Mangos, Swimmsuits and a Beach

Okay, I have found out that I won't manage catching up on all the last days in detail, so I'll just give a short overview:
On Saturday we went on an outing to Whiteman Park in Perth, where we had a ride on a small train, fed some Kangaroos, stroked a Koala and ended up in a small kids pool because Esther was so red in the face I thought she would overheat... Great fun (not the overheating, but the rest!), and I got my first try driving on the left hand side of the road which was fun as well (I only turned on the windscreen wiper once instead of the turning lights (I have no idea of the right term - it's flicker here I think ;-) )
Sunday we went to church, had a barbecue with a couple Alsa knows and went back inside to escape the heat! We decided to drive down to Dunsborough that evening because it was going to be even hotter on Monday - and it was a good thing that we did, because it really was hotter than Sunday and we spent most of the day chilling, except that I went grocery shopping while the kids stayed here and played. I LOVE doing that on holidays and I just couldn't resist that Mango - it looked and smelled better than any I've seen in about 16 years! (And it tasted just as good as it looked!) We had our first stop at the beach that evening and the kids loved it. They enjoyed being able to go in quite far as the water is very shallow for a long time.
Anyway, today we were at the beach again, went to town and had a look around there in the afternoon and ate some yummy ice cream ( I always forget that it melts much faster than at home so my kids were covered in melted ice cream afterwards...)
It's been good just chilling the last two days, so we've settled in some more. Tomorrow we're going whale watching - let's hope we really do get to see some!

Catching up

Okay, I've been offline for the last days but I've written an offline-blog I'm going to post right now to catch you up on the last few days...

Thursday, November 8th
Arrival in Perth, the Zoo and a great view

Well, we arrived in Perth at 1.20 a.m. and by the time we had cleared immigration and customs it was about 2.00 a.m. (Auntie) Alsa, a friend I know from when my family first went to Nepal in 1982 until we left in 1991 and who taught me lots of Australian and other songs, waited for us at the airport and brought us back to a mission house she found and where we will be staying till Tuesday morning when we drive down to her house in Dunsborough (the place all Western Australians go on holiday, I've been told). It's great to be able to organize the day just the way we like and be able to cook our own food – I guess it's much easier for the kids than staying at a hotel.
We slept from 4-11 and had breakfast at noon :-), chased the kids around the zoo with the effect that we were just as tired as they were and went to a place just down the road that has an amazing view of downtown Perth across Swan river with a great playground – the kids loved it!



Friday, November 9th
Perth, Swan Bells Tower, Kings Park

After a (nearly) complete good night's sleep (we were awake between 1.30 and 3.30 a.m.) we got a pretty early start to the day compared to Thursday! We left the house at about 11.30 for town and after a short session in an Internet Cafe and buying new australian standard hats for all three of us (made in China), we had our packed lunch on the lawn next to the Swan Bells. Before moving on to Kings Park we went up the Bells Tower for a short look around. Kings Park was ALOT larger than any Park I've ever seen, with great bits of natural vegetation and lovely gardens with beautiful walkways through them. The view of Perth was nice and the kids loved walking along foundation pathway and through the gardens. When they got tired of that we found a great spot to stay in Synergy Park which has a huge playground – the kids forgot all about being tired and ran off to play immediately! There were wild (and not so wild) birds all over the place, including a cute duck family. Father duck turned out being not so cute when he flew at a boy who was chasing his family! He had been warned, though. Alsa had the magpies eating right out of her hands, she loves birds of all sorts and seems to be a kind of bird whisperer... she even got my kids to stop chasing around every bird they saw!
After Kings Park we had our first glimpse of the Indian Ocean on City beach, which was pretty windy as the sun was getting low. The waves were quite high (at least in comparison to what I've seen in Holland) and there were a few surfers out which was fun to watch.

Being here is just absolutely wonderful – the first picture I took was of the blue cloudless sky, and the temperature is just right,with a constant breeze keeping it from being too hot. The kids are doing really great, they aren't complaining at all except when they're worn out and hungry and we've been able to see alot more than I thought would be possible. I hope that we will be able to get a full night's sleep tonight without waking up in the middle of it...





(Jakob and Esther in Kings Park, showing off their new hats...)

By the way, Lisa, I've started a photo series of my own about the cool things I'm seeing here that I haven't seen before – you'll see it as soon as I get my pictures up on picasa :-)

Perth day 1 and 2

So, we arrived safely about 36 hrs. ago and have had a great time starting from there. Didn't get much sleep the first night, but the second one was already alot better. We've been to the Zoo and saw our first kangaroos, koalas and crocodiles and today we're having a look at town...
I'll be writing more on Monday and then I can put up some more photos as well.

Sorry about the photo layout, I'll have to work on that when I have more time...

Singapore!

Just a short note, as my session will be terminated in 2 mins... Flight from Frankfurt was good, kids slept 6 hrs, I didn't, Jakob puked twice (but into a bag :-)) ), and I am standing here in the terminal with an excellent view of the A380 parked right in front!!!
So, all's well up till now, hope the medication works for Jakob on the next flight, and I'm off to the gate!!

Window seats!

Yay, we are checked in and we have window seats on both legs! I was pretty much first to choose seats for FRA-SIN, but SIN-PER had already filled up quite a bit, so I am even happier that the exact row that I wanted still had 3 vacant seats next to each other. Might sound unimportant to you but the kids (and I have to admit, I too) would have been very disappointed if we'd have had to sit in the middle and see nothing outside...
We're leaving for Frankfurt at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday and the next two days I'll be busy washing and packing (and we've got an appointment at the dentist tomorrow morning :-) )
So, only two more sleeps left!

Only one more week...

... and I'll be sitting on the plane to Singapur, probably trying to keep my kids from driving the stewardesses and every passenger who had the bad luck to get a seat near us nuts and wondering why I ever thought flying to Australia would be a good idea!

So this is the blog of my trip to Australia and New Zealand. I hope to keep you updated on what we are up to on our journey and of course to make you as jealous as possible! ;-))

In any case, I hope you'll enjoy reading this, have fun!