Day 30: Across the Equator

This morning, Greg and I got up bright and early and headed off to the airport.  Greg lost his departure card yesterday at the school security, so he had to go into the back of customs and get asked a few questions before getting a new one.  Otherwise, check in and customs took very little time.  We had a light breakfast in the lounge and then headed to the gate.  In Singapore, security is done at the gate instead of after customs, so we went through security at the gate and immediately boarded the plane.  The five hour flight went by quickly as I wrote my blog, played games, and read.

In Perth, we got through customs and baggage quickly, but were giving a “bad” stamp, as we had been on a farm or in a wilderness area in the past month.  This meant that we, along with 70% of the other passengers had to go through “quarantine,” which meant that security checked all of our shoes for excess dirt before we where let through.  Outside, it became very obvious that we had crossed the equator and were no longer in summer, as it was about 60 degrees.  For winter, though, Perth has pretty great weather.  We grabbed a taxi to Greg’s apartment, which sits on the river across from downtown Perth.  They are on the seventh floor and have nice views of the river and city on both sides of the peninsula.

We had a relaxing afternoon, playing games with Madi and looking at pictures.  We had home-cooked food for dinner, and afterwards took a walk down to the river to see the city at night.  I definitely had to borrow some long pants and a sweater for the walk, as the temperature dropped as soon as the sun set.

Sunset from Greg's apartment.

Madi went along on the short walk to the river.