Our very own online marketing manager, Anna has recently been on a two week trip to Australia and we thought you’d like to hear all about her adventures. She flew out to Perth and started with a short stay in the Subiaco district, a cool cosmopolitan area of the city not far from the Central Business District.

The beaches here are beautiful, and so quiet at this time of the year that you can sunbathe to your heart’s content. You can go from beach to city in a short space of time and it’s not far to a little piece of “home”. There is a short street that is meant to be typical of the roads here, with English architecture and cobbled streets, although she said it felt a little more like Disneyland!

Elsewhere, it was very obvious that she was in Australia when a mob of kangaroos was spotted going about their lives in a cemetery. But there wasn’t much time to spare with all that famous Aussie wine to be drunk!

The vineyards were calling and an all-day tour saw her hit no fewer than seven in one day. She headed to the wine making region of Swan Valley, the oldest wine-making region in western Australia. This was a self-drive tour where you get to taste several of the wines at each location, and have the chance to buy your favourites.

Lunch came and went in the blink of an eye (and the sighting of a llama) and more vineyards called! Some of the larger places were obviously wise to what “tasting” means to some people, so seek out some of the smaller places as these are friendlier and more welcoming. It’s little wonder that wine was one of the overriding themes of her trip! I pity the poor driver for the day, unable to partake in any of the tastings.

It didn’t escape her attention, though, that Perth isn’t the place for history buffs. It’s a relatively new city which seems to have been built with plenty of money. The houses resemble buildings from Grand Designs and glass fronts and mammoth properties are the order of the day.

Fremantle, a city just south of Perth was next on the list. It’s a port city so has been inhabited for a much longer time. In fact, the houses here were built by immigrant prisoners out of limestone. Judging by the warm weather even in winter this must have been hard labour. Fremantle has a cool and funky vibe, much like Camden in London.

And that was all for the west coast, the next instalment will chronicle Anna’s adventures on the east coast of Australia.