6th - 10th January 2011
And so, we had arrived in Perth, Western Australia and it almost felt like home. Well, it felt familiar at least. We got the keys to our Mini Convertible, however, on arriving at our car, we realised we hadn't quite thought this through as we had two big luggage bags and two cabin bags to squeeze in. The boot was full with the cabin bags so we had to stick our bigger bags in the back seat like two little children. Seatbelts on, top down, off we go, yeeeha!
We decided to stay in Perth for one night before starting the drive south to the wine region that is Margaret River. We were up early doors and in the mini by 8am, hoping to have a leisurely trip along the coast. Along the way, we stopped off in Bunbury before arriving in the wine region that is Margaret River by about 1pm. Margaret River unfortunately suffered bush fires in December and we were staying in a beach studio in the Gnarabup (pronounced Naraboo) where there was a lot of burnt out trees and also some rather melted holiday homes. On the other hand, Margaret River town itself was really laid-back with lovely restaurants and galleries and cafes, with beaches close by. Close to our beach studio was an awesome beachside cafe called The White Elephant which was permanently hoaching - the atmosphere was so relaxed and it was the perfect place to have lunch when we first arrived. We could see little ones having their swimming lessons in the shallow water - sure beats Johnstone Swimming baths!
Our grand plan for our beach studio was to enjoy BBQ's for dinner with a bottle of wine from a local winery. However, bad planning on our part meant that we weren't quite on the beach and our studio didn't quite have a BBQ! So off we trooped to Coles supermarket to buy one for $10, charcoal and all. Trying to warm up a BBQ on the balcony with smoke coming into the studio, whilst looking at poor burnt out trees from the bushfire made us think twice so we abandoned the idea and had cheese and crackers instead! Still managed the bottle of wine though.....
The wineries in Margaret River are in abundance. Our friends Louise and Nick, along with my parents' friends Russell and Sheena, very kindly bought us a wine tour and so we booked up for our second day. It was slightly cloudy so we didn't mind a bus trip for half a day! Funnily enough, we ended up on a tour with 8 other Scots and 2 Aussies! We met a couple our age who had just gotten engaged and had moved to Perth about 6 months previously. Lots of chat about pros and cons of living out here and of course we were educating the Aussies on the joys of black pudding and haggis! The wineries we visited included Voyager, which was owned by a guy who loved a winery in Stellenbosch so much that he bought the architectural plans and built his own version in WA. It was beautiful, with stunning gardens and a helipad. This guy makes $42 million just in royalties alone. Big bucks! The wine was good too. We made it to a brewery for our last stop and we each got 5 taster pots each. By the end, the conversation was merrily flowing! Yum yum. A fun day out for all.
Margaret River town itself is really laid-back, with a mixture of bars, restaurants, galleries, gift shops and hotels. We treated ourselves to dinner in a rather quirky restaurant in town called Winos - their philosophy on eating was that is was to be shared and so we had fun choosing lots of different dishes. Of course, why not go for the matching wines? Well, we are on our honeymoon after all......
Another idea we had was to go the Outdoor Cinema with fully licensed bar and BBQ....we had planned to go on our first night there to see The Help. Unfortunately, by the time we had visited the venue to enquire about tickets, driven back to our studio and then gotten ready to leave again, the rain started bucketing down! Perhaps not the best night to sit in soggy grass with a damp rug wrapped around you. Bah humbug! It was not to be.
Our surfing lesson was brilliant fun. Rocking up to the beach in our convertible mini with wetsuits and sunnies was quite funny and we had the most stereotypical surf instructor taking us for the lessons. 'yo dude, it was like totally cowabunga yeah' He was very excitable, bless. Despite the usual fallings-off and my failure to manoeuvre over a powerful green wave, we had a great time and we were managing to stand up on the white waves for a good few seconds this time. We need to graduate from white waves to green waves and then onto the tubes! Might take us a few years....more like centuries......
We decided to get some fresh air and venture out for a walk in the bush. There were numerous walking trails to choose from and I took the opportunity to practice my 'photography skills' and play with the buttons to see what my camera could do. I wasn't great at the navigating and managed to get into a slight discussion with Bob about which way we should go to get back to the car. Turns out he was right, what a surprise. Then I had to ask him for help with my camera. Boo! Boys are always right. Once I'd gotten over my grump, we thought it would be a good idea to investigate the famous Leeuwin Estate winery. As you can imagine, we were particularly dressed for the occasion as we had just been clambering around in the leaves and dust. We had thought we could just pop in for a quick wine tasting but then thought we should probably grab some lunch too. Anyway, this ended up being a rather posh 3 course lunch on the deck, surrounded by lots of people who had obviously gone to the effort to dress up for their Sunday lunch! Oops. Ah well, we couldn't do much about it! Wine tasted and a case of wine purchased, we left happy people.
Part III coming soon - Cape Lodge! 5* xxxx
