01.10.09

We arrived in Perth last Wednesday afternoon (23rd Sept), got buses to Ocean Beach backpackers on Cottesloe Beach, we had a walk along the beach and couldn't believe how cold it was- felt like home! On Thursday Chris Newberry, who we went to school with, came to the hostel to meet us, we haven't seen him since he left England to move to Aus about 6 years ago, so we went and had a drink and a catch up which was really nice. Chris told us about the dust storms over in Sydney, with no TV or radio it was the first we'd heard about it. We spent the rest of the day exploring Cottesloe and walked further along the beach. The next day we got a bus into the centre of Perth and had a wonder around. Pete wanted to get a bodyboard while we're out here but we couldn't find one big enough! In the centre of Perth there are certain buses and trains that you can hop on and off of that are free, although we didn't end up using any. On Saturday the weather got nicer and Chris came and picked us up again. We went and picked up his girlfriend Ang (who is lovely) and made our way to Hillarys boat harbour, that also had shops, a little beach etc, played some pool and then went to Chris' and Ang's houses for abit. We then went to Lake Joondalup with bird seeds...there were normal pigeons and ducks but also gallards (not that we knew they were called that until we were told- they looked like parrots!) We were quite shocked to see these birds just randomly in a park and for them to be sitting on us eating seeds. Pete kept away abit though and as hes not the biggest fan of birds! We ended the day having a bbq & fire in the sand dunes in the middle of nowhere, which was really nice. On sunday we got a train to Fremantle, explored the area abit and then went to Fremantle prision (closed down in 1991) and went on a tour around it, went in the cells etc and saw the gallows (pretty horrible to think about) but it was really interesting. On Monday we went to Perth Zoo! I was like an excited child and couldn't wait to see the Koalas and Kangaroos! We got a train into the centre as we'd read it was a 5 min walk...I got us pretty lost and about an hour and a ferry ride later we ended up in South Perth and the zoo! You can walk through the Kangaroo section, along a path but then can run out in front of you..as i discovered! I was looking at some, turned around and had the biggest shock ever as one ran straight past me right next to me! We saw some Koalas, they were asleep in the trees but soo cute! We then met up with Chris and Ang one last time that evening and went to a restaurant that had Monday night steaks for about $15 (roughly 7/8 pounds) which you could cook yourself. Chris and Ang were lovely the whole time we were in Perth and we really appreciated them showing us around. We spent our last day in Perth going to Scarborough so Pete could find this EBB bodyboard shop he'd found on the net. We got there and finally found a board big enough, and as always we missed the last bus back so ended up getting on 3 different ones to get back to the hostel! We have the worst luck ever with public transport, without a doubt we always get to the station etc to just see the bus/train/boat driving off! Anway, we really enjoyed Perth after the shock of the weather (who expects it to be cold in Australia?!), its a really chilled out, relaxing place and we've had a lovely week here. Leave us some messages, lots of love Claire and Pete x P.s. we've just managed to upload some photos from Thailand on here, so enjoy (although none of them are in the correct order!)

06.10.09

We arrived in Sydney last wednesday night (30th Sept), when we were in Perth we weren't sure if we were going to make it here as the dust storms were really bad meaning that flights we're being cancelled- but we made it here! We're staying at Orginal backpackers in Kings Cross. We arrived quite late after a day of travelling so went out to get some food, we'd heard Kings Cross is known as abit of a dodgy area but to be honest we felt fine going out at night, it's a really busy area packed with people and we haven't felt unsafe here once. We woke up Thursday to sunshine, which was a nice suprise as it was quite cold alot of the time in Perth (except when we were leaving!). We spent the day exploring Kings Cross, enjoying the sunshine. Friday we were planning to go to a beach but woke up to the pouring rain so we got the train to Darling Harbour and went to the Maritime Museum. There was a free exhibition on called explosed- the history of swimwear, which was really good, it had all the funky swimware from the 50's. Pete had walked through the whole exhibition while i was still reading the first bit. We also saw an exhibition called water marks which was about 'Australians' love affair with water'. We then had a walk around Darling Harbour as there was a fiesta starting that evening that was going on all weekend as it was bank holiday weekend here. We went to Circular Quay on Saturday and saw the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for the first time. We walked over to the Rocks and wondered around the Rocks market, which was really nice, sort of felt like a little christmas market. It was still tipping it down pretty much since Thursday and had thunder storms on Saturday evening. Pete's been desperate to get to a beach and try out his new body board, woke up to rain again on Sunday morning but decided we'd brave it and got the bus to Bondi beach. Luckily the rain stopped so I wasen't on the beach in the rain! Pete went in the sea in just his board shorts whilst all the Aussies were in wetsuits. The water looked freezing and the waves were huge, the whole time Pete was in the sea I couldn't take my eyes off him- just to check he wasen't getting eaten by the waves! Petes friend Darren and his girlfriend Paula moved to live in Sydney in Jan so later on we went to Darling Harbour to meet them for a meal. We got there and they had a table outside right on the harbour side where we had the perfect seats for the fireworks display. As we were talking we discovered the clocks had gone forward an hour without me and Pete realising meaning we were an hour late meeting Darren and Paula, they were so lovely- they didn't even say anything about us being an hour later and obviously we didn't apologies when we got there as we didn't realise we were late! We had a laugh about it and we're grateful we finally found out they'd changed, other we could have missed our NZ flight! There was no notice in the hostel or mention on the news about it so we wouldn't have found out otherwise! On Monday we went to China town and went to Market City shopping centre and Paddys market- which really reminded me of Covent Garden. Today we finally had some sun, so got train and ferry over to Manly. Had amazing views of Sydney and the Opera House and Bridge from the ferry and Pete had a surf on Manly beach, just as we were leaving it started to rain and another thunder storm! It said on the news Sydney has had the most rainful this week that they've had in 2 months- it seems to be following us..we'll probably take it to NZ! Anyway, we've had a great week in Sydney, really like it here and we've managed to do everything we wanted to do despite the rain. We leave here nice and early tomorrow morning to fly to New Zealand and start our 3 week road trip adventure in a camper van- can't wait! Lots of love, Claire and Pete x