Perth!

Perth has been home to Jess for the past three years, so I was looking forward to getting to know her friends and see where she has been living. Jess's friend Kirri let us take over her living room for two weeks which was absolutely lovely of her!
We have had some amazing adventures during our stay in Perth, although we have had a lot of stressful times too. I had to sort out my visa for when I visit India with Jonny, and so was left passport-less for our entire stay. This normally wouldn’t have been a problem as I have other forms of ID but it turns out WA is extremely strict on what forms of photo identification is accepted. Another thing hanging over our heads was the worry that it wouldn’t be returned in time for our flight to Bali..
We went to Fremantle on Saturday with Paul and Andrew. We visited the famous Freo market and bought an Ostrich egg which we later made into a giant frittata. Apparently one egg is the same amount as 12 chicken eggs!
On Sunday it was 35 degrees, so we headed to the beach for a sunbathe and when we started to feel overheated we went to Jess’s friend Paul’s house to watch rugby, play beer darts, and sing along to gay pirates. We had an amazing day.

We went on a wine tour in Swan valley on Monday where we got driven around a few of the wineries, getting to sample loads of wine, cheese, olives, and chocolates. A day of pure indulgence; I loved it, although all this eating and drinking has put a few pounds on me, and as we are soon heading to Asia where we will probably spend a large amount of time in our bikinis I decided to go for a jog.. But whilst doing so nearly got killed by a magpie! Apparently they peck out small children’s eyes and are extremely territorial. I was chased down the road by it screaming for help (probably quite loudly as I still had my ipod in). Nobody came to my rescue though, much to the amusement of a driver who slowed down to laugh at me running across the road punching the air. Exercising in Australia is bloody dangerous!
As Jess’s aunt Jane had very kindly lent her a car, we decided to take a long road trip up to the Pinnacles. They are formations of limestone in the desert that are thought to be at least 6000 years old. The journey was long, and we passed 7 dead kangaroos on the way… Kangaroos cause loads of accidents on the long roads through the outback, so even though we were driving in the day (Kangaroos are generally nocturnal) I kept an eye out, as in a small car a kangaroo collision would probably hurt quite a lot..
We also took a road trip to Margaret River to do a Bushtucker tour on canoes. We drove up the day before to stay in a hostel, and I finally managed to skype Jonny! That put me in a fantastic mood, it was amazing to see him.
When we woke up the next morning it turned out the office had some confusion and put us on a winery tour by mistake! The bushtucker tour group was already on canoes down the river. Luckily the company accountant picked us up and took us on a canoe to catch up, with a bottle of wine for the mix up. Super Pablo to the rescue! It was surreal being taken down a river on a dirty canoe by a man in a suit! The tour was great fun! I ate a widgety grub (like the ones on the lion king). It was DISGUSTING. I also tried kangaroo meat, emu, bush turkey, and crocodile as well as some weird nuts and fruits that the aboriginals used to eat. We saw some caves where we were invited to crawl through a small dark tunnel (the leader told us it was beautiful and everyone who does it enjoys it, but I just got dirty and grazed my arm). After all the canoeing we decided it was a good idea to stay at the hostel for another night as a long drive when tired is never a good idea. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we have made, as on the way back the car broke down in the middle of nowhere! Luckily it was the middle of the day instead of night (as it would have been if we had driven back the afternoon before) so we walked down the highway to a trucker’s rest stop where three very friendly truckers push started the car for us, even bringing us bottles of cold water in case we were thirsty. Only problem was we couldn’t stop, even at traffic lights as the car wouldn’t start again, but it seemed that for once we had some good luck and all the lights were green. Phew. After the long stressful drive we had a well earned swim in the sunshine.
That evening we went to a small jazz club. To get to the club you walk into a red phone box which leads to a set of stairs down to a cosy little room with loads of posters and candles. It was BYO so we took in a few bottles of wine and some snacks before listening to a group play some really fun music. We all got up and had a dance, but only after a few large glasses of vino.

 I finally got my passport back today so we are going to head out into the city with Kirri for a night out.
We are flying to Bali on Wednesday!! Australia has been absolutely amazing, and like everybody else I know who has visited, I have fallen in love with it. 

         

Brisbane!

We have now been away for an entire month, and this morning when I woke up with a horrible cold I almost began to feel homesick and sad.. That is until I put on my bikini and sat in the sunshine drinking cheap beer. It's a hard life..
Brisbane has been amazing. We have been staying with Mike, Malcolm (Shiny), and Dion who are great guys; so much fun. We haven't really done many touristy activities here, and have mainy used it as a week of drinking too much and eating lots of junk food. (I am getting an impressive beer and burger stomach..)
The boys work in the week but Shiny took the day off on friday and we explored the city after a morning swim in the pool. Brisbane is huge and it took around half an hour just to get to Centre of the city. We had a great day!
On saturday we planned to take a road trip to Gold Coast, so stocked the car full of Jim Beam (for the passengers - poor Mike was our designated driver) and cheesy music. We had so much fun we missed the turning and ended up in New South Wales... By the time we got to Gold Coast we needed somewhere to stop for a shower and to get ready to hit the town so ended up going to an aquantence's house to freshen up, but after a few more Jim Beams and a Hungry Jacks (Burger King) we were all absolutely knackered and got lost going back into the city! For some reason we ended up going back to Brisbane which was a shame because I would have loved to go out in Gold Coast, but never mind.
This evening Dion cooked us roast lamb followed by apple pie. Yum.
Tomorrow we are flying over to the West coast to Perth where I am looking forward to meeting Jess's friend Kirri.

 

Newcastle and Shoal Bay!

When we stepped off the train in Newcastle and drove along the beautiful coast line to Jess’s Auntie Anne’s house it was hard to see any similarities with the cold grey Newcastle in the North of England.. There are definitely no Geordies here.
Anne and Rob have a dog and four guinea pigs, fairy lights hanging around the decking outside, and even the same wine glasses as we do at our house (as well as a very generous supply of vino). I immediately felt at home.
On Wednesday we went to a club called ‘fannys’ which amused us quite a lot (me and Jess both have the same immature sense of humour teehee) and were pleasantly surprised at the drinks offers ($4 vodka!), yet disappointed when we realised the club was full of people who barely looked 18.. We were perhaps the oldest people there apart from the people working on the door.
On friday night we drove up to Shoal Bay where Anne and Rob own a flat on the sea front. It was dark when we arrived, but we woke the next day to the most spectacular views. Unfortunately we hadn't been so lucky with the weather; rainy and grey (whilst I hear there has been a peculiar amount of sunshine in the UK..) This didn't matter too much though as on Saturday we spent the entire day eating our own weight in crisps, popcorn, and pizza whilst drinking large amounts of beer and watching sports. I felt very Australian drinking Tooheys watching the AFL grand final.
When the weather cleared up we took a walk up Mount Tomaree where there were some amazing views overlooking the bay.
Tomorrow we are flying North to Brisbane, hopefully to catch up with some sunshine!