After arriving back to WA from Sydney we decided to stay in Perth for a bit. Again we were lucky to be able to stay in Barrett's apartment in the CBD. Rosanna continued working remotely to Finland after the Christmas break and Oliver kept looking for jobs in Perth.
Oliver also went to watch more cricket at the WACA, this time a Scorchers game with Errol, Adrian and Errol's friend Nick. What a great thing it is having friends with a WACA membership! Rosanna decided that one game of cricket was enough for her so she opted out this time. We also went to the Hopman Cup where Federer was playing. We got tickets as a Christmas present from Margie and Errol. It was a surprisingly fun and relaxed game, perhaps because people were allowed to drink beer in their seats!
Scorchers game at WACA
After work relaxation by the pool in Barretts' apartment building
Hopman Cup, Richard Gasquet vs. Roger Federer
Enjoying our Christmas present with Margie
Great fun to see Federer play tennis
If anybody wonders what happened to Rosanna's sister Pamela, don't worry, she is still alive and well! Pamela stayed with her new boyfriend in Perth for New Years and soon we were reunited with her in Fremantle. We had wanted to see more of "Freo" for a while and decided all to stay together in a hostel there to be able to explore the city in depth. We ended up having such a fun time including hilarious drinking games at the hostel.
Street art in Freo
The Fremantle Market
Coffee is serious business
Result of a drinking game
We knew already a while back that Sanna (Oliver's sister in law), two of her smallest children, Sanna's mother and brother were coming to Bunbury to celebrate Errol's 70th birthday in January and were super excited to get to spend time with them. To our surprise also Rosanna's big sister Maria let us know on Christmas that as a Christmas present for Rosanna she would be coming to Bunbury with her at the time 8 months old daughter Julia in January as well! You can probably imagine how happy we were to get to see even more of our family members. As Sanna pointed out, there were soon going to be more Finns in the Barrett household than Aussies!
As said, first Sanna and her family members arrived to Bunbury and we got to spend some quality time with them. Although Barrett's house is huge, even it wasn't big enough to accommodate all of us Finns but luckily Barrett's were kind enough to give Errol's mother's old house for our use.
Playing dress up with Tessa
Barrett juniors and Tessa
Sweet Connor
Errol's 70th
Maria and baby Julia arrived in Oz right after Errol's birthday and we headed down to Perth to pick her up from the airport. What an emotional reunion it was between the Pöyhönen sisters! The first thing we did after Maria and Julia had settled down to Oz time and Bunbury, was to head out to the beach.
The three shades of the Pöyhönen sisters
No worries on Bunbury beach!
Next on our to do list was the Old Boys Swim, which basically means swimming 400 meters in the open ocean. Old Boys is the swimming club Errol belongs to and we had the honor to swim with him on the morning of his formal 70th party. The swim went well even though it was tough as h***! After the swim we enjoyed a lovely afternoon at Margie's and Errol's backyard where Errol's 70th birthday bash was arranged.
Us before doing the Old Boys swim
Final meters, Rosanna coming in as the days winner
Errol's 70th party in the back yard of Barrett's house
Party people
After Errol's 70th celebration we headed down to the Margaret River area because we had totally fallen in love with it the last time we were there and definitely wanted Maria and Pamela to experience its beauty as well. Sanna and the the rest of her crew including Barrett's and Barrett juniors were heading to Yallingup as well, so we were all there at the same time. Our days there consisted of relaxing on the beach, some very serious bird watching, surfing, wine tasting on some of the wineries in Margaret River and plainly just enjoying each others company.
On our way to Yallingup
Precious moments with little Julia
Enjoying Yallingup's amazing sunsets
Pöyhönen sisters and precious Julia
Playtime in Yallingup
The Barrett juniors or should I say Hermet crabs
Three musketeers
Beach fun on Eagle Bay beach
On our way to surf
Pamela shows how it is done!
Going in
Oliver
Rosanna
Pamela <3
Wine tasting
Satisfied Oliver
Sisterly love
After such a lovely time in Yallingup we had a couple days left before Maria and Julia headed back to Finland and decided to drive up to Perth. Perth greeted us with a 35 degree heat wave and clear skies. The rest of our time with Maria and Julia we did some sightseeing in Perth including bird watching in King's Park, a windy day at the beach and bonding with the kangaroos and koalas at the Caversham Wildlife Park.
Caversham Wildlife Park
The koalas were sleepy
The emus and Pamela were not!
The heat caused Oliver to act weird as well...
Beach mama and baby
Jump!
Before we knew it it was time to say goodbye to Maria and Julia which wasn't, to say the least, easy. Especially Rosanna was feeling quite under the weather after Maria left, but luckily she still had one sister in Oz to distract her. Soon it was Australia Day, which provided a good amount of distraction as well. We spent the day in Perth with Pamela and had planned to watch the fire works over the Swan river but unfortunately they got cancelled. We still had a fun night enjoying the warm weather on the banks of Swan river.
Australia Day
After Australia Day, it was time to for us to continue our travels in Australia and head off to Melbourne, the city everyone kept telling us was the best to live in Oz. Even though we had enjoyed our time in WA with the Barrett family and never ever expected to experience hospitality like that, we felt like it was time for a change of scenery and for new adventures. Moreover Oliver was struggling to find an IT job in Perth and Melbourne was supposed to have plenty of job opportunities, so we packed our bags and headed off to Victoria.
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