Koolbardi Park

We settled back into the same campground on a different site. The overall focus on the week was to start sorting out our stuff and begin the massive cleanup. We discovered quite quickly that there are many nooks and crannies for red dirt to get into a caravan. We also had to get brutal with some things as only have 100kgs on the plane. It sounds a lot but roughly translates into 4 medium suitcases and carry on.

We delayed the sorting of our possessions on Sunday and instead spent a great day catching up with my second cousin and his family. Again their children had grown and were now at high school. It was lovely to sit in the garden eating lunch and catching up on everything. On Monday we went and met our tenants in the apartment we still own here. They have been long term tenants and have taken excellent care of the place.

Wednesday I caught up with some friends from my time working on the hospital project here in Perth. It was lovely to catch up with Tracey and Dee and I had a delicious meal at Petition Kitchen. Thursday the weather improved and we walked in Whiteman Park in the afternoon. It is a large reserve the previous owner had shaped into a beautiful park before it became a public park. It also houses three museums dedicated to transport and has a tramway running through the reserve.

Friday’s forecast was for sunshine and the first day over 30 degrees so we downed cleaning clothes and headed to Cottesloe beach which was my favourite when we lived here. We walked along the coast line towards Freemantle and then doubled back to enjoy pizza at one of the restaurants overlooking the beach.

Last week it became apparent that we could not transport the batteries of our electric bikes home to NZ and to replace them was going to be very expensive. We decided to see if we could sell them on Facebook marketplace and remove one hassle from our list. Thankfully a couple came on the Saturday morning and bought and biked away with them which was a huge relief. With the benefit of hindsight we didn’t need bikes for the trip we did and we would have been better to wait until we had returned to NZ to buy them.

Saturday night we had a 90/65 birthday party at our friends place. Phil was 65 and his mum Josie was 90. We had spent quite a bit of time with Josie and her husband Phil Snr and her brother-in-law Sammy and his wife Madeline when we lived here. So it was so nice to see Josie and Sammy again. Unfortunately both Phil Snr and Madeline have passed away recently.

The party was at Phil and Terri’s house and there were over 80 guests. Most of us were in the garden where the band was set up. It was a great night and the birthday girl was decked out in a purple and gold sari with a purple tiara and was up dancing away. I now have a new life goal to be dancing at my 90th birthday party.

Sunday we visited Andrew and Carola again to deliver some of the things that were not making the trip home with us. Thankfully they said yes to everything! Then we drove back to Mandurah where Bill and Maree have kindly offered we can do the final pick out from. Monday was a massive clean out of caravan and caravan, sorting, then putting some stuff back in the caravan and ute ready for delivery to the shipping agent at 7am.

Tuesday back in Perth. An early start for us as Mandurah is 70km from Perth. The wind and rain storm was in full force as we drove in the dark but we got there and delivered the rig safely, albeit looking like drowned rats due to the sideways rain. Now that the rig has left we have new tasks to do before our flight to Auckland and managed quarantine this Monday. Our main holiday travel is over but we have yet to complete our travel. More to come......Read more