Day 31: The Perth Mint

This morning, I awoke to the sound of the fire alarm going off, though I didn’t know it at the time.  Instead, I thought that a normal alarm was sounding, yet I couldn’t quite place were it was coming from, as it seemed to be from the door.  When I got out of bed and went out of my room, I realized that it was indeed the fire alarm.  Greg told me he had checked around and that it was a false alarm, probably from someone in another apartment burning breakfast.  Finally, after about 30 minutes the alarm shut off.

After breakfast, Madi took me on a bike ride to see her school, and to practice riding, as it has been several years since I have ridden a bike.  I felt like I was learning again as I crashed into a pole at a road crossing and caused the chain to come off when I shifted incorrectly.  Otherwise, it was a good ride and good practice.  Oh, and the weather was great.  When I got back, I went out and sat in the sun, reading my book, while we waited for Mary to get home, before we headed over to downtown Perth.  The weather was absolutely perfect for sitting in the sun, and only got cool when a cloud moved in.

When Mary got back and we ate lunch, Mary, Madi, and I headed down to the ferry and crossed the river, arriving in the heart of Perth.  I liked the city of Perth a lot.  It is definitely big and a city, but it has lots of open areas and many parks.  We walked a few blocks to the Perth Mint, and along the way we passed lots of green areas, flowers, and statues of people, kangaroos, and the like.  The Perth Mint is one of the oldest mints still in its original building, so it has a very historic feel.  The tour was very focused on gold mining, and gold minting, rather than the modern coins made there today.  We were told all about many of the biggest gold nuggets, and the mint even has the second largest non-melted gold nugget in existence, weighing 60lbs.  They also showcased gold bars from all over the world of different designs.  The coolest part was the gold pouring, in which they have molten gold, which they pour into a gold bar.  The molten gold is glowing hot, and solidifies within 15 seconds of being poured.  After a minute in water, it is cool to the touch.  The bar is then remelted and poured again in another hour.  They have used the same gold for pouring since 1993.

Kangaroo statues in downtown Perth.

The Perth Mint

Lugging "gold" nuggets. They did have a bunch of real ones inside.

The gold pouring furnace.

After the fairly short, but interesting tour, we headed back towards the ferry and home.  I decided to go the Kings Park, Perth large, municipal park, tomorrow, so, after dinner, Greg took Madi and I on a drive to show me how to get there on the bike tomorrow.  While in the park, we stopped on the hillside, where there was a great view of the city lights.  There were very few cars in the park, or on the roads back towards the house, so Greg gave me a chance to drive on the opposite side of the road.  Driving on the opposite side took extra concentration, but it was not to bad, and I had no trouble turning into the correct lane, rather I had more minor issues.  A couple of times I turned on the windshield wipers when I meant to use the turn signal, and I also tended to drive too far to the left side of the road, presumably because I am not accustomed to having so much car to my left when driving.  When we got back, we went out again for ice cream, despite the cold.

Perth from Kings Park.