Nissan Navara

No one was more surprised than me when an invitation came through from Nissan New Zealand to attend the launch of the Nissan Navara – in Perth! Turned out, this was one of those ‘exclusive’ launches with only four motoring commentators in attendance. Nissan laid on the flights, accommodation and so forth, with a flight booked on a Monday to get us all to Perth in time to acclimatise. On the Friday prior to departure, Air New Zealand advised that the Monday flight had been cancelled and everyone was rebooked for the Tuesday flight. Nissan’s response: “unacceptable, we have to be on the ground on Tuesday, so rebook us on the Sunday flight.” No problem, everyone in our group was rebooked on Sunday – except Yours Truly, who had somehow gotten lost in the system. They eventually found me – I had already confirmed for the Tuesday flight – news to me – but this was a problem anyway, as the plane on Sunday was now full. Nissan’s suggestion was that I sit in the co-pilot’s seat, but ANZ wasn’t keen on that solution. Eventually, they managed to squeeze me onboard, separate from the group; but onboard. We arrived in Perth with a free day up our sleeves and, despite everyone facing deadlines, we opted to do a hop on/hop off tour of Perth – arguably the best ways to see new cities. An open top double decker bus will take you round the sights and you can reconnect if there’s something you especially wanted to jump off and spend some time seeing. We started off heading west to bypass the Perth Mint (stop n rob) making our slow getaway up to Kings Park, which apparently is bigger than Manhattan’s Central Park and gives you a nice high vantage point to take in East Perth. From here we toured the city which convicts built and then developers finished, marvelling at the integration of old and new buildings and the scale of street art, before hitting Watertown (the place for bargain shopping). Next was the Bell Tower at Elizabeth Quay. In this A$5.5 million-dollar glass teardrop tower hang 18 bells, 12 of which are royal bells from St Martin-in-the-fields church in London. These are the only bells known to have left England. The remaining bells were cast recently with metals mined in Western Australia. We next went past the cultural centre in Perth and chose to do the 40-minute Optus Stadium tour. The stadium is famous for being built on budget and ahead of schedule, a rare thing in Australia, and a bonus when your newly minted stadium is completed in time to host one of the first AFL games in the season. The tour group was met by Glenn, an Optus Stadium enthusiast and event commentator, who warned us that of all the guides, his tours took slightly longer than everyone else’s. About 95 minutes later, our 40-minute tour had revealed more about the stadium than we would need to enter Mastermind and win. Glenn certainly knew his stuff and was quite happy to link his own personal experiences (all of them!) with every conceivable build element of the stadium. If ever you get the opportunity to visit Perth for business or pleasure, we strongly suggest you take it. Yes, it’s a long way to travel, but it is most certainly worth it.