Beautifully light by 5a.m. We'd picked a motel quite close to Perth Airport. Dropped the hire-car at the airport. We'd bid in an auction for an upgrade using Air NZ airpoints, but that was unsuccessful. Fortunately our existing bags were just within limits. Ran a little late into Auckland, but still had plenty of time until our Christchurch flight. Rain threatened as we walked between terminals, but held off long enough. Lynn talked me into a couple wines unt...

Mon 25 Nov Cottesloe Beach for a sun, swim and then a drink looking out to sea - 5 ships waiting to load/unload. Tues 26 Nov Only the caravan park pool today as we continue our cleaning and prepping of caravan and ute for storage. I saw a kookaburra on my circuit this a.m. - it has been a while. They weren't native to W.A. and were only brought over from the Eastern States to somewhere here that had a snake problem. They supposedly weren't terribly effective...

Thurs 21 Nov Thurs night markets at Scarborough Beach. Stalls, lots of food trucks, live music and there was to be fire-jugglers if the wind eased. The kite-boarders were loving the breeze, with a couple of them really working the waves well too. Fri 22 Nov We had dinner with Trevor and Frances again, this time with the addition of Richard, Pieta, and 21/2yr old Henry. Yes, he did make us keen for some twin time. Sun 24 Nov day trip 130km north to New Norc...

The forecast was cool, so a good day to go north. An impressively early start, 1st stop Lancelin. The village is on the coast and the famous sand dunes are just inland. From the 1st servo coming into town, everyone was hiring sand-boards. The standard was $10/hr, but on-site there was a van with boards at $5 and a free bottle of water. Bloody plastic bottles in this state, don't get us started. We saw a lot of youngies having a go at sand-boarding. Most just sit...

Sat 9 Nov We drove to Kokerbin Rocks and got there by 9a.m, but that was too late, as it was too hot for us to go up. They are the 3rd biggest monolith in the country, and we had enjoyed Hyden Rocks and The Humps, so were a bit disappointed. We did see a seed-cleaning operation still working, and vehicles still unloading grain at an uncovered silo. In the high wind it was getting a bit of separation while being conveyered in. It's currently 37° here and we'r...