandurah and drove up to her apartment in the city centre. We spent the day walking round the streets getting accustomed with shopping malls, tourist spots and other points of interest. The heat was pretty intense that day, so we cooled down in a Belgium Beer Cafe before meeting up with Uncle Matt and Laura for lunch at the Generous “Squire” pub . . . as you can imagine I loved the name of this pub! The rest of the day was taken up back at Sophie’s flat where we introduced her to one of our favourite comedies, “The Inbetweeners”. Continuing our tour of Perth the next day, Sophie took us to her favourite Kebab Shop in town! We then took the Greek delights up to Kings Park where we had a Kebab Picnic, if there’s such a thing! Kings Park offered
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The best kebabs in Perth some great views of the city skyline with the Swan River down below, we took in the war monument situated on the edge of the park and the clock flower decoration and once again escaped from the blistering heat.
We took off an a little trip with Adam, Aisha and the boys down to a Pemberton, a small village deep in the Karri Forest five hours south of Mandurah. En-route we stopped off at the Truffle Hill Winery for a rest bite and a spot of lunch which was delicious. Here they not only produce great wines but it is one of Australia’s top Truffle Farm, so everything on the menu had some form of truffle in it. In Pemberton we were staying in the Old Picture Theatre, a converted old cinema right in the centre of this quaint small village. After dumping our bits and pieces in the rooms we ventured to the forest, to the Gloucester Tree which was 72 metres in height, it is the world's tallest fire-lookout tree, you can climb up to a platform in its upper branches for a spectacular view of the surrounding karri forest. An interesting fact is that only 20
percent of visitors climb to the top of the tree, most make it only part of the way before turning back. I was the only one who braved the 153 spike steps and make it to the top which by the way had no harnesses or break net underneath! We had purchased a couple of bottles of wine at Truffle Hill, so we spent the evening having a few glasses of vino and playing what can only be described as the most random board game in the world called “Quelf”. It’s far too hard to explain how the game works, let’s just say we all ended up making fools of ourselves – “Wacka Wacka!” eh Adam! We continued on our tree theme during our stay in Pemberton by visiting the Valley of the Giants the next day. Here we explored Western Australia’s world famous forest of gigantic tingle trees, from the forest floor and from 40 metres up in the canopy. The Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk soars gently upwards amidst the Tingle foliage and opens up to spectacular views of the surrounding area. With our feet firmly back on the ground we drove down to a lovely
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Couples Combo at the Valley of the Giants beach called Peaceful Bay, we had a quick dip in the water before making our way back to Pemberton for a Pub dinner. Sadly the next day we left Pemberton but not before making trips to the Mountford Cidery for some sample tasting and then onto the Lavender Farm for some massive Lavender and mixed Berry pancakes plus feeding some strange looking Alpaca's! On our way back to Mandurah we stopped off at Lake Clifton, in the Yalgorup National Park. Here we viewed the amazing formations called the "Thrombolites", which have been formed over millions of years ago even before dinosaurs existed by micro-organisms too small for the human eye to see.
The following couple of days saw us have dinner with Jane, Sophie and her boyfriend Brendan at the Raffles Hotel in Perth, no relation of the Singapore one. And spending a day at Mel and Mahala’s catching up on all the UK soaps, accompanied by huge and scrumptious home cooked traditional English food involving Uncle Mel’s famous chips and gravy; leaving Cerri very happy indeed and a vast amount of chatting between the girls!
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Sian
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Some more great pics - hope i make the next blog! :-) Enjoy the rest of your time in OZ!x