Hello! It’s just me, your friendly spa and food loving hound! Did you guess where we were off to next? No? Well our first stop might give you a hint. It’s the Southern Hemisphere’s longest wooden plank jetty and the second longest in the world- Busselton Jetty. Well you know I can’t resist shopping. In fact I have purposely left my bag and money in the van but of course cute little temptations beckon to me and my friendly travelling companions kindly loan me the funds. I resisted the temptation to buy some higher prices items and stay with this cute little anchor cookie cutter therefore satisfying my incessant urge to purchase while not getting Mr NQN upset when the bills come in.
The jetty is almost 2kms long and winds all the way around to the side. There is a giant slide for families and kids and a couple of places to stop and eat or have a drink, one more casual one a little fancier. the jetty is under construction at the moment and we are a week early before the opening will take place. We get back in the van after this short stretch of our legs and rewatering-the drive from Perth to our final destination is four hours and we have another hour before we get to stop for lunch.
If you guessed we were off to Margaret River well then you are very wise indeed! Well you can’t visit Margaret River without going to a winery or several and while we in Perth, we were slightly panicked at the idea of a cyclone hitting the Margaret River region. So we were all on “cyclone watch” and I was doing my best to will the cyclone away. Thankfully the cyclone weakens and we all woke up to the wonderful news that we would be going to the Margaret River! Although let’s be honest we all volunteered to barricade ourselves in the Injidup spa where we were staying with bottles of champagne or wine. We’re a determined lot we are 
We arrive at Wise Winery our lunch destination, I’m quite hungry and ready to eat. We order our meals and then go for a brief wine tasting at the cellar door next door. There are also ginormous jars of jams and marmalades made locally with South West WA produce-these huge 650g jars go for $17 which is a great price and a nice gift (and they have testers, the strawberry and rose jam is lovely as is the beetroot marmalade which is like a relish).
Citrus salmon ceviche, witlof, walnut, pickled onion $20.50
The ceviche is unlike any other ceviche I have tried. Presented as almost folded salmon ribbons, it’s very much cooked through (whereas the ceviche I have tried previously still retains somewhat of a sashimi texture inside). Undeniably photogenic it is paired with a freshly and pickled red cabbage and onion, untoasted walnuts and whole black peppercorns and served in little witlof leaf boats. I didn’t particularly go for this dish, it wasn’t bad but the witlof was too bitter for me and the ceviche needed some herbs or seasoning.
Wise tasting plate $37
The Wise tasting plate had several components to it starting with a puff pastry enclosed mushroom pie, thin slices of soft pork belly in a pea and mushroom sauce and topped with a gorgeous pickled cherry, chorizo which is a little hard in texture, cold grilled prawns with a very onioney guacamole and little toast shapes with a mild tasting rillette on top.
Fresh sliced parma prosciutto and melon polenta chips, anchovies, extra virgin olive oil $22
Crab stuffed paccheri, squid, cherry tomato salsa $30
So I swore that I wouldn’t have oysters again today as I figured you were all probably sick of seeing oysters on the site (see how much I love you to give up on oysters? ) so I went with a crab dish. The paccheri (tube pasta) has been replaced with shells today and it is filled with a mixture of crab and what tastes like mashed potato and thyme. I don’t actually taste much crab at all in it which is a bit disappointing but I enjoy the squid and cherry tomatoes.
Margaret river venison, pepper crusted, parmesan custard, apple and radish salad $40
Gnocchi a la Romana Gratin, pea veloute, wild mushrooms, Mediterranean pesto $28
The gnocchi a la romana comes out as three discs of potato and cheese gnocchi which are delicious and go well with the pesto and the tomato, onion and olive diced salad.
Beef fillet, colcannon potatoes, confit tomatoes, jus $40
Local line caught dhufish, Russian salad, apple mint $45
Sadly we don’t have time for desserts (from our experience here restaurants do take an awful long time between courses) so it’s always a challenge to get to other appointment. Plus we are off to check in to our new digs!
Lobby of Injidup Resort and Spa
My email to Mr NQN…
“Hello,
I’m at Injidup spa and my private line is: 9750 XXXX
I’m off to the spa at 7:30 Sydney time so you can call any time before then. If I don’t answer I might be in the plunge pool. sorry 
xxx”
We arrive at the Injidup Spa and resort in Injidup and are greeted at the lobby area where the spa also sits (and where I’m booked in for a treatment later!). We take our bags to our villas (unusually for a resort of this calibre, there isn’t a porter) and check into our villas. There are only ten luxury villas here each bordering the clifftops and below is Injidup beach. Everything is tastefully decorated in creams and whites and there is a large living area, a kitchen area, an elevated bedroom and bathroom and my what makes my day, a private plunge pool. Life is just better with a private plunge pool and I wish my regular life included one too.
On the outdoor deck area there is a BBQ and lounge chairs and the view is magnificent ocean views and features artwork from West Australian artists. There are heated concrete floors (although we won’t need these), gas fires and a stocked fridge with complimentary San Pellegrino and breakfast provisions as there isn’t a restaurant on site. There is also no cellphone access at all (yes really!) and only landlines. Each villa has their own private landline and local and national calls are complimentary. There is also broadband access in each villa although as expected due to the remote area, this is a tad slow.
For breakfast there is Bannister Downs farm WA lite milk, Margaret river free range eggs, Wise The Bead Chardonnay Pinot Noir (yes I’m including this in breakfast provisions, don’t look at me that way), Smiths home made muesli, Yallingup “Wave” wood fired pure wheat bread. All of the breakfast provisions are excellent in particular the yogurt, bread and butter.
The bathroom features a monsoon shower head and Molton Brown shampoo, conditioner and body wash although I was a little surprised that there weren’t more toiletries and there was no bath given that it is spa resort. There is also an adjoining room in each villa with two single beds and a separate bathroom. As for me I’m off for a dip in the plunge pool and then the spa. Don’t hate me please. I’ll be back in a jiffy…
After a quick 15 minute paddle in the plunge pool, I reluctantly drag my eyes away from the views and from watching beetles taking a dip in the water and then paddle to the edge and dry themselves off before taking flight (I swear I was not hallucinating) and I make the short journey to the spa where I have an appointment with massage therapist Joel who hails from the South of France and who was a former Buddhist monk!
I make my way to the relax room where I fill in a form ticking the box for headaches and then I enter the room where Joel explains what he will be doing and how he will concentrate on a cranial massage as well as an all over massage. He offers me a choice of two different oils, a relaxation oil and a energising oil and I pick the relaxation aroma.
He then proceeds to administer a massage which is a combination of different techniques, some thai some remedial massage but with firm but steady pressure and asks about the pressure level at a few points. It is so relaxing that I catch myself dozing off and I do this about 3 times before deciding to give up and really relax where I fall asleep. I awake an hour later relaxed and adjourn to the relax room where I sip herbal tea and reorient myself with the cruel world.
I go back to my villa and get changed for dinner which is at nearby Smith’s resort which is also owned by the same company that owns Injidup Spa. We have some drinks-I start with a non alcoholic mojito (I know, it’s terrible to not order wine in Margaret River but I’m fighting some tiredness). Others order some of the region’s famous Margaret River wines and Pipsqueak Cider which is from WA’s Little Creatures brewery.
House made dukkah with Yallingup wood fired bread and extra virgin olive oil $8.50
We start with some ferociously good bread. Lightly toasted and spongey we all find that even though we are still full from lunch and snacks we end up eating several pieces of this bread. The dukkah is strong in cumin and sesame seeds.
Trio of house marinted olives $6.50
The three types of olives, particularly the stuffed green olives are quite vinegary and not quite to my taste although it doesn’t stop me from eating a few of these (for research purposes).
Steamed local asparagus, wild rocket, buffalo mozzarella and peach salad, champagne vinaigrette $19
The steamed local asparagus is paired with small shreds of semi melted buffalo mozzarella, quartered peach pieces. I find the mozzarella is a bit too mild to stand up to the asparagus flavour and perhaps a feta like a Persian feta might have suited it better-also I thought it looked like Persian feta so when I took a bite it almost felt like it didn’t have enough flavour.
Grilled sumac prawns with a cucumber, radish and lime salad $18
The grilled sumac prawns are huge and very fresh served dusted with sumac powder and a sweet chilli nuoc nam style dipping sauce. There is also a side salad with onion, herbs, radish, lime and capsicum.
Szechuan dusted calamari, asian style salad and lime aioli $15
Vietnamese salad with nuoc nam $27
Can you see how I was trying to eat healthier by choosing a vegetarian salad? Well if you know me you’ll know it’s mainly because I spotted some delicious sounding desserts so i wanted to leave room for them. The salad is mostly leaves and herbs like mint and coriander and some toasted peanuts and very little dressing so I find this quite plain and I think it would have benefited from some type of protein be it chicken, prawn or tofu.
Chicken breast, chermoula, tomato and mint salad $30
Thankfully Dianne our driver from Swan Tours who is dining with us comes to the rescue with some of her chicken which is grilled but still moist. And in an instant we have a DIY salad!
Braised pork belly, scallops, cauliflower puree, pancetta and caramelised pear $16
WA raised lamb rack, smoked eggplant, witlof and radicchio coleslaw, yogurt $32
Snapper with confit tomato, asparagus and salsa verde $36
Vasse Felix Cane Cut Semillon 08
I can’t resist dessert wines I have to admit and considering that I’ve been looking forward to dessert I figure it’s high time I ordered a wine. the Vasse Felix Cane Cut Semillon is smooth, silky and sweet.
Poached pear and plum crumble, cognac custard, house made vanilla ice cream $11
The poached pear and plum crumble is slightly tangy on the bottom with a deliciously buttery crumble topping that just begs to be eaten by itself with a large spoon out of a large bowl.
Banana and honey financier, chocolate marquise and honeycomb $11
This financier is unlike other financiers I have tried which are moist. This one is quite dry and requires the ice cream to give it moistness although it does have a distinct fresh banana and honey flavour.
Chocolate Satin tart, chocolate sorbet, praline and double cream $11
The chocolate satin tart is also a little unexpected. I had almost expected a mirror glaze on the chocolate (thus the satin) but this comes dusted with cocoa. the tart itself is very rich and chocolatey although very firm to cut into. The star of the plate is the chocolate sorbet that sits on a moreish praline crumble, possibly one of the best chocolate sorbets I’ve eaten. The double cream is surprisingly flavoured with rosewater.
We get a cyclone warning-it seems to change from hour to hour such is the nature of a cyclone and Cyclone Bianca is scheduled to hit us here in the morning which is about when we are supposed to be canoeing down the Margaret River! We go back to our villa and batten down the hatches (I’ve always wanted to say that seriously!) and studiously avoiding the crime channels (I scared myself silly the night before before realising that I shouldn’t watch them as Mr NQN isn’t here with me) and I listen to the sounds of silence and wonder what tomorrow will bring. Stay tuned Dearest Readers!
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever been in a cyclone or hurricane?
NQN travelled and explored WA and a guest of Tourism WA
Wise Winery
Lot 80, Eagle Bay Road, Dunsborough WA 6281.
Tel: +61 08 9755 3331
Injidup Spa and Resort
Cape Clairault Road, Injidup, WA
Tel: +61 (08) 9750 1300
Smith’s Beach Resort
Lot 2, Smiths Beach Road, Yallingup, WA
Tel: +61 (08) 9750 1200
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41 Comments | Add your own
I do so love it when you get to play spa blogger! Glad the cyclone held off long enough for you to check out the Margaret River!
Every photo looks fantastic, whether it be the food or the location!
I hope that Mr NQN is putting that treadmill to good use with all this food
Looking forward to heading over to WA, the one place left we have to explore
Wow!!! What an amazing getaway!
The food is just divine, I loved the look of the gnocchi and the chocolate dessert plate. I have absolutely no idea where you put all this food!! You have such a gorgeous figure. I would look like Matt Preston if I fully indulged
LOL about scaring yourself the night before watching crime shows. I have a strict policy of comedy only of a night since I had the children. It is no fun getting up in the middle of the night to a crying child after watching the X-Files or a homicide.
This is Heaven for me!! I love SPAs and food and travels
.
Lovely read, only one thing: if you can please tell the chef that that pasta is conchiglioni and not paccheri. Conchiglioni is a big ‘shell’ pasta and is use for stuffing. Paccheri is completely, but really really completely different and since it is a type of pasta famous for becoming flat when cooked, it could never be filled! It made me smile though! If I were to read the menu without seeing the image I would have stormed my brains on how could someone possibly manage (or would want to) to fill paccheri!
THis is paccheri
http://alessandrazecchini.blogspot.com/2010/04/paccheri-with-tomato-parsley-and-garlic.html
Have a great Sunday
ciao
Alessandra
No, I have never been caught in either thankfully but I would sure like to taste all that delicious food. What a wonderful sampler of WA produce Lorraine. We visited WA a few years back and absolutely loved it.
The anchor cookie cutters are so cute and innovative.
Margaret River is a stunning destination – it is just a shame that they may be about to ruin it with an enormous coal mine!
No. I have not. I wish i would not. because the idea of being stuck in a cyclone or hurricane is as bad as experiencing it!
I’m a WA local, and was born up in Port Hedland (in the Pilbara region up North). There was a big cyclone when I was only a toddler, and my parents and I watched the giant gumtree in our backyard be ripped out by the roots. A short while later I pulled a Christmas tree over onto myself by accident. Those two events in combination, along with the lack of trees in PH, apparently led to my nervously asking if the tree was ‘going to fall over’ before approaching any greenery for the next few months.
As am interested in anything ‘Margaret River’, hoping I’ll get there myself one day – thanks a million! But just don’t talk about high winds to me, ’cause that is the one thing which scares me to bits!!
! And, yes, whilst living in N Rivers and S Qld, agonized thru’ quite a few big storms, tho’ nothing as bad as has happened further N this year! Hate, loathe, despise!
Luckily I’ve never had to experience either.
The food looks delicious, especially the Snapper.
I bet the massage was great!
I love the way the resort is decorated and the plunge pool looks gorgeous! Lucky you!
We had emigrated from UK and bought a high set Queenslander and acreage on the Atherton tablelands. We were informed that Cyclone Winifred was going to cross the coast and perhaps reach the tablelands. We got out water from a stream some 400 metres down our hill with a generator to pump it up to our house tank. We went down in the pouring rain to drag it up the hill. Fifty, 100 and then 200 metres. Exhausted we relaxed and I congratulated myself that I had roasted a chicken earlier as the electricity now went off. Rain was horizontal and shooting under our front door and double full length glass veranda doors. The battery operated radio stated the cyclone had just crossed the coast at Innisfail. Later we found out all information was over 2 hours out of real time! Flip me the winds were so strong that the high set home was jumping vertically from its stumps! Our small children had been fed and went to sleep in the same room just off our lounge. The noise, rain and movement are vivid memories still after over 25 years. My husband stayed up all night and I had dived under the duvet having downed a strong drink. I woke to quiet and sunshine. So many trees were down including the children’s favourite one which had had a swing on it. The cyclone had crossed at Innisfail and come straight up the valley to our area. Luckily our home was so well built that we were fine. Many homes were destroyed.
WOW! While all seem DELISH, could NOT get my eyes to go forward from “Poached pear and plum crumble, cognac custard, house made vanilla ice cream”!!! “MORE PLEASE”, I would politely (but internally)
S-C-R-E-A-M!
Been through a number of hurricanes, TRUE!
Reinforces who is REALLY in charge…goes by the name of Mother Nature too! WHOO HOO!
Lorraine, I have thoroughly tortured myself salivating over these dishes, as I’m dieting lately and I’m ready to break. And, the cranial massage would be just the distraction I need.
Of all the places to be stuck during a cyclone, a luxury spa would have to be the worst
Surely a concrete bunker would be more comfortable?
And all that Margaret River wine to raise your spirits or drown yoursorrows too!
Lorraine… take me with you. You know how we’re planning a full day together when I manage to squeeze in a Sydney trip? How about we instead make that full day somewhere overseas, with cranial massages, and wine for breakfast (makes the best bircher muesli when you soak the oats in wine instead of apple juice, I’m sure
), and gnocchi, and chocolate sorbet…
The mojito looks great – what was in it?
~~I want it all, please. ALL!
And I looooooooooooove that bathroom. Give me that! And I want the pool…and the Chocolate Satin tart …. And I adore adore this blog, Miss L. XXxx kisses from Mn.
As a child I loved the cyclones that would hit our beach. I loved the huge seas and the stuff that would be washed up on to the sand.I have also been in a snow blizzard in New York and stood in Central Park to see it. Here in Italy we have morning storms that rumble through the mountains. I love them. Aside from the damage caused, I find wild storms exciting. Great post as usual.
Looks like you had a fab time. I am going especially for the pasta shell dish. I have never been in a cyclone, and hope never to be.
Perth is just 4 hours away, maybe this would be a good option for a short get away!
Oh LA LA! Im soooooo jealous, although, I do like the spa blogs, very entertaining. Can’t say that Ive ever been in a cyclone, nor do I care to be. Something so frightening about them!
And, OMG, I am obsessed with Pork Belly at the moment, could go a plate of it right now.
Oh I do wish Mr NQN had been able to be with you to enjoy the luxury. And don’t ever turn down oysters on our account! It has to be a perk of the blog…)
We actually had a tornado come through my area last week -very frightening and lots of cleanup. On the lighter side of things though, all that food looks amazing!
Now really I think your life is just perfect! From the amazing sky in the first picture, to the awesome spa…not to mention the fabulous food and mojito (mocktail though it is it still looks delicious!) – I’d love to visit the Margaret River, I’ve never been but everyone raves about it. I just adore your blog! Thanks for letting us piggyback along with you!
I think I feel relaxed just reading that post. I love the presentation of the crumble.
Cyclone…once. Scary, and wouldn’t like to experience that again.
i like the ceviche !! very fresh that’s what we need now in France !!pierre
You are the luckiest person I know!
Beautiful post and beautiful places! Lucky girl… that spa sounded divine! And the food… mouth watering, especially the plum crumble!!!
LOVE the rooms.. and th swimming pool! OMG! *fans myself*
It seems a lot of the food in the south west has been disappointing so far :-/ That’s a shame, it is a really nice area. The massage sounds heavenly at least!
I knew it!! so great to see you in my part of the world. I’m hoping that you headed a little further south to the heart of the Margaret River wine region. There’s so many beautiful boutique wineries down here and after 16 years in the region I’m still discovering ones I’ve never heard of before. Margaret River should be on every ‘bucket list’
Cyclone Bianca thankfully was just teasing us but in 1974 that lovely jetty you walked along was damaged by Cyclone Alby. Back then I was a little girl living in the city and remember our above ground pool being flattened by the edge of that cyclone.
Can’t wait to hear more of your adventures
everything looks fantastic! I especially love the anchor cookie cutter
love love love margaret river! we honeymooned there as we’d just come back from living in england and were going to europe 6 months later on holiday. Happy memories, it was a lovely place:)
life really is tough for you but I know you must pinch yourself sometimes!
Corrie:)
wow! can I come next time?
Mmmm polenta crisps,
Was this Bather’s Restaurant at Smith’s Beach?
Ahhh those first 2 photos have me craving another holiday (even though I just had a long weekend away – catching up on reading now!).
I wonder, was the plunge pool heated? It takes a lot for me to get into a cold pool
Not me but you know my folks were this year!!
I have friends who have grape vines and olive groves in Margaret River and are always asking me when we’re coming over, and I don’t think it will be that far away to be honest, in the next few years and I’m really looking forward to it! The spa resort looks like *just* the ticket! xx
The food and wine look glorious. I love those unusual jars of jam, too. I’d be hard press not to buy up the lot and load them in my suitcase to take home.
That resort looks amazing. I saw a fried from primary school had his honeymoon there and the beaches looked amazing.
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