Winter 2019 - OZ 1 Arrival in Perth

2019 - OZ  1   Arrival in Perth

Sculpture of Tasmanian Devils in the Hobart Airport

Other Side of the Sculpture

Close-up of the Tasi Devil

Airport Apartment by ‘Aurum’ was our destination after our flight from Hobart.

As is now typical with flights from Hobart, we had to fly to Melbourne first, and then change planes. Layover was long and in some crazy way we boarded a plane to London, England that had a layover in Perth. So we were on an International flight doing a domestic stop over.

It made a difference in that our luggage was handled differently.

With all these arrangements, stop-over’s, delays, etc. we arrived in Perth at 10.30 PM, in the dark, after most people no longer flew for the day. There were no longer the ‘normal’ shuttle services and we tried to contact the Airport Apartment for a pick up, but had to finally concede and take a taxi. 

As the name ‘Airport’ suggests, our hotel was ‘near’ the airport. It’s just that our taxi driver had no clue where it was. So we criss-crossed, in the dark, one side street after another, hoping to see the sign for the ‘Apartment’. The taxi driver called his Central office and even with their help he could not find our choice of hotel for the night. What did we pick? What did we book? 

Well, it was a very, very nice place, this ‘Aurum’ Apartment complex. The room was large, with a large balcony and an en suite washroom/toilet, a laundry set up, a small kitchenette and plenty of space. Very clean, very orderly but in a quirky, off the street, location. 

The receptionist apologized for not being able to help more. He realized from his computer screens that we did not receive the shuttle info they normally send out, he made up for it by giving us a free breakfast for the next day. He could not have been more helpful.

Our Toyota Corolla For the Next Month

The next morning we needed to pick up our rental car, which, again was near the airport but too far for a walk. The nice Apartment folks of ‘Aurum’ drove us to the car rental office, no charge. Yet when it came to giving us a 2^nd night for the same rate we booked this apartment online for, they drew the line. They could not give us the promotional rate but would have to charge us more. Fair enough!  We moved closer to Town, which in hind sight was better for us anyhow.

The rental car we received was a Toyota Corolla, not a new car, but a well-traveled, well-used car with high mileage. I understand the car rental office; we booked a ‘one-way’ rental and would drop off the car in Melbourne, so why give us the latest model car?  Especially since the roads we will be traveling on are not exactly in pristine condition. What irked me though was not the model or age of the car but the fact that this car had no GPS. We had to rent a GPS unit and for the price we paid for the GPS rental we could have bought a brand new model GPS and kept it. Those are the expenses of traveling, however. One can not foresee all the smallest details one encounters along the way.    

Now, let our trip from Perth to Melbourne begin.