Swan Valley

For our final day in Perth, we booked a wine tour through Swan Valley, which is the second oldest wine valley in Australia, beat out only by the Hunter Valley (which I’ve already been to). My mom isn’t huge on wine, especially red, but I still managed to get her to try most of them. Our tour also included cheese and chocolate tastings. In total, we stopped by three wineries, a microbrewery, and a chocolate factory. I think my favorite tasting of the day was the Late Picked Sweet Verdehlo from Houghton Winery. It was just the right kind of sweet. Unfortunately, I couldn’t buy any bottles because I have absolutely no room in my suitcase. It’s going to be interesting if I end up wanting to buy something in New Zealand for sure, but at least that’s the last leg of my trip.

My mom and I at Jarrah Ride Winery

Outside Charlies Estate Winery

After the wine tour, we wandered around the city a bit more. There were a lot fewer people than when we had gotten picked up for the wine tour from the central bus terminal. Perth really seems to be a 9-5 city, which is kind of sad. It makes me wonder where everyone goes for nightlife.

It was getting pretty chilly out though, as the sun went down, so we hopped on the train and headed back to the hostel. We walked down by the ocean one last time before picking up our bags and catching one of two buses to the airport. The bus driver was extremely helpful in telling us where we could get off to catch our transfer and avoid the downpour outside that had started a few moments after we stepped on the bus.

We killed time in the Perth domestic airport (which is actually rather small) until my flight left at 11:45. I said goodbye to my mom. It was fun to have her visit, but now it’s time for me to venture on to Wellington.

I slept for most of my flight to Sydney and woke up just in time to see the landing, which really is quite spectacular. Since the Sydney airport sits right on the ocean, it looks like you’re about to land in the sea. It was only a four hour flight though, so I was quite tired as I bored the airport transfer bus to the international terminal (which costs $5.50!). At the check-in counter for my connection to Wellington, they requested proof of a departure ticket from New Zealand. I hadn’t realized I needed one, but, thankfully, the Qantas counter was able to look up my flight information and print it off for me in case I need it again. I rechecked my bag and then had to go through customs in order to leave the country. It was really quite peculiar. It’s like they’re keeping tabs on everyone’s movements; they even stamped my passport.

I have a three-hour layover, so I stopped at bought a ham and cheese toastie from Krispy Kremes that I found for cheap. My eating and sleeping schedule is going to be completely screwed up by the time I get back from New Zealand because I doubt that I’ll eat at regular times there.

Fremantle

This morning we woke up naturally at 7 because we had gone to bed so early the night before, so we went for a run along the seawall. It was pretty quiet out, but we still passed a decent amount of people and were able to watch the kite boarders and surfers out on the ocean. Luckily, it wasn’t too hilly of a run either, at least compared to my runs in Sydney.

We spent the majority of the day in Fremantle, which is a town down the coast from our hostel, about ten minutes by train. It wasn’t very busy when we got there, but the town definitely picked up speed around lunch. We made a visit to the Roundhouse, which is the oldest building in Western Australia. It’s where “sick” prisoners were kept when Perth housed convicts from Britain. The building is built right on the coast, but since there aren’t any windows inside, the prisoners didn’t exactly get to enjoy the view.

On the way to the Roundhouse

The Roudhouse

To continue our tour of Fremantle’s convict history, we paid a visit to the prison, which was operational from the early 1800s to 1991. We took a guided tour through the cell houses, church, administration offices, and outdoor yards. The treatment of the prisoners really was quite terrible. All of the buildings on the premises and the wall surrounding the prison were built by the original prisoners. Even after everything was built, the prisoners went to work every day to earn their keep and the ability to buy small trinkets from the prison store, such as tobacco, canned goods, or (if they saved up enough) a secondhand color television with terrible reception. The only changes the prison went through over the years were slight, including addition of electricity to the cells (for use between April and November) in the late 1900s. Each cell, by the prison’s closure, had two occupants, but still only one tin for water and one for a toilet. Apparently, prisoners would sometimes confuse the buckets before electricity was installed.

It sounds like the prison was finally closed down because in 1988, the prisoners decided to call attention to themselves. They managed to overpower two guards and unlock all of the cell mates in a division before piling up their mattresses and blankets in the doorway. Since they had two guards as hostages, they decided to demand payment of Hungry Jacks (which is like burger king) for all of the inmates. Surprisingly, they were given their demands and the prisoners released the guards. However, they then decided to set the mattress pile on fire and burnt a hole into the roof of the prison. The fire trucks were called but they couldn’t get them through the gates of the prison as the gates had been built only to accommodate horse and buggies. Some of the prisoners were injured in the fire but no one died. Those who were injured managed to sure the state of Western Australia and won compensation money, contributing to the demise of Fremantle prison for a more modern facility in a neighboring town.

Inside the cells

The Fremantle Prison

The guillotine

The whole tour was rather interesting. It was my mom’s first time visiting a gaol. I seem to manage a visit to them every time I travel, somehow. They are quite fascinating to hear stories about though.

We stopped at Dome for lunch, which appears to be a sort of chain restaurant around here. You order at the counter and they bring your food out to you. I thought the chicken foccaccia we ordered were really good. The iced chocolates they served looked decadent too, but I didn’t get one because the sun was blistering hot (and blinding), which tends to make me stay away from dairy.

Before catching the train into Perth, we stopped at the Fremantle and E-Shed Markets to have a look around. I had found a book written by a local Western Australia in the secondhand bookstore earlier, so I just picked up some postcards of the area to round out my souvenirs for the trip.

In Perth’s central business district, we wandered around a little. It was like a ghost town on a Sunday, but we managed to find Kings Park (which is like Central Park, but a little outside of the city). We were pretty tired from walking all day, so we didn’t make it all the way to the botanical gardens, but we did find a nice outlook over the city and the inlet that Perth surrounds.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped in a couple of smaller parks and by the Bell Tower. It’s probably the weirdest bell tower that I’ve ever seen—a straight blue glass point that shoots up into the sky. Apparently, they play bells there. I really liked the way it was built in the middle of a little fountain though with a boardwalk leading up to it. The chain-link fence surrounding the boardwalk was stuck with locks that looked similar to the locks of love I saw in Italy. Some of them were shaped like bells and others were just basic combination locks, but most of them had writing on them. I’ve always thought it was a really cute idea, but I particularly liked the location of these locks because it seemed so random.

The Bell Tower

Chains outside the Bell Tower

Random Kangaroo Statues

View of Perth

We caught the train back home shortly after dark, exhausted once again. I have no idea how I’m going to manage adjusting to the time zone in New Zealand.

Cottlesloe Beach

We got up at four this morning to head into Sydney and catch our plane. Between the walk to the train station, two transfers and another 20 minute walk to the domestic terminal (so we could save $24 instead of getting off the train in the airport and paying the access fee), it took us just under two hours to get to the plane. The Sydney airport is both cool and weird. All of the check-in process, at least for domestic flights, is automated. You check-in and print your boarding pass, but then you’re in charge of stickering your luggage and putting it on the belt yourself as well. It was a little confusing for 7:30 in the morning, but we managed.

I was picked out for a security check when we went through security, so I had to step aside. All they did was wave a wand over me and my bags though, so much simpler than the US. By the time we walked down to our gate, the plane was already boarding, so we didn’t even have to sit down. It’s amazing how quickly things move when the process is automated and there aren’t any lines. I wonder if it’s the same situation later in the day too.

Our flight was pretty boring. It takes four and a half hours to get from Sydney to Perth, but there’s a two hour time difference (Perth is two hours behind Sydney, putting it 12 hours ahead of New York) so we made sure to get some sleep on the flight in order to prepare ourselves. Granted, with as early as we woke up, I’m not sure we helped much. Even though it was a domestic flight, we were still served an in-flight meal of cereal or eggs as well as a granola bar for a snack. I really love the service on international airlines.

Stepping off the plane, we managed to pull our bags off the carousel right away and headed to the bus stop outside. It took a few minutes to find, but that was okay because the buses here don’t run as frequently as Sydney and it only picks up about every half an hour from the airport. It’s nice though that our tickets only cost $4 each and allow us to transfer between other buses for two hours.

We ended up having to take three separate buses to get to the hostel we’re staying in—Ocean Beach Backpackers. Our first bus took us into the city where we transferred to the Cottlesloe/Fremantle line. The bus driver on our second bus was very helpful in directing us to a better place to get off so that we could transfer to a bus that would take us directly to our hostel. It all worked out and we were let out right outside. It took almost two hours though.

Our hostel is decent. We decided on getting a private room and we ended up with three beds in it—two twins and a double. I’m not sure why they gave us such a large room, but it’s probably all they had. The hostel is basically right on the water; all we have to do is cross the street. That’s not to say we have an ocean view though. Our room looks out into a courtyard that the hostel surrounds. They do charge a lot in deposits for things though. We had to pay a $20 key deposit and $15 each for towels. We’ll get it all back, but it still seems steep on top of the room charge.

We spent the rest of our afternoon walking along the shops on the oceanfront. There are a lot of fish and chips takeaways as well as a few nicer restaurants. We ended up getting sandwiches and chips (that’s fries in Aussie) from the convenience store/takeaway place. They were pretty good, although they squished the croissants our sandwiches were on when they toasted them. We went to the grocery store nearby too and picked up some Shapes—which are like a chip-like cracker in a variety of flavors--(to feed my mom’s new addiction), apples, and popcorn. Finally, we checked out the train station which will take us to Fremantle tomorrow.

Cottlesloe Beach

Cottlesloe Beach

The sun was starting to set, so we took some pictures along a boardwalk we found that juts out into the sea. It started to get chilly because of the wind though, so we grabbed sweatshirts before heading down to the beach and sticking our feet in the Indian Ocean. The sand was actually colder than the water, but it was really pretty with the sun setting.

It's official

I'm going to New Zealand. [And Australia. And Fiji. For those of you who haven't heard.]

I just have one more plane ticket to book from Perth to Wellington and everything will be set in stone. I'll be travelling the North Island on a Contiki tour and visiting Queenstown in the South Island to do some wine touring and fjord cruising. The most impressive part, I feel though, is that I'm going to be doing it all by myself.

Granted, I'll be spending half a month in Fiji and two months in Sydney before that on my own (because I got in the AIFS program, yay!!), but this feels different somehow. I mean, I actually purchased the airfare myself, with my own money. And I called the Contiki people for my tour. And I asked questions. And I got answers. I feel like I should be expecting some kind of revelation from my solo travelling. I guess we'll see.

I say bon voyage (to myself, I guess) on September 17 after a brief visit in Perth with my mother. Should be interesting.