By my very toes – Page 2 – Travels, tribulations and trivia

Travelling to Tasmania via Phillip Island

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, we went to Tasmania over Xmas, staying in what turned out to be a really not very nice villa in Strahan (although the town itself is a good base for exploring, and has some rather lovely features like Hogarth Falls.)

But! We took our time driving down to Melbourne, where we stayed in Healesville for a couple of nights, then driving through the most glorious national parks and rainforests to Phillip Island, where we stayed for a few days at Cowes (and of course viewing the magical Penguin Parade), before catching the night ferry from Melbourne to Tasmania.

The trip was amazing, with stunning scenery both on the way there and in Tasmania itself. We took a cruise with Heritage World cruises at Strahan out through Macquarie Heads and up part of the gorgeous Franklin River, and travelled between Strahan and Queenstown on the West Coast Wilderness Railway.

The villa was so horrible, we left a day early and went to Stanley on the north coast. We stayed in a guesthouse so lovely we’re going back there this Xmas.

We (or rather Doug) took many many pictures, and here are some of them 🙂 Continue reading “Travelling to Tasmania via Phillip Island”

A public service announcement on showers :)

Until we bought Lochanbar earlier this year, we were consumers, rather than suppliers, of holiday accommodation. I think it’s fair to say that after travelling over a period of forty years to a couple of dozen of countries, and staying … Continue reading →

And one very important part of that – bathrooms.

I wish to rant about Australian facilities. In Britain, Europe and aboard the cruiseships, a showerhead on a hose is absolutely standard.

In Australia, they are rare as hen’s teeth. And this drives me mental.

So, as I write from our holiday apartment on glorious North Stradbroke Island*, let me pass on a few basic facts and tips to our fellow accommodation owners:

1. Human beings have nooks. Depending the shape of their naughty bits and the generosity of their cuddliness, they may also have crevices, caves, blowholes and canyons. These innies need washing as much as the outies.

2. Fixed head showers are useless and tiresome to wash said bits, especially when coupled to a low-flow head.

3. Shower heads on hoses do not use more water, are not more expensive to buy or install, and are excellent not just for bits, but short people and children.

4. Also, providing somewhere for a person performing towel gymnastics or attending to gardening to prop their foot that isn’t the toilet, is only polite.

5. I might say the same for somewhere to hang dry clothes waiting to be put on, toothbrushes after use, and enough towel racks and hooks that a couple doesn’t have to share – especially if your bathroom doesn’t have a window.

The first thing I insisted on when we bought our house in Brisbane was that we had a shower spray, not a fixed head shower. And I did the same when we renovated Lochanbar (which also has a restricted water supply and no problem with the new shower.)

Guests come in all sizes, ages, and shapes. Why would you make life hard for them, especially when you are pricing your accommodation at luxury rates?

*If you’re a Queenslander and haven’t been to Straddie, especially in whale watching season, you’re missing out. We’re enjoying gorgeous bright weather in the day, cool nights, and lots and lots of fantastic scenery, including the whales

Credit where credit is due

We popped up to the Bunyas on Wednesday to deliver a chair and some sleepers for the driveway, and my goodness it was cold! From 17° in Kilcoy, to 8° at midday on the mountain! But the air was sparkling … Continue reading →

We popped up to the Bunyas on Wednesday to deliver a chair and some sleepers for the driveway, and my goodness it was cold! From 17° in Kilcoy, to 8° at midday on the mountain!

But the air was sparkling and dry, the sunshine perfect – the wallabies were all out sunning themselves in the most inelegant positions – and I was sorry we weren’t staying to at least go for a walk. But our hit and run visit showed me what the place looks like after our wonderful cleaner, Rebecca, has done with it. She is a wizard, and so careful and thorough. I was so proud of what the house looked like, ready for the guests who arrived today. Thank you, Rebecca! We really do appreciate you.

Not being resident all the time, we are very dependent on the hard work of the staff at the Bunya Mountains Accommodation centre, our cleaner, Allan Govan who cuts the grass, the man who delivers the wood, and the civil servants who maintain the roads and look after the national park. It’s nice to know we can rely on the pride they take in their jobs, and that our guests have the best possible experience because of their hard work and attention.

Brrrrrr!

It’s 22.8° in Kingaroy right now, but up here on the mountain, a bright, lovely 14°C 🙂 Fortunately, I’m tucked up inside with the sherpa rugs and the laptop, all snug and warm. (And for the information of prospective visitors, … Continue reading →

It’s 22.8° in Kingaroy right now, but up here on the mountain, a bright, lovely 14°C Fortunately, I’m tucked up inside with the sherpa rugs and the laptop, all snug and warm. (And for the information of prospective visitors, we have oil heaters for all bedrooms, electric blankets on queen and double beds, extra blankets for all beds and sherpa rugs on the armchairs and couch, a woodburning stove, and split system heating in the living area. You just need to bring warm clothing.) For the weather forecast, go to http://www.bom.gov.au/places/qld/bunya-mountains/

Yesterday we went to the Goomeri Pumpkin Festival – official, ate some great food, bought some lovely booze (Chocolate Port and Pumpkin liqueur from Moffatdale Ridge Wines), and a packet of pumpkin fruit slices from a stall run by the South Burnett Gumnut Place. Also discovered Gourmet Xcellence the purveyors of fine Italian small goods running a stall at the festival, are actually based in Scarborough, a short drive from where we live. We inspected some very big pumpkins:

Doug watched the pumpkin roll, and on the way home, we stopped in Memerambi for some delicious gelati.)

I’d never been to Goomeri before, and so didn’t know about the Wooroolin Wetland, just south of Wondai, nor about the lovely country towns (including Goomeri) such a short drive from the Bunyas. So much to explore here in the South Burnett, and winter is a great time to do it as it gets *very* hot in the lowlands in summer.

So why not come up and explore?

Early indications are good :)

We crept away at the start of April, renovations done, house reopened for bookings, just a teeny bit trepidatious about how people would react to the revamp. We went back at the start of May, and I went straight to … Continue reading →

Well, if the first entries are anything to go by, the reactions are good! (Don’t worry, I don’t plan to post every entry as they come in ) And as you know, complimenting someone’s house is like saying nice things about their child, so I feel all warm and glowy about it now.

I loved it! So beautiful and relaxing! Lots of wallabys and [sic] sqriells

It was aw[e]some to stay. We all loved it.

A thoroughly comfortable and enjoyable stay in your beautiful house.

Amazing house! Very well equiped. Thank you for making it a lovely home away from home.

What a beautiful place to relax and unwind! We loves it. So comfy and well appointed. Thanks for making it a great place to stay. PS The transformation is awesome!

Thank you to the guests who commented, and all those who’ve stayed there since we reopened. The weather has become dramatically colder (which is lovely after the summer heatwaves) so the blankets and split cycle heater came in handy. I hope our visitors continue to enjoy staying there, and we will keep working on Lochanbar to tweak and improve it more.

One more expense

So, we can add one (and later another) septic tank pump to the list of new equipment we’ve had to buy for the house. On Saturday we suddenly had a power failure affecting all the power outlets, crucially, especially the water pump and the fridge. Without water, we couldn’t continue finishing up the cleaning or anything else, so we packed up in a hurry and drove back to Brisbane (which I didn’t enjoy in the dark or while very tired.) Fortunately the lovely Jenepher at the Bunya Mountains Accommodation Centre was able to hook me up with Peter Elliot, who had a look at it on Tuesday. He reported that one pump had failed, the other is close to failing, and was able to replace the first, and get us our power and water back so we could finish up and clear out.

Even now we are still waiting for Kingaroy Joinery to replace the lock in the new laundry screen door for the second time!

Two things are good about all this though. One, that these problems occurred while we were still up there, and not while we had our first guests after renovation, and two, that they are fixable. We’ve ended up with quite a few unexpected expenses with the house – all of them pretty major, like the water tanks needing replacing, the driveway needing to be concreted, the front balustrade needing to be completely replaced and so on – adding at least $30,000 to what we’d budgeted. It’s not what we wanted, but in the end we have a house we are proud to let out to people, one which we believe is comfortable and safe, and hopefully there won’t be any more enormous expenses while we own the place (for many years, we’d like!).

Anyway, now we’re home and taking a well-earned break from being in our holiday home (oh the irony :)!)

Before and After

I thought it might be fun to compare the before and after photos at Lochanbar: Continue reading “Before and After”

And we are done!

Almost. Just a teeny tiny problemette with our electricity (which fortunately occurred after we had the photos taken by the lovely Helen for the Bunya Mountains Accommodation listing) so we’ve had to come home briefly, before returning one last time to collect the rest of our stuff and clear up. We’re running late thanks to builders and Cyclone Debbie, but we will be open for bookings as of Thursday morning, 6th April!

These photos are not done by Helen, so don’t blame her for my amateur efforts Click to see the entire gallery.

Wildlife photos

We hear and see a lot more wildlife than we get photos of, and some of the wildlife, like the young currawong who’s decided our new water tanks are his territory and is defending it with constant earsplitting calls, we … Continue reading →

But not all the wildlife is a pain

(Actually this guy is a bit of a pain) Brushtailed possum on the back deck at night

White-headed pigeon. There were up to nine in those trees that morning

Mum and baby

Juvenile kookaburra. This is the same one who looked so thirsty in the heatwave, so it’s good to see he survived

So, so close!

In the home stretch now! The last ten days or so have been exhausting, but productive. New driveway. New kitchen. New bathroom. New water tanks. New deck screens. New window screens. Newly emptied bank account 🙂 Doug has worked his … Continue reading →

In the home stretch now! The last ten days or so have been exhausting, but productive. New driveway. New kitchen. New bathroom. New water tanks. New deck screens. New window screens.

Newly emptied bank account

Doug has worked his butt off, but we also have to thank Hansen Kitchens, Paul Reeves Carpentry and his team (hi Mark and Jason!), John Paynter and team (the concreting), Bradley and team at Nanango Tank Makers, Brian Stoker and his team at Sunset Canvas (Toowoomba), and Kingaroy Joinery (Alu-gard window screens). Still a little to finish off in the bathroom, and a lot of painting to do inside and out, but we’re getting there.

Have some photos!