In March it was time for our Finnish friends Reeta and Tuomas to visit us in Australia! They arrived in the beginning of March and were greeted at the airport by Rosanna and Anna.
Once again Australia welcomed our guests with hot and sunny weather which was of course what the Finns were hoping for. With the average temperature being approximately -2 celsius degrees in March in Helsinki our guests were definitely satisfied with the late summer weather of Perth.
Anna only had a couple days left of her holiday, since we had spent most of it in Bali, so we made sure to take full advantage of the days we had left. Oliver was due to arrive in Perth a day after Reeta and Tuomas so the first night we headed to Northbridge for welcome drinks. The sky looked like it was on fire that evening! Next day before Oliver's arrival we had time to explore the beautiful King's Park, yet again.
Two Finns and two levels of tan
A bunch of Finns representing
The sky is on fire!
View of Perth from King's Park
Tuomas after the perfect bird picture
We had time for a little yoga session in King's Park
After Oliver's arrival and during the next couple of days we visited Rottnest Island and Fremantle, which were already very familiar to us but such nice places that we of course wanted our guests to see them. Our day on Rottnest was luckily one of the hottest during our guests time in Oz and we enjoyed ourselves so much bicycling around the island and laying on the beaches.
Crew
Rottnest Island!
Biking on Rottnest
Quokkas were as charming as ever
Girls in Freo
At the Little Creatures brewery in Freo
Serious business
Anna's last night in Perth
First of the many great sunsets our guests got to witness
After a couple of lovely days with Anna in Oz, it was time for her to go home. So we said our goodbyes which again was all but easy. Luckily we had lots of activities planned with Reeta and Tuomas for the next ten days, which offered a good and very much needed distraction.
The Barrett's had offered to accommodate us and our guests in their summer house in Yallingup and we accepted their offer gratefully. We stopped by at their house in Bunbury for one night before heading down to Margaret River.
Over the next week we had so much fun and such a relaxing time with Reeta and Tuomas. We headed to the beaches for sunbathing and relaxing, did a Margaret River wine tour and checked out the Sugar Loaf rock to start with.
Shelley cove
Bunker Bay beach
Meelup beach
Bunker Bay
On a wine tour
Harman's estate
Fermot Estate
This is how you make wine
Tipsy wine tasters
Last stop of the wine tour, beertasting
And the evening continued after the wine tour with a professional game of billiard
The next morning over a coffee and ice cream
Reeta enjoying a lavender ice cream!
Sugarloaf Rock
Where is Tuomas?
We also went on a small road trip to Pemberton via Augusta and Cape Leeuwin with the aim of climbing the famous Gloucester tree, which had been on our to-do-list for a while already. It was such a unique experience and since the tree was over 50 meters high quite frightening as well. We stopped at Augusta for a lunch and were lucky enough to spot rays, dolphins and pelicans! Reeta had been hoping to see some Australian wildlife and we definitely saw some that day, since on our way to Pemberton we also spotted wild kangaroos and emus.
Tuomas climbing the Gloucester Tree in Pemberton
Rosanna's and Reeta's turn to try
Rosanna at the top of the Gloucester Tree in 53 meters
Tuomas hugging trees
Old man with his pelicans in Augusta
In our house in Yallingup we had already spotted garden skinks, kookaburras, cockatoos, rosellas and a possum.
Our house pet, mister skink
On the topic of wildlife, one event happened during our week in Yallingup that none of us will probably ever forget. We were on our way to one of the numerous beaches close to Yallingup, Smith's beach to be exact, and when we arrived there to our astonishment found several fishermen on the beach and a small crowd watching them. Soon we noticed that the crowd was looking at the 12 Tiger sharks swimming couple meters from the beach! It was mind boggling to see them from so close and the locals said it was very rare for them to come so close to the beach. They had followed the smell of the salmon the fishermen had brought to shore that morning and stayed near the beach in hope of getting their share of the catch.
Local fisherman trying to lure the sharks to jump
Tuomas on Smith's beach
One more thing worth mentioning about our time in WA with our friend is of course the breathtaking sun sets we got to admire every evening from the summer house in Yallingup and on our last evening over the Canal Rocks. There is probably no better place to watch sunsets than in Yallingup, WA.
Tuomas trying to capture the perfect sunset
A windy sunset for a change!
The best holiday company!
Canal Rocks at sunset
Time flew by and what felt too soon it was time to head back up to Bunbury, where we spent our last night at Errol's and Margaret's. On our second to last day we took the time to hand feed kangaroos in the Bunbury Wildlife Park.
Tuomas made new friends in Bunbury
The next day we said our goodbyes and headed back to Melbourne. It was so sad to see our friends go and there was no denying that we felt down when leaving. But luckily March still had many adventures in store for us and the most gorgeous birthday cake was waiting for Rosanna in our fridge when we got back to our flat in Melbourne!
Time for us to go our own ways. Why is Oliver happy?
Richard had made a birthday cake for Rosanna
A week after we got back from WA our dear friends the Barrett's came to Melbourne for a long weekend to take part in a conference. We met up with them for a lunch cruise on the Yarra River, which was a very lovely way to spend a hot afternoon! Over the weekend we also had a chance to baby sit the three Barrett juniors when the adults went out for dinner as a part of the conference. Our evening didn't go that well, one of the boys falling ill with a stomach bug and us not having great success with putting the littlest one down. Hopefully we didn't end up leaving horrible Finnish babysitter trauma to the poor boys!
Melbourne and Yarra River
River cruiser Oliver
The boys on the river
Later that month we also made a day trip to Yarra Valley for some wine tasting with our flatmates Katherine and Richard. We visited a couple of wineries and a gin distillery as well as munched on some cheeses at the Yarra Valley Dairy.
Yering Estate in Yarra Valley
The wine tasting crew
Time to try some cheese!
Two wine experts
Life is easy in Yarra Valley
Gin, gin and more gin
We also ended up going to the Formula 1 races, which took place right next to our flat. Neither of us had ever been to F1 races before but Rosanna's dad saw it to be very important that we get to experience them while we were here. Especially as it was happening right on our doorstep. So without further complaint we headed to Albert Lake and enjoyed the atmosphere and a good race, which Vettel ended up winning. The Finns, Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen, finished third and fourth, not bad at all!
F1 on the Albert Lake
On the F1 track
We weren't the only Finnish fans in Melbourne
To sum up March, it was an eventful and in a way emotional month, since we got to see so many friends from back home. We spent half of the month in WA therefore didn't have time to do much exploring in Melbourne. Also with Rosanna working remotely to Finland and Oliver job hunting as well as working for a convention building company we kept ourselves busy (as always).
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