Our Epic Holiday 2013

Welcome to the blog about our amazing holiday, and thanks for dropping by to take a look. 

My husband, Arthur, and I took this holiday following his (early!) retirement in June 2013, and my redundancy in May. 

We'd always liked the idea of going to New Zealand, for various reasons. It was somewhere we'd never been. We'd seen the Lord of the Rings films and wanted to see that breathtaking scenery for ourselves. 

We couldn't go all that way, of course, without dropping in on family and friends who live in some of the places on the way, so although the main focus of the trip was New Zealand, we called at Singapore, Perth and Melbourne, as well.

Not knowing a great deal about New Zealand, or the things any visitor must see or do, we arranged that part of the trip through a New Zealand based company called Beyond the Blue, who were recommended by people I knew who'd done a similar trip. We simply told them the kind of things we were interested in seeing and the dates we wanted to go, and they came up with the essential sights and experiences of New Zealand, booked all our accommodation, car hire and excursions for us. All we had to do was follow the instructions.

It was a trip which, we like to say, encompassed a wide range of modes of transport. Not only planes, trains and automobiles but also ferries, helicopters and seaplanes.

Needless to say, we had a fantastic time and lots of new experiences and adventures. I kept a journal during the trip (in the posh notebook I got as a leaving present from work) and decided to write it all up and post it online so that anyone interested can read all about it, including people we don't see often. I guess there may even be people I don't know looking at this, such as friends of Facebook friends, Twitter followers or even people who've googled holidays in New Zealand. Whoever you are, I hope you enjoy reading about it, and/or looking at the pictures.

Singapore

9 November 2013: London - Singapore

Flying the Airbus 380

Our journey started with a taxi to Heathrow Airport before dawn. Having checked in online, Arthur already knew what sort of plane we'd be travelling in - an Airbus 380. 

An Airbus 380 (though not the actual one we travelled on)

Fantastic planes, he said, having been on one before on one of his numerous business trips. He's also travelled with Singapore Airlines often before, and likes their entertainment system. There was certainly enough to keep us occupied on the thirteen and a half hour flight - 780 movies on demand, TV shows, audio and games. 

Looking at one of these planes parked on the tarmac, it seems quite miraculous that it ever gets off the ground at all, as it's even bigger than a Jumbo. I wondered what the Wright Brothers would have made of one of those things.

As well as a meal that counted as lunch, they served breakfast towards the end of the flight, which to us was bedtime!

Arriving in Singapore

Feeling quite shattered, we climbed into another taxi to take us to the Swissotel Clarke Quay. 

Swissotel, Clarke Quay

We noticed that the driver's GPS, when not giving directions, was flashing up reminders to the driver about how to drive well, such as "a good driver is prepared to give way, even when he does not have the right of way".

We arrived at the hotel at 8.30am Singapore time, well after bedtime UK time, only to find our room wasn't ready, and wouldn't be for another two hours! So, absolutely shattered, wearing too many clothes (It is always around 25 degrees and very humid in Singapore, so the amount of clothing required for November in the UK is way too much!) and lugging our hand luggage, we wandered around like a couple of zombies. 

None of the restaurants or bars were open at that time of the morning, so we went back to the hotel and made use of the free drink voucher they'd given us, had a coffee (which seemed to take them forever to make) and then hung around until we could get into the room.

Then we just crashed out for several hours.

When we woke up, still feeling groggy although our unadjusted internal clocks should have been thinking about getting up, we went and found the hotel pool, with the intention of having a drink at the bar. We were persuaded by the bartender to have some rather expensive satay sticks as well. 

There was a wedding going on in the hotel so we were watching that and trying to work out which of the men in suits was the groom, and whether they were gathering for the main ceremony or the reception.

Clarke Quay

Clarke Quay from the Swissotel

Then we went for a wander round Clarke Quay, which is the area around the Singapore River which has been developed into a shopping mall with bars and restaurants. We had a drink in the Irish Pub (I have yet to visit a city that doesn't have an Irish Pub), watching children playing in the floodlit fountains.

After that, a South American meal in a a restaurant called Café Iguana, near the hotel. 

When we had finished eating we found a booth by the side of the river that sold drinks. We bought a couple of glasses of white wine and sipped them at a table beside the river, watching all the boats going by - until we were ousted by the bride and groom from the hotel wedding, who wanted that exact spot for their photographs. Luckily we'd finished our drinks and were about to leave anyway, so we congratulated the couple and went back to bed.

Day 2: 10 November: Singapore

Big Breakfast

Breakfast in the hotel - we opted for an American breakfast which was absolutely huge. It consisted of a large glass of fruit juice, a fruit platter (strawberry, orange, two types of melon and an exotic variety of fruit I didn't recognise), egg, bacon, hash browns, fried tomato, croissants, muffins and coffee (which didn't arrive until we'd almost finished eating - it seems the hotel had some sort of problem making coffee quickly). Absolutely stuffed and couldn't eat it all.

Exploring the banks of the Singapore River

After breakfast, we went for a long walk along the banks of the Singapore River as far as where the iconic Merlion is.

The Merlion

Along the way we saw some dragon boat racing - there was some kind of event going on with teams from all over the world, although the races we saw all seemed to be between teams from various Singapore civil service departments. That was fun to watch.

Dragon Boats racing

There were shelters, rather like bus shelters, fitted with fans which start going when they detect movement beneath them - a welcome respite from the heat and humidity.

We got fairly close to a rather odd building which was three towers with a structure across the top which looked like a large ship. There were palm trees growing on it. It's possible, I believe, to go up there to a park/viewing point and infinity pool, but sadly we didn't have time to do that.

Unusual buildings in Singapore

We saw a museum which was built to resemble a white flower and was surrounded by a large goldfish pond full of waterlilies, many of which were in flower.

A nearby shopping centre had a canal running through it, complete with a gondola.

Boat rides inside the shopping centre

We crossed the Double Helix Bridge and started wandering back through an area that has been re-claimed from the sea since the 1970s.

The breakfast we had was so large that we didn't need lunch, but we were ready for a cold drink by then, so we went into the very grand Fullerton Hotel, which is in the old Post Office building. Really? I thought. It looks rather grand for a post office - are you sure? However, it does pay tribute to its history as a post office by having a pillar box in the bar.

The pillar box in the bar

Asian Culture Museum

A couple of cold beers later we went across to the Asian Culture Museum which was close by. They had an exhibit of Asian religions and we took a tour with a very informative lady called Sandra. 

I learned during the tour that the bulges or flames on top of the heads of statues of Buddhas represent enlightenment; 

that only 2% of people who took the exams to join the Chinese Literati, a type of civil service actually passed; 

in Chinese art, bamboo represents bending but not breaking, and jade is symbolic because the more it is rubbed, the brighter it becomes, so it represents being made more precious and beautiful the more it is handled. Similar to a pearl, I thought, something of beauty coming from irritation and friction.

The Islamic art was fascinating. They are not allowed to draw images of people so their art consists of patterns and calligraphy. One picture looked like a galaxy, but on close inspection it was a mandala of verses from the Koran written in fine, tiny script. There were scrolls of prayers in which the letters were made up of tiny writing - so the whole of the Koran was reproduced. 

We were there longer than Raffles...

Arthur was adamant that Sir Stamford Raffles, who founded the modern city of Singapore (Lion City), was only there for a day, so we had already spent more time there than he did! Although when we looked this up it turned out he stayed for a week. Still, if you take my previous two visits to Singapore into account, I've still spent more time there than Raffles did.

Ate in an Italian restaurant and had another glass of wine at the same booth as last night, and were not evicted from our table this time. It was a lovely location, right by the riverside, where you could watch the boats pass by while sipping a chilled white wine.

Riverboats by night

Day 3 11 November: Singapore

Today we went out for breakfast, to a place we saw while looking for a place to eat last night, called Boomerang. The breakfasts were not as massive as the ones in the hotel but after a fruit filled French toast I was still pretty full so lunch wasn't really required today either.

Having explored most of the area around the hotel it was time to get to grips with the transport system. Although, if you can navigate the Tube in London, the MRT is not that complicated. We bought a six journey ticket which was all we needed for our visit.

Botanical Gardens

We decided to go to the Botanical Gardens, which were full of beautiful tropical plants, and even a few animals. Arthur said he saw a lizard, but I missed it. I did see pigeons and black swans, and tortoises. One of the lakes had dozens of them, swimming about in a leisurely fashion.

The swimming tortoises

For a small extra fee, you could visit their orchid garden where they had orchids named for various world leaders and famous people who had visited the gardens over the years. These included Margaret Thatcher, The Queen, Princess Diana and Nelson Mandela.

An orchid

The Margaret Thatcher orchid

It was a very hot and humid day, so after touring the gardens we stopped to buy a bottle of water before walking over to Orchard Road, Singapore's Oxford Street, which wasn't too far away, so Arthur could buy himself a new belt. We hoped to find somewhere to have a long cold drink and a sit down. We achieved the first objective, but couldn't find anywhere to get a drink and sit and drink it, so we went back to the hotel and had a beer there.

Meeting our Singapore friends

One of Arthur's erstwhile colleagues from the Singapore office, Julie Ng, had arranged a get together of people Arthur knew at a seafood restaurant not far from the hotel, and had suggested we meet her at Harry's Bar, which is a famous watering hole again not far from where we were staying. 

As we sat there watching out for Julie, who was coming along after work, who should walk around the corner but Richard Hill and Ann, who we'd not seen since Richard retired. We had no idea they were in town, so that was a pleasant surprise. They had lived in Singapore for a while but now live in Gibraltar. They had been to Melbourne for the horse racing and were on their way to the UK, so we literally met in the middle.

At the meal we also caught up with Akhter and Michele, Danny Ong and Mohd Shahid. Julie ordered a set menu for us, so there was no need to decide what to eat. 

I'd been a little concerned that I'd order something and then be expected to pick out which fish I wanted to eat from a tank, as there were a lot of restaurants we passed which had tanks of doomed fish, but that didn't happen with the set menu.

There was plenty of food, dishes to share, including drunken prawns, scallops, chicken satay, duck noodles, prawns in breadcrumbs, Chinese cabbage, beef, and rice; dessert was a mango favoured soup. The restaurant didn't seem to serve wine or alcohol of any kind, but kept us continually topped up with Chinese tea - a lot healthier!

My internal clock was still thinking that bedtime was really time to get up so I didn't sleep well at all. In fact, I was certain I'd tossed and turned all night until Arthur asked me next morning if I'd heard the thunder and lightning in the night - and I hadn't. 

Day 4: 12 November: Singapore

Today we went to another shopping mall because Arthur needed some part for his camera. In Singapore, there are whole malls, five or six stories high, that sell nothing but computer and camera stuff, and we went to one of those. Yet, in the middle of it was a shop selling children's beds, and I wondered how much passing trade they would actually get in that location.

Singapore Harbour and Sentosa Island

After that Arthur wanted to go look at the harbour, but walking out of Harbourfront MRT Station there is not much to see in terms of the harbour. There was a shopping mall and a cruise terminal and that was about it. 

We ended up waking across a walkway to Sentosa Island. I've been there a couple of times before and remembered it as quite a pleasant place, and probably it still is, but all you get to see when you've crossed the walkway and have a limited amount of time is a huge development which seems to be trying to mimic Disneyland with lots of expensive attractions and hotels. 

The beaches and the fountains I remembered may still be there, but we didn't see them. I would have liked to explore a bit further afield but it was pouring with rain.

We had been persuaded by the ticket office to visit the Aquarium, which sells itself as the biggest Aquarium in the world. Arthur couldn't believe there isn't a bigger one in Florida or somewhere. So we made our way there and had a fish and chip lunch before going in.

The Sentosa Aquarium experience begins with a film show about a shipwreck in which you are meant to experience what it was like to be caught in a storm, but since the seats didn't move all they could do was use strobe lights and spray a bit of water. 

It told the story of a merchant who set sail despite warnings from his astrologer that the journey wouldn't go well. The astrologer was right, and the ship sank. The film shows the ship sinking from the perspective of people on board, ending up at the bottom of the sea at which point you walk out into the Aquarium itself.

Whether it was the largest in the world or not, it was still quite large, though when you've seen one aquarium you've kind of seen them all - they all have sharks and tanks of colourful tropical fish and seahorses and so on, and this one didn't disappoint. 

Tropical fish, Sentosa Aquarium

It had the extra attraction of some wild dolphins which regularly drop by for a visit and can be seen closely through the glass.

There was also an interesting exhibit about the history of maritime Singapore, what they used to trade and who with, and about the pirates. One of their most famous pirates was a woman.

Incongruous Christmas

I wasn't sure, before I got here, whether Christmas would be widely celebrated in Singapore, but it is, and in quite a big way. Although it was only November, there were decorations up everywhere and Christmas music being played in all the shops. 

It didn't seem quite right, when it is thirty degrees, to be seeing all this Christmas related stuff. Shops playing White Christmas and selling cards with snowy winter scenes in a place that never, ever sees snow.

Giant snowman for Christmas - even though it NEVER snows here

In the evening we went out for a meal with Richard and Ann. They took us to Mario's, one of their favourites from when they lived in Singapore. The owner remembered them, and recommended a platter of Italian starters and that evening's special, which was sole, so we all went along with that. 

Richard chose a very nice red wine. After the meal, we went to a bar, another of Richard's old haunts where he knew the owner. I had a butterscotch schnapps which was extremely delicious. 

All in all, a very nice night out catching up with old friends.

Day 5: 13 November: Singapore

Visit to a Buddhist temple

Richard and Ann had recommended the Buddha's Tooth Relic Temple as a place to visit, so that is what we did today. 

It is a working temple with a museum attached; when we were there there was a Buddhist ceremony going on and it was possible to observe from the mezzanine floor of the museum. I found it quite compelling to watch. The hall was brightly lit and very colourful, unlike the dimness of most churches in the UK. There were monks in yellow or red or brown robes who seemed to be officiating; people coming up to the altar in pairs and dropping something into a box in the front, and bringing up offerings of fruit on trays. There was incense being swung and lots of chanting, which could be heard as we went around the museum.

The museum was about the life of Buddha, and we were struck by the similarities to Christianity. Buddha, like Jesus, was born under unusual and unnatural circumstances. Not a virgin birth, but Buddha's mother had been married for years and unable to have children, and was eventually impregnated with Buddha by an elephant's trunk, according to the exhibit.

It was prophesied at the time that the child would either be a great king or a religious leader. Buddha's father, who was a king, wanted him to be a king, and so kept him in luxury and away from the world. Nevertheless, Buddha renounced it all anyway, although not before marrying and fathering a son, and so the throne was safe, it merely skipped a generation.

Buddha followed a life of austerity not unlike the Catholic saints - hardly eating or sleeping - but after a few years decided that wasn't the path to enlightenment, and eventually achieved it by meditating under a tree. Then he preached and taught and had disciples.

According to the museum, there is to be another Buddha of equal significance to the original, his disciple Matreia, who is the fat jolly one who's statue you often see. Matreia is currently undergoing incarnations until he is ready to take on the role. There is a theory that he is alive at the moment and living in London. Arthur said he's probably living in Brick Lane. 

I suggested that he could be the next Buddha himself but just doesn't realise it yet! (If this changes, and they start saying the next Buddha lives in Somerset now, we'll know it's him!)

We moved on to the relic room. Arthur commented that there seemed to be such a lot of gold in there that in any other country there would be armed guards, but here the only guard was a grumpy old man who ordered people to take their shoes off and made a man delete a picture he'd taken on his phone.

There were a number of relics, which were supposedly Buddha's body parts. As well as the tooth that gave the temple its name, there were others labelled as his eyes, hair, tongue and even intestines. They just looked like small glass beads of various colours in elaborate jars. Again a parallel with Christianity, where some people worship supposed body parts of saints.

We went up onto the roof garden where a woman was turning a prayer wheel in the centre. Very tranquil up there.

Time then for a caramel frappacino before paying a quick visit to the Broadridge office to see those of Arthur's old colleagues who hadn't been able to get to the meal on Monday evening: Tim, Alan, Paul, Wen Qiang and Jeremy.

On the way back we stopped at Penny Black's Victorian Bar for a beer and chilled out watching the boats go up and down the river. We were also watching some young people with a camera who were trying but failing to film interviews with passers by. Then we had a friendly argument about whether the waitress's t-shirt was red or orange. Arthur insisted it was orange but I'm sure it was red. Whether things were orange or red became a running joke through the rest of the trip.

A Singapore river boat

In the evening we went to visit Tim and Faz. This is the couple whose wedding we attended in Morocco a few years back. Arthur knows Tim quite well, I met him for the first time at his wedding, so I felt I got to know him and his wife much better this evening, sitting and chatting and drinking and eating nibbles. 

Another pleasant evening catching up with friends.

Perth

Day 6: 14 November:  Singapore - Perth

Had to get up at stupid o'clock in order to catch the plane. Too early for breakfast at the hotel so we had to find something at the airport. In the terminal we were at there was very little choice of places to eat. The choice was a Chinese breakfast or Burger King. Surprising that an international hub the size of Changi airport couldn't come up with any more than that.

The flight was fairly uneventful although the plane seemed to be flying through thick cloud for about an hour after take off, which made me a little nervous - usually they clear any cloud within five or ten minutes. Was something wrong, or was the cloud extending much higher up into the sky than in most places? There were general knowledge quizzes on the entertainment system; doing those took my mind off wondering when we were going to break through the cloud, and passed the time once we were up in the sunshine.

The final approach to Perth was quite bumpy as it was windy and I was reminded of last time I flew into Perth and the landing was aborted. Either it wasn't as bad or this pilot was more confident landing in wind - we got down on the first attempt with no problems.

Perth

Arthur's aunt and uncle, Teresa and Paddy met us at the airport and drove us to their house. They live in a district called Como, which is near to Perth zoo (although we didn't have time to visit the zoo). Our room overlooks the communal pool for their block.

It seemed that we did nothing but eat and drink from the moment we arrived until we went to bed, with just a short break from stuffing our faces to go and meet Arthur's cousin Jasmine who was arriving on the ferry. Jasmine's husband Vincent arrived with loads of food for the evening - olives, pate, salami, soft cheese. Theresa provided prawns, barbecued ribs, vegetables and rice. Yet somehow we didn't feel too full, just nicely satisfied.

Ashleigh, Jasmine's sister, came along too, and was telling us a bit about her work as a vet. Someone had brought in an injured fox cub they had found, but it had to be put down. I thought that was sad, but I got the impression that people in Australia are not that fond of foxes.

It was lovely to see them all again, and to be able to sit outside on a balmy evening enjoying a leisurely meal with everyone.

Day 7: 15 November: Perth

Paddy and Teresa like to get up at 5.30 and go cycling, and Paddy talked Arthur into doing the same. I'm still not confident cycling and would have been scared of falling off an unfamiliar bike and making a twit of myself in front of our hosts, or not being able to get up the hills, or getting run over. They only had two bikes anyway, which meant Teresa couldn't go either. 5.30 seems terribly early given that we don't usually get up till 8am at home, but the jet lag meant that we were waking up that early anyway. 

Places around Perth

We went for a drive to a place called Mandura which had a market which sold art and crystals and where you could get a tarot reading. Arthur was quick to point out that I could get an Australian tarot reading, but I didn't do it. Teresa bought a painting of a bird.

We went to Rockingham, where, they said, you could get a boat trip to an island but nobody wanted to, because the reason for going was to see the baby penguins and it wasn't the season for them.

Everyone here is very vigilant about wearing hats and sunscreen and insisting that we do the same, and warning us about remembering to apply sunscreen to the tops of our feet. It's supposed to be 37 degrees today, we were told.

Because they get up so early, Paddy and Teresa nap every afternoon and Arthur is only too happy to join them. They all seemed quite amazed that I didn't want to sleep as well, and preferred to use the afternoon to write my journal and read instead. And ogle a couple of tanned young men using the pool below the bedroom window!

Sunset beach

As a thank you for accommodating us, we took Paddy and Teresa out for a meal, but first of all we drove over to a place called Cottesloe, which has a west-facing beach and is the spot in the area to watch the sun go down. There were lots of people there doing just that - groups of students who were celebrating the end of their exams, romantic couples and photographers. We took lots of pictures, of course.

Sunset at Cottesloe

Me with Teresa and Paddy

Ashleigh and Jasmine had recommended a place to eat but when we got there we saw it was full to the brim with noisy "schoolies" (school leavers - in Australia it is the end of the school year in December, and the exams are in November, so those who are taking exams are pretty much free now until January, and they're in the mood for some exuberant celebrations) and so we decided to find somewhere else. 

A short drive away there was a quieter hotel bar where we could have a pre-dinner drink, and then we chose to eat in a restaurant called Barque. The two waitresses who served us were from Belgium and Norway. The food was excellent there; and so was the wine, and we ended up having three bottles of the stuff!

Day 8; 16 November:  Perth

Woke up regretting that third bottle of wine. Paddy had knocked on our door before 6am to get Arthur to go cycling with him but we didn't hear him, so he went on his own. 

Teresa drove us down to the coffee shop where Paddy and his cycling buddies usually stop for refreshments after their ride. We met Kevin and Lester: Kevin is a New Zealander and was telling us some good places to go in Queenstown.

"Freo"

We decided that we would leave Paddy and Teresa in peace for the day and catch the ferry down to Fremantle, known to the locals as "Freo". It was a sunny, hot day, a good day to be out on the water. The running commentary they broadcast on the boat pointed out all the largest and most expensive properties, most of which belonged to business tycoons who were no doubt well known to the Australians but I had never heard of any of them. Mostly, it seems, they made their fortunes from mining.

Fremantle

We got off the ferry and, after watching a gigantic container ship being guided in by the tugs, went in search of something to eat. 

Main Street sounded like the place where all the cafés and bars would be, but it turned out to be as deserted as the City of London on a Saturday. 

Eventually we found an Indian restaurant - the sort of place we'd eat at in the evenings at home, and we really only wanted a snack, but it looked like there might not be anything else open. We were the only customers, so the staff were very attentive. We had the full attention of two waiters, a black guy and a guy in a turban and even the chef came out - we could tell he was the chef because he was wearing chequered pants and his hands were stained orange with spices.

Arthur ordered a rice dish, I went for a main course without a starter, which didn't come with rice so I ordered rice as well - so we had far too much rice. Not bad food, it filled a gap, and it was cool in there with a nice loo. Only after we came out did we turn a corner and find all the cafés where we could have got a coffee and a sandwich. Apparently Market Street, not Main Street, is the place to be!

Following the recommendations we'd been given, we went and looked at the Round House, a museum which used to be a prison. The exhibit we found particularly interesting and amusing there was a series of letters written by the captain of a merchant ship that docked in Fremantle in 1892. He'd written about 10 letters over a period of about 6 weeks, all of them complaining bitterly about Fremantle: the weather was awful, the docking facilities were not suitable and his ship got damaged, the workers were lazy and stole things and absconded to go and work in the mines and so on and so on. In his last letter he wrote, "A curse on Fremantle and every son of a bitch in it", and stated categorically that he would never return. Although he'd stopped short of saying "I Quit!".

Outside, an elaborate flag pole was flying numerous flags - the Australian flag, the Fremantle flag, the Aborigine flag - with a space reserved for flying the national flag of any incoming vessel. As the ship arrives, their national flag is raised and lowered after 10 minutes. Every port used to do this as a courtesy but Fremantle is the only place that continues the practice to this day.

Flagpole

We then found a gallery which had an exhibition of photographs of elderly residents of the town, and beside each photo was a piece of writing telling the life story of each person, where they came from, why they ended up in Fremantle, what they did for a living, what their passions were.

Paddy and Teresa came and picked us up and on the way back took a small detour to the streets with the most jacaranda trees. I'd been noticing these lovely trees all over the place as we were driving around and hoped I would get a chance to photograph one. They were all in flower while we were there, bright lilac flowers, and there was this one street which had loads of them.

Jacaranda trees

We had a quiet night in and ate Teresa's delicious chicken casserole with mashed potatoes and roasted courgettes.

While Paddy did the dishes the rest of us went for a walk by the river, and out along a disused jetty; well, disused as a jetty, anyway - it's a popular spot for anglers and there were quite a few people out there fishing. It was lovely and cool there, a relief from the hot stickiness and 37 degree temperatures. The city lights twinkling in the distance, the lapping waves and a full moon. I was surprised there weren't more couples out for a romantic stroll, as well as the fishermen and people walking their dogs.

Day 9: 17 November:  Perth

Quinn's Rock

Despite our insistence that we would be perfectly happy to use the train, Paddy and Teresa insisted on driving us to Quinn's Rock where my cousin Debbie and her husband Mitch live. 

Quinn's Rock is quite a way out of Perth and a fair distance beyond where the commuter trains stop. We found Debbie's address without too much trouble and the two families met over a cup of tea, and then Paddy and Teresa left us as they had a play to go to that afternoon.

Debbie's son Richard is now in Australia too, working in IT. Apparently he'd applied for a work permit and then procrastinated until there was a last minute rush for him to get there before it expired. He made it - just.

Originally we had planned to visit a nearby national park, but it turned out there was a big event on, so it would have been extremely crowded. Instead we went to a nearby marina where there were shops and places to eat. We sat down for drinks and lunch, and who should walk around the corner but Paddy and Teresa, who had decided to go for a walk before returning home. They had another drink with us before they left. They had just been saying, wouldn't it be funny if we met up with them again - and then they did! 

Near Quinn's Rock
Left to right: Debbie, Mitch, Richard, Teresa, Paddy, Me

That was the first of many coincidences on this trip. There were some even more amazing ones on the New Zealand leg.

After we'd eaten we moved on to a place called Hillary's - a similar sort of place but bigger and busier and more commercial. There was one bar which was heaving, and none of the restaurants would serve drinks without food. We finally got a table in the bar and had another drink before going back.

Mitch fired up their barbecue, which is the size of our oven at home, and made an evening meal of burgers and sausages and salad, but none of us could really do it justice because we'd had such a massive lunch.

They drove us to the nearest station and pointed out the really good Indian restaurant it had taken them six years to find. 

Debbie came in to help us negotiate the ticket machine. Buying transport tickets for any form of transport here seems a lot more complicated and prone to problems than in Singapore. The ticket machine we'd tried to use at the ferry stop yesterday didn't seem to work properly - which the local alcoholics and beggars tried to take advantage of by coming over and offering to help and then asking for money - and then it turned out you could purchase tickets on the ferry itself, anyway.

Even with a local to help us at the train station, we must have looked confused as a strange, skinny young man, aged about 13 with blond curly hair and acne, came over and offered advice. He caught the same train as us and was walking up and down the carriages asking people for money - but since he'd seen us put all of our change in the ticket machine, he didn't hassle us, and just passed by with a smile. At one point the ticket inspectors got on (they work at 8pm on a Sunday there, it seems). They had a serious conversation with the young man but didn't make him get off. I wondered if someone had reported him begging or whether they were purely and simply checking tickets. Debbie sent a message later saying she hoped we got home OK - she was a little concerned about this kid because he was so odd, and had watched to make sure he left us alone.

The train took us into central Perth where we enjoyed the Christmas lights while waiting for our lift home. One large building had a slide show projected onto it which changed every few minutes.

Christmas lights in Perth

We ended the day watching a documentary about the history of the Australian wine industry (apparently in the 70s there was a wine called Kanga-rouge!).

Day 10: 18 November:  Perth - Melbourne

Spent the morning packing. Ashleigh came to drive us to the airport for our Melbourne flight, with Virgin Australia. Arthur, convinced we'd have to pay for food on the plane (Virgin Australia being a budget airline) insisted on buying sandwiches for the flight. But there was food included, so the sandwiches were superfluous and had to go in the bin. 

This plane had a couple of interesting features I'd not come across before. As well as the usual map showing the progress of the plane and the places it's flying over, and how long it is till you get where you're going, on this one you could also look at a "pilot's view cam" and a "down cam". However, most of the time the down cam was just showing turquoise sludge and the pilot's view a grey blur. It was a bright sunny day and I certainly hoped the actual pilot had a better view than the camera was giving us! Looking again as we were coming in to land, you could suddenly see things on the down cam - roads and things, and the horizon on the pilot's view, then scenery, and on the final approach you could make out the runway and a good view of what the pilot could see as we taxied to the gate. So for most of the flight it's pretty rubbish but worth looking at during landing.

Melbourne

Both of us have friends living in or around Melbourne at the moment, who we wanted to see. However, the day before we left England Arthur got an e-mail from his Melbourne friend, to say that he was going to be in Europe for a few days and did Arthur fancy going out for a beer? That really is Sod's Law in action, but we did manage to connect with my friend, Bee.

Our hotel was in the middle of a pedestrian shopping mall so the taxi couldn't take us right to the door. It wasn't as salubrious as the hotels in Singapore, but then, hotels in Singapore generally are of an extremely high standard. To get to our room it was necessary to take two lifts and walk through the breakfast room which resembled a staff canteen more than a restaurant. Although breakfast was included, it was a cold buffet which as far as Arthur is concerned, doesn't count as breakfast. I guessed we'd be eating breakfast out.

When we got to the room he complained he could smell a dead rat and actually went around the room looking for one. I did notice a faint smell, but I would have said it was a drain problem rather than a dead rat. There was no deceased rat anywhere in the room, I'm glad to say, so it probably was just the drains.

We didn't spend long in the room because my friend Bee had called me to say that she was sitting on a bench outside the hotel, so we just dumped our stuff and went to meet her. She'd been showing her artwork in an exhibition and was loaded down with things she was taking home. We found a Chinese restaurant that Bee liked and had a lovely meal and a catch up.

Me and Bee

Day 11: 19 November:  Melbourne

Day at leisure in Melbourne. Started with breakfast in a little café beside the hotel and then a trip to the shops to find a charging adapter. Arthur had assumed that, because Australia was originally British, it would, like Singapore, use UK style sockets - but it doesn't. That wasn't a problem in Perth because Paddy and Teresa had one we could use, but now we were on our own and needed to find one. Luckily we did, otherwise we would have to spend three and a half weeks without our phones, ipad, ipod, laptop, kindles and cameras. That would have been a disaster.

We basically had just one day to spend in Melbourne. We had been told the immigration museum was good so we went there and learned all about the history of immigration to Australia. 

Some sort of recruitment drive?

We had lunch in an Italian place on Federation Square. There is a very large screen there which was quite dominating. Great for events, but on this day it was broadcasting the speeches from some tedious political conference. However, once that had finished, we found it was broadcasting a live feed from the square so we had a bit of fun trying to spot ourselves on it.

Federation Square, Melbourne

Can you spot us on the big screen?

Getting arrested

After lunch we followed up on another recommendation we'd been given - the old Melbourne prison, the one in which Ned Kelly was held. There were two parts to this, firstly the prison museum in which you can learn about the various prisoners that had been executed there - exhibits in each cell told their stories, next to a display case containing their death mask. Kind of gruesome. 

You could learn about how they hanged people - also quite gruesome, and about the lives of female prisoners, who were mostly in there for baby farming, which seemed to mean they were the child minders from hell. 

Plenty of scope for ghost stories here.

The second part was called the Watch-House Experience, which was a tour of the old police cells, and in which you got "arrested". Everyone taking the tour had to line up against the wall, men on one side and women on the other while being lectured by an "officer" (tour guide). 

Some people were given cards with scenarios on them to give an idea of the kind of things people got arrested for. Arthur was one of these people, his story was he'd been arrested for assault! 

Then in groups of six we were put into cells and the lights turned off for five minutes or so, before they let us all out and let us look around the exercise yard and at the padded cell and take our own mugshots.

Prisoner Cell Block H

Melbourne Jail

Having escaped from jail (no need to contact Prisoners Abroad on this occasion) we walked to Lygon Street where there is a considerable choice of places to eat, and we chose an Italian place. We came across a bar called the Charles Dickens which was done out like an English pub and had a glass of wine.

That, sadly, was all we had time to do in Melbourne. 

Day 11: 20 November:  Melbourne - Auckland

Another stupid o'clock start to catch a plane. Very friendly taxi driver who was from the Balkans although the combination of the East European and Aussie accents made him sound South African. Had a nice chat with him although it was a bit disconcerting when he had to stop the car twice on the hard shoulder because there was something wrong with it. It was booked in for a service later that morning - but for now we hoped it would keep going for long enough to get us to the airport in time! Thankfully, it did.