Giants, animals and private beaches

The last couple of weeks in the sunshine have been great. We've had nice, relaxing things planned with the family, have met some more great people and have explored the area a bit more.

We spent a night in Perth city on Valentine's Day. Its a really nice city and not too big, we found that you can pretty much walk everywhere. We had some drinks and met up with The Bearded One's cousin, who let us share her hotel room for the night (3 in a bed for Valentine's Day, so funny) which was so nice of her. After the jet lag we were starting to feel more normal and laughed so much. The Perth International Arts Festival was on during that weekend and the city had Giant fever. There were these 2 HUGE Giant puppet/doll-like things roaming the city, both had a story and a planned journey walking around the streets. We had heard so much about it on the run up to the weekend so were excited to see them after our night in the city. After breakfast we walked across a park to see the Giants wake up, dance and get ready for the their day wandering around. They really were quite impressive, these ginormous puppets being controlled by people travelling on them or near them with ropes and cranes. The city was buzzing and it was exciting to be a part of the event.

We visited Perth Zoo with The Bearded One's cousin and his Gran. It was a lovely day spent walking around the different areas with various animals. We missed some of the animals that weren't visible that day (must have been too hot or something) but a performing rhino more than made up for that. We were standing near the fence and he walked straight up to us, plunged into a puddle of mud and rolled around in it until he was totally covered. Then he flicked wet mud everywhere - a bit landed on my finger, it was gross and great all at the same time. We went to see the crocodile and listened to a talk all about his life. He was massive and he crawled right up to the window towards us. It was so strange to be so near to something so dangerous but not actually be in any danger. It was also the first time we'd seen koala's - they really don't move at all, getting all stoned on equikiptus, and we properly saw some kangaroo's. We'd seen some really small one's roaming around in a park a few days earlier, but these ones were of all different sizes and there were so many. We were lucky enough to have a photo with one! (he was such a poser)

We spent a few hours at the AQWA Aquarium with The Bearded One's cousins, second cousin and his Gran one morning. It was seriously impressive! I've been to a few aquariums and this was hands down my favourite. They had a moving floor through the deep sea area where fish, sharks and stingrays were swimming above and all around us. We ended up going through it more than once as it was so good. They had magnified areas so that you could see fish and coral up really close, jellyfish areas in the middle of the room so you could see them from all angles, a shallow water area where stingrays were roaming and loads of exotic fish everywhere. To top it off I stroked a shark (!!!!) and a star fish that day! They were in a touch tank for the kiddies, but thats not the point... I felt like I really achieved something! Especially considering I'm not a massive fan of the sea. Such a geek.

Then we went to Rottnest Island for a day trip. We travelled by ferry from a harbour close by to where we are staying. It was seriously beautiful there. The population of the Island is something like 450 and its actually quite a big place. So you can walk for miles (sorry, kilometres - still getting used to things around here) and not see anybody. We arrived mid morning and had a short walk around the coastline before having a well deserved couple of beers at a nearby bar. The sea is gorgeous there, so clear and blue. The Bearded One and I said its the clearest sea we've seen so far. After our beers, we walked along the beach until we got to a road and then took the historic walk route to yet more beautiful scenery. There aren't any cars on the Island and you can take/hire bikes to get around. We ended up walking for hours in the heat, but it was so worth it to see things that you would't have seen from the road. We even came across some beaches that we had all to ourselves, heavenly! We set up shop at a beach called Salmon Bay where The Bearded One snorkelled - I'm not quite ready for that yet, got to work up to it. I did actually go in the sea and managed to get the water up to my chest! (If don't know me that well, I'm not a fan of the sea, never have been). I've been told that I can't properly enjoy what Australia has to offer without going in the water, so I am trying my best. Safe to say I was very proud of myself that day!

In amongst all of these adventures we've seen sunsets, been to braai's (BBQ's for those not down with the South African lingo), shopped in many Op Shops (second hand shops for those not down with the Australian lingo) where I've found some SERIOUS gems and we have started looking for venues for our wedding (more to come on that later). So exciting!

All in all everything is great here on the other side.