Perfect Perth

View of the City from King's Park

As my first point of contact with Australia, and my home away from home, I believe I will always be biased towards Perth and Western Australia in general – I don’t believe I have ever been anywhere more beautiful though.

As a city, Perth does not necessarily tick all my boxes – it isn’t like Galway or Melbourne, but it is the second city I have ever lived in and it is the first city I have done the commuter thing in so I will always remember and love it for that. The museum is nice, and it’s good for shopping. It has a crisp, new air about it and now with the big cactus-esque statue in Forrest Place it has a really modern feel mixed and in contrast with buildings like the Train Station.

I spent my first few weeks in Perth settling in and spending time with Baby Aidan, Lena and Ian. I minded Aidan then when Lena went back to work. I had my lovely pre-made group of friends from Thailand to which my Marion was added so everything was perfect.

As well as hanging out and going out and playing with Aidan, I am lucky to have a sister and brother in law that brought me to see so many beautiful places. One of the most amazing was Bunker Bay. We stayed there at the resort for one night and I think it was one of the nicest resorts I’ve ever stayed in! I minded Aidan when they went to a wedding. I got up bright and early the next day for a swim in the pool and a walk on the beach. In just the last week, a surfer was killed by a shark at Bunker Bay; it is so sad and upsetting that such tragedy can take place somewhere so beautiful.

We then went on a mini winery tour which was my first but would not be my last!












When Jen moved over out of the blue, Lena brought us on another mini winery tour of the Swan Valley. I  loved the Feral Brewery and the little small winery on the way of the road whose name I can't remember but will find out!

Myself, Jen and Marion went to Rottnest Island for a day just before the weather broke for Autumn. It was beautiful, we met some Quokas and cycled around, what we thought was, most of the island. When myself and Séamus revisited months later and actually cycled around the full 17kms of the Island I realised how little ground myself and the girls actually covered. Rottnest Island is very different now to the Island it was a hundred years ago - it was originally populated as a prison island for Aboriginal prisoners. The living conditions were dire, but similar to any prisons for natives in new colonies. Now the Island is mainly a tourist attraction, but there is still friction, as there is all over Australia as a result of old customs and traditions and merging into a Modern multicultural non-descriminatory society. 

Another great day was spent at Caversham Wildlife Park, a place I also revisited with Séamus. I got to see Kangaroos and feed them and see a real-life Koala for the first time.

I also took a trip in a kayak with five others to Penguin Island. The little baby penguins were incredibly cute and as it turns out, Penguin Island is also one of the largest Pelican breading colonies in WA.

After six weeks of chilling in Perth I set off on my adventure around Australia. I returned with Séamus in June and spent a further few weeks helping with Aidan before going to Bali to change my Tourist Visa to a Working Holiday Visa and here I am; six weeks on and I’m working in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Western Australia and loving it.

 

 Life as a commuter suits me, I get to read my book for two hours a day; commuting in Perth would suit anyone. The transport system is the best I've ever been on - not that buses are always on time, but that it is all completely synchonised and one ticket can be used on bus, train and ferries. Dublin City take note!! 

Perth would be a perfect place to raise a family - each suburb has numerous parks and the weather suits for outdoor activities almost all year round. 

My life in Perth is very different to my backpacking life around Oz; I am cleaner and more organised and I go to bed at a resonable hour and I only drink at weekends, but I love it all the same and I am very grateful for the chance to spend some long overdue time with my lovely sister and to make sure my Godson knows me as well as a one year old possibly can.

I'll be sad to leave at the end of October for sure.


I'm absolutely positive I have left much out of this and one thing that comes to mind is FREO! Another post soon...

To Come...

Sunrise on Occasional Island, Lake Argyle, Kimberly, WA

Posts in the pipeline:

Perfect Perth including Caversham Wildlife park, Rottnest Island and some breweries


The Tour Files:
Kimberley Adventure Tours - Broome to Darwin
Groovy Grape - The Great Ocean Road
Western Xposure - Perth to Exmouth.

Bali on A Budget. 

I shall be up to date by October, and that is a promise to myself!

Le Grá,

Gabberific x

Sydney- One cold Hotspot.

I got a shock when I got off the plane in Sydney.  I’m not usually one to chase the sun, but it’s almost like that’s what I’ve been doing in Australia so far. Sydney, when I arrived was fifteen degrees, and it was a severe shock to my body coming from thirty degrees. On my first day I bought a coat. On my second I bought gloves and a pie to keep warm. I really had to cop myself on then and realise that I am Irish and that fifteen degrees should not affect me like this, I am not Austrian. As it turned out, I wasn’t the only one affected by the cold in my hostel, maybe it was the hostel and not the cold, but four out of six of us in my room were sick by the day I left.

Though I’m not usually one to locate the nearest Irish bar and hibernate there, when the girls in my room invited me out one night to O’Malley’s I couldn’t say no. I went out that night with quite a culturally diverse group – two Germans, a French, a Taiwanese and me, an Irish. I don’t actually think there were any other Irish people in my hostel. 

I was lucky to be able to meet up with my friend Leo, though just for Pizza and also with Kaie, both on the same night as it happened. My meeting with Leo was brief because Kaie was arriving that evening just for an hour, but we caught up all the same and he was still the bubble of amazingness I remembered. I’m hoping another meeting will happen before he goes home! I met Kaie at Circular Quay, and it was the first time I’d actually seen the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. I was exceptionally lucky that the Vivid light festival was taking place over the time I was in Sydney, so I got to see the Opera house lit up and beautiful four nights in total.

When Séamus arrived, jetlagged as he was, we did a tour of the Opera house which was very interesting and I would recommend it to anyone, it was well worth the money. Another touristy recommendation I have is to do the walking tour that leaves from the Anchor by Town Hall; it was absolutely brilliant. It was refreshing to have a guide, who was actually from the city and was very passionate about its history.

Because of the weather, most of the sites were less impressive than if it had been sunny, having said that, Sydney was a great city and, as with Darwin, I’m looking forward to returning! One thing I didn’t find, and had expected, was for the people not to be as helpful or friendly as in the other smaller cities. Everyone was lovely, a common trait I’m coming across in most Australians I meet!

Darwin - Detoxes and Distractions.

My Darwin experience was different to my other stays in my various other stops. Arriving smelling like the outback at 7pm in the evening to a room about the size of a camper van didn’t help I suppose. I think what made Darwin different for me was that when I arrived I already had friends – I had planned to meet all of my KAT friends that night in the Youth Shack for one last hurrah. As a result, I was in and out of my hostel within an hour of arriving. I didn’t even get the names of the two people I’d spoken to in my room (later I found out they were Liam from Co. Down and, I’m taking a guess at, Dutch Monique). In most other places I had made friends with people in my hostel or in my room on the first day, but here in Darwin it wasn’t until my fifth day that I made an effort with my hostel buddies.

On my first night, like I said, I met the KAT gang at the Youth Shack for a tearful goodbye with Kaie, the Austrians and the Swiss. Myself, Amaya, Tom and Simon stayed out for an eventful late night, and I bumped into the lovely Brendan, one of the fabulous English I met in Broome. The next day, it was as if the tour was continuing when myself, Tom and Amaya piled into the car with our guide for the night, Simon, for a trip to the Mindle Beach Market.  We went out as a group again the next night and then, minus Amaya on the Saturday, myself and Tom helped Simon clean the car and trailer after our amazing trip. We thought after eight days of rolling swags every morning that we would fly them, turns out rolling nine swags between two of us in thirty degree heat was not as easy as rolling one at 6.30am when the sun is just up. We had fun that day, and minus falling down a little waterfall at Berry Spring into some rocks and hurting my ankle and bruising my legs, it was one of my funnest days in Darwin!

When Tom, Amaya and Simon departed on Sunday, I visited Brendan in the YHA, went to the Library, hung out a bit at the Waterfront and made friends with some lovely Irish girls (and one Irish boy).

The one thing that struck me about Darwin was the Irish population – it was full of them. I think, to get a proper view of Darwin and if I really like it or not, I need to go back, in the same way I need to go back to Adelaide. Maybe I didn’t warm to Darwin because I wanted a detox, and Darwin of all places is the last place you should plan a detox. Especially as an Irish Backpacker.