Perth. 14th of March to 14th May

High lights of Perth

We have spent two months in Perth arriving here on the 14^th of March and leaving on the 14^th of May. Perth would have to be close to the best city in Australia if not the world for laid back lifestyle and feeling like your not getting ripped from your government. Every beach we went to have a great park leading to it with free barbeques, play equipment and free parking.  Roads are toll free and despite the locals thinking there roads are traffic logged they have no idea compared to Sydney or Melbourne. I also have never seen a city with more beautiful parks to relax in on nearly every corner and with the biggest park inside a city in the world Kings park would have to be the most beautiful park I have seen and we visited it no less than 7 times in the time we were in Perth and still didn’t get to see it all.

Danni, Jamie, Torri and Jackson.

 Danni was a friend of Kate’s from school and Danni and her family moved to Perth on the same day we headed of on a trip around Australia. Jamie has started up a business in Perth and re-located the family there until the Wa side is up and running. We had planned to stay at their place while in Perth and ended up parking our van in their driveway for the 2 months. While we still slept in the van we lived showered and ate inside. The last 2 months was great traveling around the city of Perth with Jamie and Danni with a couple of boy’s nights out and a trip to the movies to watch Avengers. The kids enjoyed playing with some friends that they knew from Sydney and will miss them once where gone.  It worked out great having a halfway house to not live in a caravan for a while and while I paid a bit of board it was still half the cost of caravan parks and we pooled money together and went halves in food shopping which saved a fortune. Has been a great 2 months and had some good fun thanks Guys.

 

Fremantle

We did a few trips down to Freemantle and visited little creatures brewery and had lunch there a couple of times with different members of family or friends that had come over to see us. While at Freemantle we visited the markets a couple of times to keep the women happy and also visited the jail which was a highlight of visiting Freemantle for me. On the last time we went to Freemantle we visited the wharfs where the maritime Museum was and not everyone was keen to see it so we just had some lunch at a little markets set up nearby which was setup in the old wharf sheds and I enjoyed the best value lunch in a long time for $10 had a great porterhouse steak, salad and chips with pepper sauce it was awesome.

 

Mullaloo Beach

We enjoyed sunset bbq dinner here while watching the sun setting over the ocean. We also headed down there On Jessica’s 5^th birthday for a sunset dinner. Which was lucky as it lined up with domino’s cheaper Tuesday $5 pizza, we invited about 25 friends down that we had made on the road and while in Perth. It’s hard to believe for a person from Sydney a place with such green grass, awesome play equipment free barbeques and free parking can exist in this country.

 

Jessica and Pre-school.

Edgewater Primary School

Jessica while dropping off Torri and Jackson at School with Danni attracted the attention of the teacher. The teacher asked what age Jessica is and the story why she isn’t at school. In Western Australia kids when there 4 go to school 2 days a week and it normally cost $60 in school fees for the year. Anyway the great pre-school teacher got Jessica in to school within 2 days she was going every Monday and Wednesday and we didn’t have to worry about the fees and just donated some flour for playdo making. We also acquired a free school uniform t-shirt from a lady who had 4 older kids, a jumper from the 2^nd hand bin for $3 at the school and shorts for $5 from big w. The teachers were unbelievable and what she learnt and made in arts and crafts was unbelievable I think Jess will miss them. The parents of other kids were so friendly and some came to Jess’s birthday and on the last week here they all got together for a big mothers group (and me) get together at a park . This all combined to make Perth feel like an easier and stress less place to live.

Kings Park

What a great place in the middle of a capital city. As said before biggest park in any city in the world even bigger then central park New York. Combines natural bush land with bushwalking tracks, botanic gardens and a war memorial. The kids loved playing in the many parks and walking the many walkways with views over the swan river and Perth. Jamie and I also went in for the Anzac day dawn service which was the biggest in the country with 40000 people attending what a sight and a great place to be for sunrise.  

Hilary’s boat Harbor

What a place 20km north of Perth and 10mins down the road from where we were staying. Situated on the water with surf beach one side and a mariner on the other side with wave free kid friendly beaches combine with great restaurants shops and an aquarium with the biggest under water tunnel in the southern hemisphere many a day was spent here relaxing.  

Baby Emily

Joondalup Hospital was where we decided to have our baby. Emily was Born on the 16^th of April she came to world in under 4hrs from first contraction and was born with in 2hrs being at the hospital. Emily has been a great baby so far sleeping and feeding well from the start. Emily was our first baby to be born in a public Hospital (other 2 were born at a private Hospital in Western Sydney) and I would have to say the 2 mid-wives and the female doctor we had during the whole birth were 2^nd to none and almost makes the private hospital experience 2^nd class.

Other places we visited

We went for a drive up to Two rocks and Yanchep for lunch on the way up you past nothing but housing estates being built at an alarming rate and enjoyed a pub lunch looking over the water.

We also had a day trip down through Fremantle, Rockingham and on to Mandurah.  

Then on our last weekend we went for a tour bus ride around the city

All in all Perth is a special place somewhere Australia should be proud to have and if it wasn’t for family ties I would move here tomorrow.