I wasn't shocked that I kept waking up last night, it is always the same when you have to get up early for a flight and you are scared you sleep in. My alarm went off at 3.45am as I had booked the airport shuttle for 4.15am which picked me up right outside the halls.

Today was going to be a long day, my first flight was at 6.15am from Christchurch to Melbourne, which was roughly a 4 hour flight. Followed by a 6 hour wait in Melbourne before my Tiger Airlines flight from Melbourne to Perth which was another 4hour flight. I was lucky that I actually slept the whole 4 hours on my first flight even though I had a girl kicking my seat the whole journey. Grrr.

I was planning checking in my bag for my Perth flight and then getting the bus into Melbourne and going to the Australian Open to get the atmosphere etc but since Tiger is the cheapest airline ever they wouldn't check in my bag until 2 hours before and of course they had no lockers either. Basically I was stuck at the airport for the whole 6 hours!! I managed to phone Carole and get a good catch up all about the wedding plans etc. and Mum also phoned for a news so my time actually passed really quick. I got my blog up to date for New Zealand too which was good.

My tiger flight was on time, and we arrived into Perth early at 3.10pm in the afternoon. I was pretty tired by now as there was a 5 hour time difference between New Zealand and Perth so I actually felt like it was time for bed :) Anyways Phoebe met me at the airport and we went back to her house. I was super hyper when I saw Phoebe, it was so good to see her. When I got off the plane it was 33 degrees and soooo hot!

Her house was amazing and only 5 minutes from the beach. After we had a 5 minute break in our continual newsing we decided to head to City Beach about 5.30pm. It was still quite hot and I actually got a tan at this time of day. The beach was amazing, and I was speechless when I got there, it was gorgeous white sand with turquoise blue sea. We went swimming and the sea was so warm, but I got completely battered by the strong waves. There was a helicopter flying up and down the coast looking out for sharks as last October they had 3 shark attacks in 3 weeks. They would sound a horn for everyone to get out of the sea if they spotted a shark which was quite cool.

After our swim and drinking half of the Indian Ocean we lay on the sand newsing more and more! It was an absolutely amazing place and just on Phoebes back door. We came back and got showered etc before going round to Karen and Marties who were Phoebe's auntie and uncle and Sandy's mum and dad. Sandy was Phoebes cousin who was in Cape Town with us so I had met her before, and it was her birthday tomorrow so we had dinner at her place. They had this amazing pizza oven outside in the garden, so we sat outside all evening as it was still so hot. It was a really nice evening, with Phoebe's family and the home made pizzas were so yummy.

Phoebe, Sandy, Sandy's sister Fi and I went out to a wine bar and cocktail bar in Subiaco, but by this time I had been awake for at least 25 hours and starting to get pretty tired. It was really good and very upper class, 2 ciders for $24 equals £16.15 think that explains how expensive my week in Perth is going to be.

We just had one drink there as Phoebe was driving and I was shattered. So it wasn't too late by the time we got back even though we chatted for ages when we went to bed :)

It is so good to see Phoebe again, but I do feel bad as she is moving to Wiluna on Saturday. She starts her new job on Monday as a primary school teacher, but it is an 11 hour drive from Perth into the centre of a Western Australia to where she is going to be living. It is an aboriginal village that is a 3 hour drive from the next local village, so she has to take everything with her and food to last her for months. All her furniture is being picked up on Wednesday along with all the boxes she has packed so it really isn't the best week to be visiting but she doesn't mind one bit.

Well I have only been in Perth for less than 12 hours and I am already loving it here. I just don't feel like I am in a city at all, it is all so spaced out and peaceful, really looking forward to my week here. Hopefully I will see Nicole tomorrow which will be fun.

Right better catch some zzzz that I am really in need of :) xxxxx