Officially its called Margaret River...but you can call it Margs

After a busy Christmas period it was time to unwind.  And what better place than Margaret River? While it is well known for the various wine farms - there are currently around 215 grape growers and wine producers - we think the real attraction is the coastline.

We booked ourselves into a BnB and enjoyed a week of sunshine, beach time, cave exploring, and wine farm visiting bliss.

One of our favourite beaches to visit was Surfers Point.  From Surfers Point it is a short walk to the river mouth. And a short walk further north from there brought us to a quiet beach that we had to ourselves almost every time we were there.

Surfers Point

And a quiet beach all to ourselves

With a great sport for a cooling off swim

A discovery we made on our first day in Margaret River was the open air cinemas.  There are at least two that we found, and we ended up going to Cape Mentelle Vineyards for a picnic & movie.

Open air cinema, Cape Mentelle Vineyards

And then there was a lot more time spent taking long walks on deserted beaches. 

Another attraction in this region are the limestone caves.  We had visited Jewel Cave on our trip to Augusta (there are over 150 limestone caves between Yallingup and Augusta).  This time round we took a tour of Lake Cave.  This is one of the deepest caves in the region and also the only one with a permanent lake.

Lake Cave

Although not quite as warm as Perth, we did still have a few hot days in Margaret River. The middle of the day is too hot to be down on the beach, but we did find some great spots for exploring that were protected from the sun.

Avoiding the sun with a forest walk.

This is the Rails to Trails Walk / Cycle Trail
(It was once the railway line route)

And we also managed to visit Voyager Wine Estate.  It is a beautiful estate, but with wine tastings starting at $3 per wine we decided to skip the tastings and rather just enjoy a walk around the gardens.

And then it was time to head back to Perth and start getting ready for another working year.

We hope your year has gotten off to great start and wish everyone all the best for 2017!

2016 in Pictures (and a few words)

2016: A Year in Review - in no particular order :)

Justin's work included trips to various parts of Australia (Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Newcastle and Mackay) and a few international trips (Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, and Lifou).

Auckland, New Zealand

 Lifou

Selfie with a Tree Kangaroo, Papua New Guinea

The Opera House and Sydney Bridge

The Opera House, Sydney

Bronwen got to enjoy some time with her sister (and her family) in the UK and also in Singapore.

Bron with her sister and nephew and niece, UK

 At the aquarium with Josh and Dani, Singapore

 Singapore!

And we got to enjoy having the Finnemore Four visiting us.

Beach time

 Carols by Candlelight

More Carols by Candlelight

2016 started with the second half of a Bali holiday.

Rice paddy, Bali

Lotus pond, Bali

We also enjoyed some time exploring Western Australia (or just simply WA).  Some of the places we got to visit included Denmark, Augusta, Penguin Island (Rockingham), Kalbarri, Denham, and Exmouth.

 In search of Blue Penguins (also called Little Penguins or Fairy Penguins), Penguin Island

Sculture by the Sea, Cottesloe

View of Perth City

Denmark coastline

More of the Denmark coastline

Augusta Lighthouse

Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

Crab Festival, Mandurah

Rock formation, Kalbarri

Feeding wild dolphins, Monkey Mia

Snorkeling with Whale Sharks, Ningaloo

Wave Rock, Hyden

There was also lots of braaing

 The best work trips are the ones that Bronwen gets to come along for.  These included a trip to Sydney and also to Mackay.  

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House

Sydney Opera House

Another view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Bondi Beach

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef (one of our weekend trips whilst in Mackay)

And inbetween all of this we explored more of Perth

 Boathouse, Perth

 Waterfront, Perth

Perth Beaches (even when the weather is not that great).  On this occasion it was with our good friends Nadine and Luca.

The local wildlife 

And that was 2016!

Wishing all our friends and family a prosperous 2017 filled with exciting trips to new and interesting places.