Trippin' round Oz: Perth

Perth. What an easy drive along the new Indian Ocean Drive. It has cut around 2hrs off the time between Jurien Bay and it made it an easy run for us also. There were some really pretty things dotted at many points down the road that gave us plenty to look at. Also many new subdivisions at the coastal towns spaced up this road. Many sea changes for the WA families by the looks of it.

I found it easy to navigate around Perth as it has a fairly well set out group of arterial roads. We also use the local buses to get into the city. This made life a bit simpler also. Our first stop was the Supreme Court Gardens. This was directly outside of our bus stop so this seemed the best place to start. Perth was extremely neat and tidy and the gardens immaculate. We put part of it down to CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). From here we visit the Swan Bell Tower and watch the bells being tolled by tourists. We just missed out on making this tour but we still got to see the workings of the bells. We boarded the Blue Cat bus which is a free service in Perth. This is a great idea as you can jump on any bus in the city and ride for free. The city streets are not as congested as many of the other capital cities. We headed for Northbridge and the Cultural Area. We played outside the WA Museum and had lunch at Forrest Chase.

It's bigger than Nigel!

Beautiful flower all displayed for CHOGM

Swan Bells

Looking from Swan Bells over the Swan River

City Centre of Perth

Old cast bell in Australia

Santa arrives at David Jones tonight!

After lunch we boarded the Yellow Cat and did the big loop of the city taking in the WACA and then getting off at the Perth Mint. This was really cool. We enjoyed wandering around the displays and luckily enough we saw the largest coin in the world. A 1 tonne gold coin (Only went on display that day). Unfortunately due to the tight security of the Mint no photos with the vault, the pouring room or the engraving room is allowed. A bit annoying really but one rule I did not intend to break. The security guard had a constant eagle eye on us. We watched the pouring of a gold bar which was interesting and then had some specially engraved coins to commemorate their Australian Trip.

The only photo's allowed at the mint!

Kings Park was our next stop in Perth. What an amazing park. It has so many different areas to use within its boundaries. Playgrounds, botanical gardens, waterways, War Memorials and eateries. We have never seen so many different groups using the park our park like they did at Kings. Weddings, family reunions, romantic interludes, birthdays.....so many different things. It was just a hive of activity. We stopped at several spots for photos and to climb lookouts. Our last stop was the play park at Synergy. The kids had a ball. It was a pretty part of the park.

Human DNA inspired lookout.

Fremantle was a labyrinth of small streets set out in the most disorganised fashion. But this only added to its character. The old building were fabulous and we enjoyed wandering around the Fremantle Markets. We visited the park and ate our lunch on the picnic rug. The weather got cold and miserable so we decided to get going. We then drove around the eastern suburbs of Perth. Nigel happily driving and reading the map at the same time. Maybe next time I should do the map reading.

Our last day in Perth was spent at Rottnest Island. It is a very expensive day and as much as I enjoyed the visit I think that it is a little expensive for what they offer. We caught the ferry from the B Shed in Fremantle and arrive at Rottnest just before 10am. We then wandered around the streets a little then went and hired bike to ride around parts of the island. Gosh it was a huge day. Kaleb really found it hard at stages to push his bike up and down the hills that make up Rottnest. We saw many quokkas and Kaleb even saw one of the very venomous snakes in Rotto. He nearly rode over it and it put him in such a panic. Nigel saw it slithering into the scrub so knew he had not made it up. Lucky boy. These snakes are very venomous. We ate lunch at the Dome and then ran in Julia & Duncan. We got the ferry back to Fremantle with was fun.