Life is not a beach!

So when I was researching Perth's climate I remember reading about the 300 days and 3200 hours of sunshine per year. I also noted the average temperature of 30* C and the Mediterranean climate. What I failed to take into account is that Perth has a similar annual rainfall to Manchester and that ALL 745mm of rain will fall within a few days!

Not ones to be put off by rain (we are British after all!) we decided to book on a surf course at Scarborough beach. However we happened to catch the news which was reporting a freak water spout that had caused a mini tornado on the coast. Surfing was quickly put on hold and our attentions turned to scouting out the local coffee shops!

With the rain continue to do its best to make us feel like we were back in Preston, we decided to get some more jobs out of the way. Firstly and most importantly we headed to Nespresso to pick out our new coffee machine. Once caffeined-up we set out to find a new place to live. Not really knowing where to start, we picked some random suburbs and began exploring. Within a few hours and several trips home to change, almost every item of clothing we owned was wet through! So now we are stuck inside wearing our PJs at 6pm! Reminds me of our camping trips as kids!

I wanted to head to the lively suburb of Subiaco to try out one of the restaurants for tea tonight, however we settled for take-away pizza and a bar of chocolate. Australia is pretty laid back, but I think even the Aussies draw the line at dining out in PJs!

So with not much else to report at present, why not have a look round our flat. We rent the upstairs of a large house in a rather posh area called Shenton Park. The owners live downstairs but are on holiday for 4 weeks so we are also allowed to use the garden. We are here for another 5 weeks, then need to find somewhere more permanent.

Living Room

Kitchen - complete with new Nespresso :-)

Bedroom (Cockroach Den - see below)

 

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Paddington!!!

Hall

Bike..... Er sorry Second Bedroom

 

So that's all for now.

From a very soggy team stack!

1 Week On

So 1 week in Oz done!

So last time I wrote we had decided to take a few days off  the masses of paperwork to do some touristy stuff. First on the list was a visit to Kings Park. This time we headed to the south east corner which contained the botanical gardens. At the entrance to the park is a large war memorial which provides a great lookout point with views across the river and Perth skyline. Not a bad place to start!

 

Next we wandered round the botanicals, which had been divided up into plants from the different regions of Australia. There was also an elevated walkway so you could view the gardens from within the canopy. My favourite spot was the Giant Boab. This is a tree 14m high and 2.5m wide. It was a gift to the park from the Gija people, an indigenous group for the Kimberley region of WA. The tree was transported 3200km on the back of a lorry before being replanted in Kings Park. Pretty cool!

Later on we planned on going for a bike ride into the Perth Hills. Unfortunately Chris's bike did not survive the 14000km journey from Preston. The tip of the brake level snapped off, an annoyingly expensive and difficult fix! Rather than waste the day, we hired a bike and set off in search of some hills! We did a nice gentle 60km into the Kalamunda national park. Not quite in training mode yet... So we enjoyed a sneaky coffee and cookie stop! We then cycled back to Perth along the river the sun was out and so were all the tourists! We stopped off at the old port for an ice-cream (definitely not in training mode yet!) and this is where we has our first deadly encounter....jellyfish! I wondered why no one was paddling?!

 

 

Ice cream was later followed by our first Aussie BBQ and second deadly encounter under the bin... a great western killer snake... or maybe just a harmless large worm!

 

 

 

Touchdown in Perth

So we have now been in Perth for 5 days. The flight from Singapore was just 5 hours and we both slept the whole way so it passed quite fast. We got through customs pretty quickly... and fortunately they didn't confiscate my Percy Pigs! We picked up hire car from a nice lady who told us she was soon to be visiting the UK...specifically to see where Heart Beat is filmed (Heart Beat seems to have only just made it to WA!).

We moved into our holiday rent, then went into jobs mode. The next 2 days were spend doing paperwork...a thrilling start to our new life in Oz! In 48 hours, between us, we managed to sign our rental contract, apply for medicare, finalise medical registration, attend an interview (and get offered a job), obtain a tax number, set up an Australian bank account and purchase new phones!

Things seemed to be going swimmingly...for Chris! I on the other hand encountered a few problems. First of all the bank accounts that we set up back in the UK had managed to completely mess up my details. My account was set up in the wrong name, had the wrong date of birth and a wrong account number. On top of that they had forgotten to order me any bank cards so there was no way to access the money I had transferred in advance! Not a good start! Next we went to buy phones. After my UK iphone passed away 3 months ago, I had held out to get a brand new top of the range smart phone once I arrived in Oz. I had my heart set on the beautiful HTC One. Unfortunately I was refused a contract due to no credit history within Australia! The only way I could get my shiny new phone would be to purchase it outright...at $800!! So instead we opted for the slightly cheaper nokia lumia. Chris chose the sleek looking white phone, and not wanting us to get the same, I asked for another colour... they only other colour available was bright yellow! So yes, I now have a bright yellow banana phone!! No only that, but it took 4 (yes 4!!) trips back to the shop before they realised they had sold us the wrong sim cards!! Aussies!!

Anyway, after 2 days of work, we decided to treat ourselves to some exploring. We set off to Fremantle, a  quirky port town south of the river. We drank coffee, wandered though the markets and most importantly put our feet in the Indian Ocean for the first time! The waves were a little stronger than I had anticipated and I came very close to losing my flip flops and walking home bare foot!

Freemantle

Freemantle Round House (the old gaol)

The Indian Ocean

We then set of driving up the coast, checking out the suburbs. We passed through the medics ghetto (Cottesloe), through City Beach and finally to Scarborough. A slightly different view to the one we usually see in Scarborough!

Cottesloe

Scarborough Front

Later on we went to explore Kings Park, a 5km x 2km park just south of Perth CBD. The South East aspect is made up of manicured lawns and a large botanical garden. The rest is natural bush restoration. We decided to explore the natural bushlands. After walking for almost 2 hours we realised 2 things..1. We were lost and 2. The sun was about to go down. I did not like the thought of walking through bushlands in the dark in only my flipflops!! At a noticeably quicker pace, we set off to find civilization. Fortunately we managed to pop back out of the bush at the same point we entered! Just a few short kms (on paved roads!!) back home! We stopped of for a sneaky schooner on the way... I felt we had earned it!

Kings Park - beautiful...in the day light!

More adventures soon!

The Stackers xxx

Le Grand Depart

TDU Stats

Hours travelling...   36
Kilometres covered...   10942.81
Kilometres to go...   3898
Remaining UK money...   63p
Number of times Naomi fell asleep during Singapore tour...   27
Number of sleep related injuries... 1 (hitting my head on the tour bus railings)
Singapore slings supped...   2
$ spent on Singapore slings...   65!! Plus tip!!
Days emergency cadburys lasted...   1 (Thankyou Crowthers!)
Temp in Singapore... 34degree C
Days before Chris got sunburnt... 1


So we are now at Singapore airport which has instantly become our favourite airport for 2 reasons. Number 1, free wifi! And number 2, the snooze lounge!! In fact the airport has so much more... Free cinema, butterfly garden, free sight seeing tours and the list goes on. But really what more can you ask for than snoozing and surfing!
We are currently sat having coffee waiting for our final flight to Perth. Here is an overview of our journey so far..

Manchester airport

Arrived at 5.30am and amazingly checked in all our luggage(2 cases, 2 bikes and 1 rucksack) all under our baggage allowance... With a little bit of help from the friendly check-in lady!

Proceeded to play the change game for the first time ever in UK. The game basically involves trying to use up all foreign change. The person who buys the most interesting thing or manages to spend every last penny wins. At 6am we were too tired to fully commit to the game and settled for buying as much as we could from cafe Nero.


Then a quick 2 hour flight to Munich followed by a looooooong 12 hour hop to Singapore.

Singapore City

Chris had the fantastic idea to stop over in Singapore to break up the journey. A good idea in theory but in reality we had 18 hours between flights to see as much as we could all the while desperately fighting heavy eyelids!

We decided to do the hop on- hop off bus tour. I'm not sure how many loops of the city we did before I finally woke up! At least Chris got a good view of the city, I got a good view of the insides of my eyelids!

We hopped off at the Botanical gradens and after another quick power nap we decided to get a bite to eat before setting off to explore the gardens. Now I love botanical gardens and Singapore did not let us down! We spent 3.5 hours looking at all the different plants and wildlife and planning my new career as a great western australian explorer/scientist! My favourite spot - giant Lilly pads! Chris's favourite.. A wild croc! Check out the pics below!!

After walking for 3.5 hours in 34 degree heat and my feet having swollen to the size of marrows, we set off to Raffles Hotel Long Bar for a Singapore Sling... As did pretty much every other tourist in Singapore!

Singapore Airport

So back to the airport for our final 5 hour flight to Perth. Feeling much more refreshed after taking full advantage of the snooze lounge. Currently sat in a coffee shop called The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I chose this cafe  because of some funny memories from my last trip to Malaysia/Singapore. Raman and I had decided to travel 10 hours in a sweaty bus from Sabah in Malaysia to Brunei so we could check another country off our list. So after 10 hours on a bus travelling over very bumpy road ( made 100 x worse due to a severely sunburnt back!) with no less than 6 immigration check points, we finally arrived in Brunei only to find that literally the only thing to do was sit in The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafe! I lost count of how many drinks we had during our short 2 day stay!

So that's all for now!


Team Stack xxx