So we got to Perth at around 7am and were knackered as our flight had left Bangkok at midnight and I hadn't slept a wink due to the turbulence on the plane. I was freaking out consistently, and it was all topped off by the worst landing yet... At immigration Mike decided he had to tick the box on his form stating his shoes might be muddy - jeese - so we had to get his stuff checked and cleaned. Whilst waiting one of the immigration workers started shouting at a Chinese lady. It turned out she was walking around spiting on the floor, then in the corner - hilarious to see outside of Asia!

Dad picked us up and we headed back to his place to sort out our stuff (including our mountain of laundry) and get some food. It was so nice to be in a house again instead of hotel rooms and to unpack our stuff knowing we wouldn't be moving about for a couple of weeks. After sorting our stuff we went for a wander down on to the river near Dad's place which is really picturesque and has a great long doc that goes out into the river. We spotted a few jellyfish and rays in the water too which was cool.

The next day we planned to meet Lisa and head into the city. It was so good to see her again as it had been nearly two years since Lisa was last in England! We went in to Perth to get some food and catch up. Lisa managed to get lost a couple of times, and we completely forgot about going to a festival in the city as we were busy chatting but we went to a nice bar overlooking everyone. That evening we went to Lisa's friend Stacy's house for a house party. She had hired out a sumo set ill which was great fun too, but a little hot and not that fresh!

The next day we got our first taste of the beach in Aus. We went to city beach which had some massive waves which we braved for a while until got knocked under and decided it was too much like hard work!

On Monday we headed up north to Yanchep. We wandered around there Koala boardwalk. We were told there were 11 Koalas around, but it turns out they're pretty lazy animals and were mostly asleep and hidden up trees so they were difficult to spot but still cool to see. We then went into the cave, and had the most enthusiastic tour guide I'd ever met. After a ten minute safety talk (which was bizarre after 3 months in Asia and no hint of health and safety anywhere) we went down to explore. The tour guide could not stop talking about the cave, the animals that lived there, how it was formed. I don't think anyone loves there job as much as her! She managed to talk to us about it all for an hour before letting us surface again. We then had a picnic by the lake which had loads of pelicans swimming around and fishing on it before heading back.

The next day we set off to Perth Hills to see Lesmurdie falls. From the top you got a really good view over Perth and the waterfall was pretty. We went for a bit of a hike down to the foot of the fall to get a view of the whole thing, spotting a few giant lizards on the way and fortunately no snakes. After Mike clambered about on the rocks for a while we hiked back up the mountain, checked out the cascades at the top which was also picturesque then dodged the flies back to the car.

In the afternoon we went to Lisa's school. Her class are learning about Vietnam so we went in to show them some pictures and talk to them about Vietnam (Lisa just wanted an easy lesson ;)). It was really nice to see where she was working and meet her kids, who were convinced that Vietnam was in China and that Buddha was the god of food... We then set off to the graveyard which Lisa assured me was the best place to spot kangaroos. To be fair to her there were a lot there bouncing around, including lots of mums with Joeys in their pouches which was really cute, and massive male kangaroos sprawled out which was a funny sight. We then set off to Hilary's boat harbor for an ice cream and a drink which was so pretty overlooking the harbor.

On Wednesday we set off on a bike ride around the river next to the city. Even though Perth is ridiculously flat it was harder work than expected due to the breeze - which was also a blessing in disguise really due to the heat here! Either way when we stopped for a drink it was more than welcome, and getting back on the bike was a bit of a chore, especially as my breaks had broke which made for an interesting cycle home!

We then went to meet Lisa after school to go out for pizza and play some crazy golf. Her friend Amber joined us and we went to a place called Leapfrogs. The pizza was amazing, however the crazy golf was a different experience. It was called 'twilight golf', which sounds cool. However we decided to check it out beforehand and found that it dark, creepy and full of spiders. We took in turns to scream our way around as different spiders landed on us - including Lisa screaming and spitting at me, charming - while Mike rolled his eyes through it. So after all we gave the golf a miss and went back to Lisa's to watch some Michael Mac.

On Thursday we went to Serpentine falls. The falls were impressive and really different to Lesmurdie as there were two big pools at the bottom which you could swim in. The water was absolutely freezing, but it was much better than being on land as the thousands of flies buzzing around your face didn't land on you in the water! After a refreshing swim Mike and I hiked up the rocks to the top pool which was even more picturesque than the bottom, then clambered back down and headed off to escape the flies! On the way back we stopped off at the Sepentine damn which was massive and also picturesque but not somewhere to stay too long!

On Friday we went to a different beach, Cottesloe, which was even prettier than the first beach as it was so blue and the sand was really clean. The water was still freezing though, so swimming was only brief! That evening we headed up to the local pub for us to meet some of Dad's friends. I was also able to get my first fruit cider in 3 months as it's really big out here too which was a nice surprise!