Perth is known as the "Worlds most isolated capital city" (its the capital of the Territory of Western Australia), and has a population around 1.4 Million. We flew clear across the country here, since we had four flight segments we could use up in Australia. Most of the way over there were no clouds, and I had the good fortune of sitting in a window seat. I was able to see a great chunk of the interior country. It is very red, and has a surreal Martian landscape like quality to it from 30,000 feet up.
I have to admit that I was the uneducated tourist on this one. Many people think Canadians all live in igloos, and in the same fashion, I thought that all of Australia looked like this dusty barren red land. In actuality, much of the coastline (except for the actual beach areas) looks like back home! Makes sense, if way back when the Europeans brought over all their plants and animals to establish new territory. So, in case any of you didn’t know, now you do.
In Perth, we have spent time walking along some of the park area and botanical gardens area. Walking in a treed area is a great way to get some fresh air, and in King Park here in particular, it offers a great vantage over the city skyline.
Since it was supposed to rain today, we didn’t get to check out the west coast beach along the Indian Ocean. Its suppsed to be very scenic, but we opted to stay in town instead, and did more walking around. We went to the Perth Mint [ http://perthmint.com.au/ ] which was built in 1899 to facilitate handling the gold that was found "nearby" (600km east) during the great Gold Rush. Gold bars were made right up until 1990. And then they pulled the 12 furnaces out, melted the gold that was fused into it over that couse of time, and reclaimed $500,000 worth of gold! Good call on their part. In the daily tours, they have a demonstration on how gold is melted and poured into the gold bar form. While cooling from 1300°C it glows bright yellow, but 30 seconds in water, and its that bright shiny, cool to the touch form of metal we’d all love to have. This was pretty cool stuff.
Tomorrow we are headed out to Singapore, and thats all she wrote on the Australia trip. Some may wonder why we didn’t see the Great Barrier Reef, and Ayers Rock. Unfortunately we did not get the chance (time/money) to see those areas, but did still see a nice selection of Australia. I think if I was to ever come back, that trip would specifically include those places.
Here are some things that I have forgotten to mention in prior entries:
- while in the Hunter Valley area, I tried Vegemite! It looks like chocolate, but it doesn’t smell or taste like it! Curious? Its a must taste… but only in small portions
- the Gold Coast (Surfers Paradise) public transit bus drivers are extremely polite. Much better than the Sydney bus drivers.
ObZervations from Down Under:
- Tire is spelled Tyre here
- There are Burger King restaurants in New Zealand (and they look like 50’s diners), but there are none in Australia. Instead a restaurant called Hungry Jacks has bought the licensing rights to the Whopper, and sells them. I didn’t try one though.
- We heard more UK accents in Sydney than we did Australian accents.
- Crossing roads in the cities is more often like Frogger.
- The hot water faucets deliver scalding hot water in seconds! Watch out!!!
- Here they greet you with "How are you going?" This just doesn’t sound like a proper sentence to me.
C-OZ-sts: (all are per person and in Australian Dollars)
- Sydney Public Transit 1-Day Pass: $15
- Sydney Opera House Tour (didn’t do this): $12-24
- Medium Slurpee from 7-11: $2
- Internet Access: On Average $4/hour
- Hostels: Around $25/night for a dorm of 4-8 people
- Lion King Theatrical: $42.50
- Blue Mountains Day Tour: $74
- Sand Safari 4WD Adventure: $99
- Sydney Harbour Bridge climb (didn’t do this): $139
- Sea World Gold Coast: $56
- Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary: $14
- AirTrain Round Trip between Brisbane and the Gold Coast: $20
- XBox games: $99 new, ~$60 used