Perth Part 2

Our next Perth outing was to Adventure World. This is Perth's version of a theme park, with waterslides, lots of water playgrounds and other rides like roller coasters and a pirate ship. We had heard a couple of negative reports about the place but they were from Queenslanders who were probably comparing it to places like Wet and Wild. We met up with Lee, Scott, Cooper and Reese Howell and we all had a great day. It was extremely busy most likely due to the 39 degree forecast. The queues for slides and rides were quite long but there were plenty of things to keep the kids busy. There were also lots of slides and rides for Charlie to go on so he was happy.



This is a picture of the enormous water playground.



Jack, Cooper and Michael and Charlie on the pedal cars.



Enjoying fairy floss and chocolate covered cinnamon donuts for afternoon tea. The diet starts when we get home! It was great to catch up with the Howells and we hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did.

New Years Eve was a very quiet affair. We stayed at the park and managed to convince the kids to celebrate NYE for Melbourne at 9pm so we had them in bed by 10! I went to bed early too, Michael pushed through and made it to 12:01! We had wanted to go into the city but Perth doesn't do much for NYE. We thought there might be some fireworks but apparently they save them for their big Australia Day celebrations which we won't be here for!

Our next tourist outing was to the main section of the Maritime Museum with the Walls and the Yewens. We all really enjoyed the museum although we missed out on the tour of the submarine and decided to do that another day. The museum had lots to see but we really liked seeing Australia II. I was surprised at how small it is. The kids didn't appreciate it as much but I still remember being woken up by mum very early in the morning to watch the famous race way back then.




One of the best exhibits was an old panel van. It had an old Pink Floyd cassette on the dashboard, a Big M carton, an "if this van's rocking, don't bother knocking" sticker, fluffy carpet on the roof in the back and even bounced up and down! The museum guide told the kids there were lots of bumpy roads back then!




I loved this quote from Tim Winton on the wall near the entrance.




Charlie was really impressed with the boxing kangaroos.




The museum is right on the docks so you get a great view of the enormous ships.




We walked from the museum down to the waterfront area and had fish and chips for lunch. We then drove towards East Fremantle and met up with the family we first met in Broome, Ben, Harry, Judy and Ian and Judy's mum and her husband James. We had a picnic and a few drinks in a park while the kids rode around on scooters and penny boards. Thanks must go to Ian for providing a fantastic afternoon tea and drinks!

The next day we decided to head into the CBD. Mum had given me a gift voucher for a store on one of the main streets and I was keen to spend it. Hadn't planned on doing it with the kids in tow but never mind. What an effort and a half it was to get in there! Perth is full of one way and pedestrian only streets so for us it was an absolute nightmare. Eventually managed to get in and spend my voucher (thanks Mum!). We then decided we would take a look around Northbridge which is on the edge of the CBD. It reminded us of Victoria Street in Richmond. Lots of Asian supermarkets. We had an enormously expensive Vietnamese meal which was lovely but cost more than Victoria Street! So it ended up being one of those very frustrating days where nothing quite goes to plan. The CBD is very nice to look at and spotlessly clean but very hard to navigate. Luckily we were driving a tiny little Toyota Yaris as the Landcruiser was having a big (and expensive) service. By the time we got back to the caravan park we were exhausted. Time for a hard earned drink with Tony Wall!