November 2016 - Getting to know Bunbury, WA

We arrived in Australia to the capital of WA, Perth. We ended up choosing to fly to Perth from Finland since it was the only place in Oz we knew people from. The connections we had in Australia before coming here were The Barrett’s: Margaret and Errol, their son Adrian, his wife Taryn and their three lovely children Oliver, Spencer and Connor. We know the Barrett’s through Oliver’s sister in law Sanna who spent a year in Australia when she was 17-18. They were kind enough to invite us to stay with them in Bunbury and we ended up staying with them in WA for THREE whole months. That is how amazing the South West Australia and the Barrett's are.

The first week of November was quite busy in what we found out was the Barrett style. It consisted of getting to know Bunbury, enjoying several cold beers and glasses of champagne in great company, watching the Melbourne Cup on TV (the biggest horse race in Australia) and celebrating Oliver’s birthday (30 years old!!!) with a long weekend in Perth.

Margaret's and Errol's house

Palefaces by the pool

Palefaces on the beach

Bunbury beach

Dinner with our lovely hosts

So as mentioned earlier we drove up to Perth to celebrate Oliver's magical 30th birthday. Oliver loves cricket so what a better way to celebrate him turning 30 than to get to see a game of cricket at the WACA! Remember a game of cricket lasts five days, which meant several trips to WACA over the long weekend we spent in Perth, but we did have time to do some sightseeing as well. 

Cricket at the WACA, 3rd day of Australia vs South Africa test

View of Perth CBD from King's Park

The amazing King's Park

Perth sunset from Barretts' apartment

City beach, Perth

The second week of November was mostly dedicated for further exploring Bunbury. Margaret and Errol traveled to Adelaide for a long weekend which meant we got to house watch their huge house. We definitely kept ourselves busy; we had our first Australian barbecue at Adrian and Taryn’s friends place, went down to Busselton in the hope of seeing some whales from their 2 km long jetty and made a pretty disappointing day trip to the Cohunu Koala Park (the disappointment mostly being the state of the park, would not recommend going there...). We also booked a tour with Bunbury Dolphin Discovery centre to see some dolphin's that reside close to Bunbury's harbour.

Who knew how friendly kangaroos are!

Oliver's new best friend

We did get to see the sweet koalas, but opted not to hold them this time

The amazing Busselton Jetty at 1,8 km long! And it has a train!

'twas a bit windy

On our way back from Augusta we spotted a herd of cows 

Down at the Bunno beach with the Barrett juniors

Playing a traditional Finnish game "Mölkky" with Adrian and the boys

Bunbury sunset

Dolphin tour

The following week Rosanna started working remotely to Finland and Oliver started his job hunt for jobs in the Perth area. Rosanna chose to work couple days a week which meant she was still able to explore Bunbury whilst maintaining a relationship to her work back home.

There was also a super moon (the biggest in years) and a trip down to the beautiful Margaret river area and Augusta with Errol and Margaret. In Augusta we had a lovely lunch by the sea and also visited the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, which was definitely worth seeing.

Super moon, not that super

Augusta and our ride for the day

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse

The crossing of two oceans, can you see the line?

The last full week of November we spent in Yallingup at the Barrett’s summer house and what an amazing week it was! Yet again we were amazed with the hospitality Errol and Margaret showed towards us, by letting us stay by ourselves in their beautiful summer house. We couldn't help stop thinking how lucky we were to know them.

Yallingup sunset with Errol

The amazing digs in Yallingup

Yallingup and the Margaret River area are definitely something very special, consisting of countless beautiful beaches, amazing caves (we went to the Jewell Cave) and stunning nature like the Boranup Forest. Yallingup is a very small and peaceful place known for its great surf, so we knew that surfing was something we had to do whilst we were there. And how beautiful are the sunsets in Yallingup! They are truly something magical.

Yallingup beach

Magical Boranup forest

Jewel cave

Eagle Bay beach

Bunker Bay

Smith's beach sunset

We also explored the lovely town of Dunsborough, took our first proper surf lesson and booked ourselves on a really fun wine tour with Margie's Big Day Out tours. BTW if anybody is ever heading to Dunsborough and loves vietnamese rice paper rolls, Peko Peko is the place to go to!

Margie's Big Day Out tour bus

Wine touring

Wine and more wine

This lovely lady was our host at the Lenton Brae winery

 After a fun and relaxing week in Yallingup we headed back up to Bunbury. We realized that we had missed the company of our hosts a lot during the week on our own and didn't mind settling back to our room in the Barrett household again.

Sunset flower picking Yallingup