Part III - Cape Lodge 5* (10th - 13th Jan 2012)

It's taken a while but here we are - part III of our honeymoon! The last 3 days in Margaret River were spent lapping up the luxury in a honeymoon suite in Cape Lodge. As we drove up the drive in our little convertible Mini with the top down, sun blazing, we realised we were entering the realms of 5* heaven! The main reception was located in a lovely big white house past the tennis courts and vineyards, and had a beautiful drawing room for tea and scones between 3-5pm, very decadent! I had spied the treatment room for massages/facials etc and booked myself in for a wee treat the following day. Dinners over the 3 nights were booked and we were looking forward to a 3 course A La Carte meal that evening in the restaurant, followed by a 5 course degustation meal the following night and a gourmet platter in our room with a bottle of wine on the last night. Our suite was perfect, with spa and balcony and we were getting used to the complimentary bottle of fizz and chocolates, not to mention the heart shape of flower petals on the bed! Aw. We were looking forward to our three nights of bliss!

The restaurant for Cape Lodge was featured on the Australian version of Masterchef and has been named in the Top 10 restaurants in the world (all very subjective of course but still impressive). Once dolled up, we headed over to the lodge where the restaurant and adjacent lounge was located for some wine tasting (they have 3 of their own wines and they were all delicious) and a pre-dinner aperitif - couldn't get enough of the ginger mojitos! The lounge area looked out over the lake and with the sun setting, it was just beautiful. Very peaceful and we felt very grown up - almost like a married couple?! It was certainly different to the holidays I've had in Gran Canaria circa 1998 etc......

The restaurant itself was posh yet minimalist and we could see into the kitchen which makes it all the more interesting. The head chef is Tony Howell - check it out on this website http://capelodge.com.au/restaurant/ and you'll see how stunning it is.

The food was absolutely delicious but if I was being really honest, we'd eaten so well over the past three weeks that I was really looking forward to some simple food. Is it bad to want to order a takeaway pizza when staying in a superbly posh place?!! Anyway, I was certain I would survive.....

The three days we spend in Cape Lodge were very relaxed and involved nothing more than lounging around the pool, reading books (I have been informed by my mother-in-law that this is not recommended on honeymoon but Bob wasn't having any of it), eating and drinking, along with the obligatory wine touring. We found a lovely winery called Knee Deep which was perfect for a lunchtime Rose wine and a cheeseboard in the sunshine. We even managed a 10 minute game of tennis but we soon discovered that was far too energetic and that we really needed to be spending more time by the pool......

Highly recommended for a weekend of luxury. Home to Melbourne on Friday 13th January and a relaxing weekend as husband and wife before returning to normality on Monday morning. Wedding and honeymoon over....let the marriage begin!! xxx