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"I feel like I'm 16 again, it's amazing. Besides, this is God's Country."

This part of the world has attractions to spare.

Take, for example, Geographe Bay, which curves in an effortless sweep eastwards from Cape Naturaliste and north. This geological flick in the continent's southwestern corner and the surrounding waters are richly endowed.

Charted in 1801 by French explorer Nicholas Baudin, who named the bay and the cape after his vessels, this stretch of coast is protected from the ravages of Southern Ocean currents. It is brimming with marine life and is visited by thousands of humpback, southern right and blue whales on their seasonal migrations.

Sadly, it's neither April nor August and whales are not in our sights. But as we step aboard the Naturaliste Charters Whale and Dolphin Eco-tours vessel, I spy dolphin fins breaking the sparkling waters of the bay.

As it happens, our skipper is a Kiwi. In his boisterous, gung-ho fashion, Malcolm Bush informs us that he's an "ex-scarfie made good". Since his days as a Dunedin student he's sailed around the world and crewed on superyachts. Today he assures everyone of the safety and stability of the New Zealand-designed Naiad tour boat, and tells us we're going to feel what it's like to "run guns".

He then floors it across the bay.

The two and a-half hour eco tour includes a valiant attempt to photograph dolphins as they breach in the sublimely calm bay, close-up views of epic limestone sea caves and cliff-faces (Cape Naturaliste is formed from some of the softest, most ancient and amazingly sculpted limestone on the planet - more about this later), pitching around rocks where New Zealand fur seals loll, viewing from afar the holiday homes of Eagle Bay where millionaires loll in pads "as big as supermarkets", and riding the swell around Cape Naturaliste's Sugarloaf Rock, the most photographed natural feature in Western Australia's south.

Malcolm talks of the sharks that visit Bunker Bay, (which on occasion catch surfers unaware), and the no fewer than 45 shipwrecks between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwinto the south.

I imagine returning someday to see mighty whale tails break the waves, then shoving my camera under the indispensable complimentary spray jacket, I secure my headscarf and hold on as we "run guns" back to sheltered waters.

All in all an exhilarating morning - and in good time for lunch and a cold beer.

Cue The Eagle Bay Brewing Company. It's a recent addition to the half dozen or so craft beer breweries in the Margaret River area, overlooking the parched paddocks of the owner's family farm.

The brewer, 28-year-old Nick d'Espeissis, whose CV includes time at the Queenstown and Christchurch Dux de Lux boutique breweries, forsook toiling on his father's farm to build this thoroughly modern venue, in cahoots with his two siblings. It houses a relaxed alfresco-style restaurant, a shop, and a 1000-litre micro-brewery.

With a menu aimed at complementing the beer, an organic kitchen garden, and a 20-year-old vineyard producing wine just for the restaurant and shop, this is a brilliant spot to reflect on the morning's adventure and prepare for the afternoon.

Within a minute we're each presented with a wooden slab containing six inset glasses exhibiting the range of beers on tap. Nick, a keen home brewer from age 17, oversees this tasting of his latest ales.